Criminal Charges for Overdraft

[babagondeh]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Virginia

I recently made a purchase with my debit card in the amount of $2000 through amazon. I received the item in the mail subsequently I transferred $1700 from the account to another account. This resulted in an overdraft of $1700. I did not know why the payment didnt go through at the time. Is this a criminal offense? I'm not sure if I even have overdraft protection on this account since the account has been overdrawn for a month and I havent received any fees for it.

I have two accounts with this bank. In the other account I accidentally overdrew $300 from paypal which then took it from my bank in the form of an echeck. Is this the same as a bad check? So now I have two accounts with the same bank. One in the amount of -$1700 and another in the amount of -$300. .

My credit is not in good shape and I am unemployed. What can I do to prevent criminal charges being pressed as I do not have that kind of money right now? I can maybe pay off the $300 account but cannot cover the $1700.

I don't care too much about civil charges since I am already in massive debt. Please help.

[Disagreeable]

What exactly are you asking about? You intentionally took $2000 of someone elses money, without the means to repay it. You will suffer whatever charges they choose to press.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Your story isn't credible. You cannot claim that you accidentally moved money between accounts and ended up with $1,700 in the wrong account, then claim that you don't have the $1,700. If your intentions were honest, surely you would have put the money back to cover your accidental overdraft.

Your narrative is muddy, so I'm not going to promise you that nothing you did is criminal. How about returning the item you bought from Amazon, and covering most of your bad debts with the refund?

[babagondeh]

what exactly is criminal about moving my own money in between accounts when it is there? I did not know that the $2000 dollars was not posted as usually debit card purchases are instant and if theyre not then they usually place a hold on the amount.

If anyone has any ideas in regards to the legal liabilities in this clase I would really like to know so I can decide how to move forward. But please spare me the civics lessons.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You chose to take the money out of an account such that the overdraft would occur, then you chose to spend the money rather than covering the overdraft. Bad choices we can't fix for you. Can we rule out that you won't be charged with a crime? Nope, we don't have a crystal ball here - the future is uncertain.

[babagondeh]

I believe the name of this forum is expertlaw. I came here to maybe get some legal advice not to be chastised by self-righteous blokes who have nothing better to do with their time. If anyone has any real experience with an issue like this Im all ears.

[free9man]

It's not out of the question that the bank would press charges. At the very least, federal wire fraud charges could apply. They will most likely just sue you. You will lose either way. First, if you already had bad credit and were unemployed, there is no way you should have been spending that kind of money. Second, how the hell did you not notice that the 2000 dollars wasn't taken out? Your balance would be significantly different. A properly maintained check register would have kept a second grader from doing something so stupid.Your story doesn't exactly stand the sniff test, if ya know what I mean. Given the facts as you presented them here, you either intentionally set out to commit a crime and got caught or you are a complete moron with regards to simple banking.


Best thing to do is try to set up a repayment plan with the bank.

[Disagreeable]

I believe the name of this forum is expertlaw. I came here to maybe get some legal advice not to be chastised by self-righteous blokes who have nothing better to do with their time. If anyone has any real experience with an issue like this Im all ears.

People who incur overdrafts by a method which can not be proven to have criminal intent, are generally assessed overdraft fees and nothing further is done, if they pay back the money and associated fees. People who do it with with criminal intent, are usually charged criminally as well as made to repay. Your actions appear to be criminal.

[babagondeh]

Thank you for your response. I never said that I did not notice the money wasn't taken out. I said that I did not why it was not taken out and I did not know if it ever would have been. I guess I was taking advantage of a clerical error. I thought amazon just forgot to charge me or something.

Can you please explain then how this could be wire fraud? And you say at the very LEAST this would be a FEDERAL offense??? isnt that a bit excessive.

I did some research and Im not sure if you know what wire fraud means. I dont think it has anything to do with wire transfers.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You haven't told us how this occurred - you just provide cockamamie stories and whine like a baby when told that your actions have consequences.

I doubt that a federal prosecutor is going to pick up a $2,000 case as wire fraud (potentially two counts), but the wire fraud statute is very broad. (18 USC Sec. 1343).

Tell us what actually happened. Surely you have figured out by now what you did with the missing $2,000.