18 U.S.C. § 648
Section 648 · Custodians, generally, misusing public funds
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Cohen v. JP Morgan Chase & Co. (2007)
Most recently applied in Van Buren v. United States (June 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever, being an officer or other person charged by any Act of Congress with the safe-keeping of the public moneys, loans, uses, or converts to his own use, or deposits in any bank, including any branch or agency of a foreign bank (as such terms are defined in paragraphs (1) and (3) of section 1(b) of the International Banking Act of 1978), or exchanges for other funds, except as specially allowed by law, any portion of the public moneys intrusted to him for safe-keeping, is guilty of embezzlement of the money so loaned, used, converted, deposited, or exchanged, and shall be fined under this title or in a sum equal to the amount of money so embezzled, whichever is greater, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; but if the amount embezzled does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §175 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §89, 35 Stat. 1105).
Mandatory punishment provision was rephrased in the alternative.
The smaller punishment for an offense involving $100 or less was inserted. (See reviser's notes under sections 641 and 645 of this title.)
Minor changes in phraseology were made.
References in Text
Section 1(b) of the International Banking Act of 1978, referred to in text, is classified to section 3101 of Title 12, Banks and Banking.
Amendments
1996—Pub. L. 104–294 substituted “$1,000” for “$100”.
1994—Pub. L. 103–322, §330016(2)(G), substituted “shall be fined under this title or in a sum equal to the amount of money so embezzled, whichever is greater, or imprisoned” for “shall be fined in a sum equal to the amount of money so embezzled or imprisoned”.
Pub. L. 103–322, §330016(1)(H), substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000” after “he shall be”.
1990—Pub. L. 101–647 inserted “, including any branch or agency of a foreign bank (as such terms are defined in paragraphs (1) and (3) of section 1(b) of the International Banking Act of 1978),” after “or deposits in any bank”.
Cross References
Persons to whom section applicable, see section 649 of this title.
Refusal to pay as evidence of embezzlement, see section 3487 of this title.