Which statute addresses conspiracy to defraud the United States?

• A. 18 USC 1341
• B. 28 USC 1651
• C. 18 USC 371
• D. 42 USC 1983

Answer: (C)

Conspiracy to defraud the United States is addressed by the general conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371. This provision makes it a crime for two or more people to enter into an agreement to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or to obtain money or property by fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises. The idea is that the crime is not the specific fraud itself alone, but the act of conspiring to achieve a wrongdoing against the government. To prove a conspiracy, the government typically must show an agreement between at least two people to commit the offense and some overt act in furtherance of that agreement. The other statutes listed pertain to different crimes or authorities: one is about mail fraud, another is the All Writs Act, and the last concerns civil rights lawsuits, none of which frame conspiracy to defraud the United States in the same criminal way.