45 U.S.C. § 359 — Penalties

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) Failure to make report or furnish information; false or fraudulent statement or claim

Any officer or agent of an employer, or any employee representative, or any employee acting in his own behalf, or any person whether or not of the character hereinbefore defined, who shall willfully fail or refuse to make any report or furnish any information required by the Board in the administration of this chapter, or who shall knowingly make or aid in making or cause to be made any false or fraudulent statement or report when a statement or report is required to be made for the purposes of this chapter, or who shall knowingly make or aid in making or cause to be made any false or fraudulent statement or claim for the purpose of causing benefits or other payment to be made or not to be made under this chapter, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

(b) Agreement by employee to bear employer's contribution

Any agreement by an employee to pay all or any portion of the contribution required of his employer under this chapter shall be void, and it shall be unlawful for any employer, or officer or agent of an employer, to make, require, or permit any employee to bear all or any portion of such contribution. Any employer, or officer or agent of an employer, who violates any provision of this subsection shall be punished for each such violation by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

Any person who violates any provision of this chapter, the punishment for which is not otherwise provided, shall be punished for each such violation by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

(d) Payment and disposition of fines or penalties

All fines and penalties imposed by a court pursuant to this chapter shall be paid to the court and be remitted from time to time by order of the judge to the Treasury of the United States to be credited to the account.