38 U.S.C. § 6101
Section 6101 · Misappropriation by fiduciaries
Amended 7 times on record
Applied in 15 court decisions — leading case United States v. Manning (2008)
Most recently applied in 305 F. App'x 518 - United States v. Manning, Jr. (January 2009)
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.
(a) Whoever, being a fiduciary (as defined in section 5506 of this title) for the benefit of a minor, incompetent, or other beneficiary under laws administered by the Secretary, shall lend, borrow, pledge, hypothecate, use, or exchange for other funds or property, except as authorized by law, or embezzle or in any manner misappropriate any such money or property derived therefrom in whole or in part and coming into such fiduciary's control in any manner whatever in the execution of such fiduciary's trust, or under color of such fiduciary's office or service as such fiduciary, shall be fined in accordance with title 18, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(b) Any willful neglect or refusal to make and file proper accountings or reports concerning such money or property as required by law shall be taken to be sufficient evidence prima facie of such embezzlement or misappropriation.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2004—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 108–454, §501(c), substituted “fiduciary (as defined in section 5506 of this title) for the benefit of a minor, incompetent, or other beneficiary under laws administered by the Secretary,” for “guardian, curator, conservator, committee, or person legally vested with the responsibility or care of a claimant or a claimant's estate, or any other person having charge and custody in a fiduciary capacity of money heretofore or hereafter paid under any of the laws administered by the Secretary for the benefit of any minor, incompetent, or other beneficiary,”.
1994—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–446 inserted a comma after “title 18”.
1991—Pub. L. 102–40 renumbered section 3501 of this title as this section.
Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–83 substituted “administered by the Secretary” for “administered by the Veterans’ Administration”.
Pub. L. 102–54 amended subsec. (a) as in effect immediately before the enactment of Pub. L. 102–40 by substituting “in accordance with title 18” for “not more than $2,000”.
1986—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 99–576 substituted “a claimant's” for “his” before “estate”, and “such fiduciary's” for “his” in three places.
Effective Date of 2004 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 108–454 effective on the first day of the seventh month beginning after Dec. 10, 2004, see section 507(a) of Pub. L. 108–454, set out as an Effective Date of 2004 Amendment note under section 5312 of this title.