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What is the statute of limitations for mail fraud?
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, with over 40 years of combined experience handling federal criminal defense cases. You might recognize us from the Netflix series about Anna Delvey, the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case, or our representation in the Alec Baldwin stalking matter. When you’re facing federal mail fraud charges, timing isn’t just important – it’s everything.
The statute of limitations for mail fraud is five years. That’s the basic answer. But like most things in federal criminal law, the reality gets complicated fast – and those complications can mean the difference between charges getting filed or your case getting dismissed entirely.
The Five-Year Rule and When It Actually Starts
Federal mail fraud falls under 18 U.S.C. § 1341, and the government has five years from the date of the offense to indict you under 18 U.S.C. § 3282. Sounds straightforward. The problem is figuring out when that clock actually starts ticking.
The statute begins running when the fraud is complete – either when the last act in the scheme happens or when the fraudulent mailing occurs, whichever comes later. That “whichever comes later” part trips people up. You might think your exposure ended years ago when you sent the last piece of mail, but if the scheme itself continued after that mailing, prosecutors can argue the limitations period started much more recently.
We’ve seen cases where clients believed they were safe because the mailings happened six or seven years ago. Then federal agents show up at their door because the government treats the scheme as ongoing – every new victim payment, every new fraudulent representation, every step that keeps the fraud alive resets that clock.
The Ten-Year Exception for Financial Institution Fraud
If your mail fraud scheme affects a financial institution, everything changes. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3293, prosecutors get ten years to bring charges – double the standard limitations period.
“Affects a financial institution” gets interpreted broadly. Banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, even certain insurance companies qualify. You don’t need to defraud the institution directly. If your scheme merely involves a financial institution in some way – deposits of fraudulent checks, wire transfers, loan applications with false information – that can trigger the ten-year statute.
This extension catches defendants off guard constantly. They count five years from their last mailing, assume they’re in the clear, and then federal prosecutors file an indictment in year seven or eight. The bank connection seemed incidental to them, but it’s everything to the government’s timeline.
Tolling – When the Clock Stops Running
The limitations period can pause entirely if you’re a fugitive. Not just if you flee to avoid prosecution – even living under an alias or actively hiding from law enforcement can toll the statute. The government has to prove you were actually evading detection, though. Simply moving to another state and living openly under your real name doesn’t count as being a fugitive, even if prosecutors would prefer it did.
The discovery rule gets argued occasionally – the idea that the limitations period doesn’t begin until the victim discovers the fraud. But this typically applies to civil cases, not criminal prosecutions. Federal criminal statutes generally run from the date of the offense itself, not when someone figured out they’d been defrauded. Prosecutors sometimes argue that concealment is part of the ongoing scheme, which can extend timelines, but courts don’t always buy that argument.
Conspiracy Charges Extend Everything
Here’s where federal prosecutors get creative. If they charge you with conspiracy to commit mail fraud instead of – or in addition to – substantive mail fraud, the statute of limitations runs from the date of the last overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. That could be years after the actual mailings occurred.
We represented a client in a case where the fraudulent mailings happened in 2017 and 2018. The government didn’t bring charges until 2024, arguing that phone calls and emails in 2023 – discussing the scheme, coordinating stories, even just staying in contact with co-conspirators – constituted overt acts that kept the conspiracy alive. The five-year clock started fresh with each act.
Prosecutors love conspiracy charges for exactly this reason. The limitations period becomes elastic, stretching as far as any connection to the original scheme can be established. A single text message to a co-conspirator six years after the fraud can bring everything back within the statute of limitations.
The Affirmative Defense You Can Lose By Staying Silent
The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. That means your attorney must raise it before or during trial – or you waive it forever. We’ve seen defendants lose perfectly valid statute of limitations defenses because their previous lawyer never brought it to the court’s attention. Once the trial ends, that defense is gone.
This is why hiring experienced federal criminal defense counsel matters from the beginning. Calculating when the statute of limitations began running requires analyzing every element of the alleged scheme – when mailings occurred, when the fraud was complete, whether financial institutions were affected, whether conspiracy charges apply, whether tolling applies. Miss one element, and you miss a potential defense that could end your case before trial.
Federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice know these rules inside and out. They structure their charges to maximize their timeline. If you’re not equally knowledgeable – or represented by someone who is – you’re already behind.
What This Means If You’re Under Investigation
If you think you might be under investigation for mail fraud, time matters in both directions. On one hand, the government’s clock is ticking – they have five years, or ten if financial institutions are involved, to bring charges. On the other hand, your ability to build a defense erodes with every passing month. Witnesses forget details, documents disappear, electronic records get deleted in routine purges.
We tell clients not to assume they’re safe just because years have passed since the alleged conduct. Federal investigations move slowly. Grand jury subpoenas can take months to issue. Prosecutors often wait until they’ve built the strongest possible case before seeking an indictment, filing charges just before the statute of limitations expires.
At Spodek Law Group, we’ve handled mail fraud cases at every stage – pre-indictment investigations where we’re trying to prevent charges from being filed at all, cases where statute of limitations is the central defense, cases involving complex tolling issues and conspiracy allegations. Our managing partner Todd Spodek, a second-generation criminal defense attorney with many years of experience, has successfully defended clients in cases others said were unwinnable.
The statute of limitations isn’t just a technicality – it’s a fundamental protection against stale prosecutions. But asserting it requires careful analysis of the facts, the charges, and the applicable law. If you’re facing a mail fraud investigation or have already been charged, contact us immediately. Federal criminal defense isn’t something you can handle on your own, and it’s not something you want to entrust to attorneys who lack specific experience with federal mail fraud statutes. We’re available 24/7 because we understand that federal investigations don’t wait for business hours.