Also known as: fraudulent or dishonest acts · fraudulent act · dishonest act
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conduct that involves deception, misrepresentation, or other dishonest behavior.
Felicity French, outside counsel to a medical device maker, learns that the client plans to ship a batch flagged for possible contamination. When the buyer’s lawyer requests written assurance that all lots meet specifications, French remains silent about the internal test results. The omission assists the client’s fraudulent representation to the buyer.
Frederick Ferguson, a compliance officer, testifies that all disclosures were accurate. On cross-examination the opposing party seeks to introduce his five-year-old misdemeanor conviction for filing false financial reports. The conviction rests on conduct that required proof of a dishonest act and is offered solely to attack his credibility as a witness.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Francois Fortier, a law firm associate, learns of a client’s confidential takeover plans and trades on that information for personal profit. The undisclosed use of the information constitutes a fraudulent or dishonest act that deprives the client of its exclusive right to the data.
Faye Fuller transfers property held in tenancy by the entirety to her son shortly before a federal tax lien is assessed against her husband. The transfer is challenged as a fraudulent or dishonest act intended to defeat the government’s claim on the husband’s interest.
Felipe Figueroa, a financial printer, learns the identities of takeover targets from documents he is typesetting and purchases shares before the announcements. His undisclosed trading on the information is a fraudulent or dishonest act that violates duties of confidentiality owed to the acquiring companies.
A lawyer must disclose a material fact to a third person when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by a client, unless disclosure is prohibited by Rule 1.6.
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Any conviction for a crime whose elements required proving or the witness’s admitting a dishonest act or false statement must be admitted regardless of punishment.
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No. Burglary requires proof of unlawful entry with intent to commit a crime but does not require proof of a dishonest act or false statement, so it is not automatically admissible under 609(a)(2).
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Rule 609(a)(2) mandates admission of convictions involving dishonest acts or false statements without balancing under Rule 403, while 609(a)(1) requires balancing and applies only to crimes punishable by more than one year.
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…under the securities laws would not be met. If the relevant test under the "in connection with" language is whether the fraudulent act is necessarily tied to a securities transaction, then the misappropriation of confidential information used to trade no more violates § 10(b) than does the misappropriation of funds used…