Penal Law § 195.20 · Article 195. Official Misconduct and Obstruction of Public Servants Generally
Defrauding the government
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 195.20 Defrauding the government.
A person is guilty of defrauding the government when, being a public servant or party officer, he or she:
(a) engages in a scheme constituting a systematic ongoing course of conduct with intent to:
(i) defraud the state or a political subdivision of the state or a governmental instrumentality within the state or to obtain property, services or other resources from the state or a political subdivision of the state or a governmental instrumentality within the state by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises; or
(ii) defraud the state or a political subdivision of the state or a governmental instrumentality within the state by making use of property, services or resources of the state, political subdivision of the state or a governmental instrumentality within the state for private business purposes or other compensated non-governmental purposes; and
(b) so obtains property, services or other resources with a value in excess of one thousand dollars from such state, political subdivision or governmental instrumentality.
Defrauding the government is a class E felony.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN195.20
- Text hash
- sha256 314d8fd780bddc4d070cda2788054ec8f1ded3101c9c1c3a0ca92be5af07a9a1
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.