38 U.S.C. § 5905
Section 5905 · Penalty for certain acts
Amended 6 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case In re the Fee Agreement of SMITH (1991)
Most recently applied in Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki (May 2011)
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 wrongfully withholds from any claimant or beneficiary any part of a benefit or claim allowed and due to the claimant or beneficiary, shall be fined as provided in title 18, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2006—Pub. L. 109–461 struck out “(1) directly or indirectly solicits, contracts for, charges, or receives, or attempts to solicit, contract for, charge, or receive, any fee or compensation except as provided in sections 5904 or 1984 of this title, or (2)” after “Whoever”.
1991—Pub. L. 102–40 renumbered section 3405 of this title as this section and substituted “5904” for “3404”.
Pub. L. 102–83 substituted “1984” for “784”.
1988—Pub. L. 100–687 substituted “shall be fined as provided in title 18, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both” for “shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned at hard labor for not more than two years, or both”.
1986—Pub. L. 99–576 substituted “to the claimant or beneficiary” for “him”.
Effective Date of 1988 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 100–687 effective Sept. 1, 1989, see section 401(a) of Pub. L. 100–687, set out as an Effective Date note under section 7251 of this title.