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# 18 U.S.C. 286, Conspiracy to defraud the Government with respect to claims: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-18-usc-286-case-outcomes/
- Published: 2026-11-03T06:55:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T06:55:35.000Z
- Description: Nearly every federal case under 18 U.S.C. 286 in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 ended without a trial. Of 596 defendants, 536 (90%) pleaded guilty and 36 (6%) had their cases dismissed. Only 24 went to trial, and 1 of those trials ended in an acquittal.
- Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart
- Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal

[Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › 18 U.S.C. 286

**In brief:** Nearly every federal case under 18 U.S.C. 286 in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 ended without a trial. Of 596 defendants, 536 (90%) pleaded guilty and 36 (6%) had their cases dismissed. Only 24 went to trial, and 1 of those trials ended in an acquittal.

Updated November 3, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025

This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 596 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. It is part of the [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/).

## Guilty Pleas Were the Usual Result

In the U.S. Code, section 286 of Title 18 bears the heading "Conspiracy to defraud the Government with respect to claims." The post refers to the section only by that heading.

The Federal Judicial Center counted 596 defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case was under this section. Its records include every case that ended, not only cases that led to a sentence.

Pleading guilty was by far the most common result: 536 defendants (90%). Dismissals accounted for 36 (6%), and trials for 24 (4%). Counting pleas and trial verdicts together, 559 of the 596 (94%) were convicted.

## Few Trials, 1 Acquittal

All 24 trials were jury trials. Juries acquitted in 1 of them, an acquittal rate of 4%. No case under this section was decided by a judge alone.

With only 24 trials over 10 years, the acquittal rate rests on a small number. It should be read alongside the plea and dismissal counts, which cover most defendants.

## Fewer Cases Ended in Later Years

Fewer cases ended in the later years of the period than in the early years. There were 158 in 2016 and 171 in 2017\. By 2024 the count was 10, and in 2025 it was 7.

Dismissal rates were higher in some later years: 32% in 2022 and 24% in 2023\. Those years had 19 and 17 cases, so a handful of dismissals moved the percentage. The records do not show why the yearly counts changed. A federal fiscal year runs from October to the following September.

| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
| ----------- | ----------- | -------------- | --------- | ------ | ------------------ |
| 2016        | 158         | 93%            | 3%        | 7      | 0 (0 of 7)         |
| 2017        | 171         | 94%            | 4%        | 4      | 0 (0 of 4)         |
| 2018        | 90          | 96%            | 3%        | 1      | 0 (0 of 1)         |
| 2019        | 63          | 87%            | 5%        | 5      | 1 (1 of 5)         |
| 2020        | 24          | 88%            | 13%       | 0      | 0                  |
| 2021        | 37          | 84%            | 11%       | 2      | 0 (0 of 2)         |
| 2022        | 19          | 53%            | 32%       | 3      | 0 (0 of 3)         |
| 2023        | 17          | 65%            | 24%       | 2      | 0 (0 of 2)         |
| 2024        | 10          | 90%            | 10%       | 0      | 0                  |
| 2025        | 7           | 5 of 7         | 2 of 7    | 0      | 0                  |

## Charge Level and Prison

Each of the 596 cases had a felony as its most serious charge. None was a Class A misdemeanor or a petty offense.

Of the 559 convicted, 429 (77%) received a prison term on this charge. The median term for those sentenced to 1 month or more was 26 months (2.2 years). The other convicted defendants received no prison term on this charge.

## Which Lawyers Handled These Cases?

CJA panel attorneys represented the largest group: 321 defendants (54%). Private (retained) counsel represented 149 (25%), and federal public or community defenders represented 107 (18%).

Plea rates were high in all 3 groups: 95% with CJA panel attorneys, 93% with federal defenders, and 89% with retained counsel. Trials were few in each group, with 9, 6, and 9 respectively. The only acquittal came in a case handled by a CJA panel attorney.

Type of counsel is the type recorded at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer and those who are appointed one tend to face different charges and circumstances. The figures describe groups of cases and say nothing about the quality of any lawyer.

| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed    | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
| -------------------------------------- | ---------- | -------------- | ------------ | ------ | ------------------ |
| Federal public or community defender   | 107        | 93%            | less than 1% | 6      | 0 (0 of 6)         |
| CJA panel attorney                     | 321        | 95%            | 2%           | 9      | 1 (1 of 9)         |
| Private (retained) counsel             | 149        | 89%            | 5%           | 9      | 0 (0 of 9)         |

## What the Data Does Not Cover

The records do not describe the claims or conduct in any case. They also do not show why a defendant pleaded guilty or why charges were dismissed.

This section has no close court-martial counterpart in the approved crosswalk, so the post reports the federal numbers alone.

### How We Counted

Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 18 U.S.C. 286, any subsection (596), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4\. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).

Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30\. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.

### What to Keep in Mind

**Who is in each set of numbers.** The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.

**How "plea" and "trial" are counted.** In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.

**Time periods.** Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.

**Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers.** The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.

## Related Analysis

- [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article)
- [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts)
- [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method)
- [18 U.S.C. 242, Deprivation of rights under color of law: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-18-usc-242-case-outcomes/) (same title of the U.S. Code)
- [18 U.S.C. 249, Hate crime acts: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-18-usc-249-case-outcomes/) (same title of the U.S. Code)
- [18 U.S.C. 287, False, fictitious or fraudulent claims: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-18-usc-287-case-outcomes/) (same title of the U.S. Code)
- [18 U.S.C. 371, Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-18-usc-371-case-outcomes/) (same title of the U.S. Code)
- [Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-appointed-vs-retained-counsel-outcomes/)
- [Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-trial-acquittal-rates-vs-courts-martial/)
- [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source)
- [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source)

**About the author.** Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts *Where All The Bodies Are Buried* and runs the [Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.