Fraud charges in Tennessee are graded almost entirely by the dollar amount involved. The same conduct — a bad check, a fake insurance claim, a misused credit card — can land you with a Class A misdemeanor if the loss is under $1,000, or a Class A felony carrying up to 60 years in prison if the loss reaches $250,000. On top of the criminal case, you can face a civil suit for actual damages, treble damages under the Consumer Protection Act, and sometimes punitive damages. First-time offenders may qualify for judicial diversion, which can wipe the record clean if probation is completed.
What Counts as Fraud Under Tennessee Law
Tennessee has no single fraud statute. The Code scatters fraud offenses across several chapters, each with its own elements, but most share a common requirement: the state has to prove you acted knowingly and with intent to defraud.
The offenses prosecutors charge most often include identity theft under TCA § 39-14-150, which covers knowingly obtaining or using another person’s personal identifying information — name, Social Security number, date of birth, driver license number, biometric data — without consent and with intent to commit an unlawful act.1Justia Law. Tennessee Code 39-14-150 – Identity Theft Victims Rights Identity theft is a Class D felony on its own; trafficking in stolen identity information is a Class C felony.
Credit and debit card fraud under TCA § 39-14-118 covers using a card or card information you know to be stolen, forged, revoked, cancelled, expired, or otherwise unauthorized.2Justia Law. Tennessee Code 39-14-118 – Illegal Possession or Fraudulent Use of Credit or Debit Card The worthless check statute, TCA § 39-14-121, criminalizes issuing or passing a check with fraudulent intent or knowledge of insufficient funds, and also stopping payment after receiving the goods or services promised. It does not reach post-dated checks or situations where the payee knew the drawer lacked funds.3FindLaw. Tennessee Code Title 39 Criminal Offenses 39-14-121
Insurance fraud under TCA § 56-53-102 is defined as knowingly presenting false or misleading information in connection with an insurance application, claim, or payment with intent to defraud — exaggerating damage, staging a theft, filing for an injury that never happened.4Justia Law. Tennessee Code 56-53-102 – Fraudulent Insurance Act Securities fraud under TCA § 48-1-121 reaches schemes to defraud in the offer, sale, or purchase of securities, including untrue statements of material fact. The state securities commissioner can impose civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation, doubled to $20,000 when the victim is a designated adult.5FindLaw. Tennessee Code Title 48 Corporations and Associations 48-1-121 Fraudulently obtaining food assistance benefits is prosecuted under TCA § 71-5-314, a Class E felony if the value is $100 or more and a Class A misdemeanor below that threshold.6Justia Law. Tennessee Code 71-5-314 – Fraudulent Receipt of Food Assistance – Penalties – Statute of Limitations
How Penalties Are Calculated
Most fraud offenses are graded as theft, and TCA § 39-14-105 sets the dollar tiers that determine the offense class.7Justia Law. Tennessee Code 39-14-105 – Grading of Theft
- $1,000 or less: Class A misdemeanor — up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, fine up to $2,500.
- $1,000 to $2,500: Class E felony — one to six years in prison, fine up to $3,000.
- $2,500 to $10,000: Class D felony — two to twelve years in prison, fine up to $5,000.
- $10,000 to $60,000: Class C felony — three to fifteen years in prison, fine up to $10,000.
- $60,000 to $250,000: Class B felony — eight to thirty years in prison, fine up to $25,000.
- $250,000 or more: Class A felony — fifteen to sixty years in prison, fine up to $50,000.
Those ranges show the full statutory span from Range I (standard offender) to Range III (persistent offender). A first-time defendant convicted of a Class C felony actually faces three to six years, not three to fifteen.8Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-35-112 – Sentence Ranges Prior convictions push you into higher ranges within the same class. Judges also weigh enhancement factors — criminal history, victim vulnerability, abuse of a position of trust — when choosing where in the range to sentence.9Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-35-114 – Enhancement Factors
If the alleged victim is an elderly or vulnerable adult, the stakes climb immediately. TCA § 39-15-502 bumps financial exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable person one full felony classification higher than the equivalent theft. What would have been a Class D felony becomes a Class C; a Class C becomes a Class B. When the property at issue exceeds $5,000, prosecutors can petition to freeze the defendant’s assets for restitution, and a judge can grant that order without notifying the defendant first if needed to prevent further exploitation.10Justia Law. Tennessee Code 39-15-502 – Offense of Financial Exploitation of Elderly or Vulnerable Person
Collateral consequences matter too. A fraud conviction can cost you a professional license in finance, law, healthcare, or any other field involving public trust. The conviction alone is often enough for a licensing board to act, long before any sentence is served.
Deadlines That Can End a Case
Both the state and private plaintiffs run on clocks. Miss the deadline and the case cannot proceed, no matter how strong the evidence.
For felony fraud, prosecution must begin within the following windows from the date of the offense:11Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-2-101 – Felonies
- Class A felony: 15 years
- Class B felony: 8 years
- Class C or D felony: 4 years
- Class E felony: 2 years
Misdemeanor fraud has to be charged within twelve months of the offense.12Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-2-102 – Misdemeanors That short window is one reason borderline cases sometimes get charged as felonies.
Civil fraud suits generally have a three-year statute of limitations, and Tennessee applies a discovery rule in some fraud contexts, starting the clock when the victim discovered or reasonably should have discovered the fraud. Fraud against the state must be filed within three years of discovery and no more than ten years after the violation.13Justia Law. Tennessee Code 4-18-106 – Statute of Limitations Tennessee Consumer Protection Act claims have a tight one-year deadline from the violation.
Defenses That Actually Work
Fraud statutes require a specific mental state. The state has to prove you acted knowingly, with intent to defraud. That opens real defenses — not technicalities, but attacks on the heart of the charge.
Lack of Intent
The most common defense is simply that you didn’t intend to deceive anyone. A bounced check is not fraud if you honestly believed the account had funds. Under TCA § 39-11-502, ignorance or mistake of fact is a defense to any crime if it negates the required mental state.14Justia Law. Tennessee Code 39-11-502 – Ignorance or Mistake of Fact If you genuinely believed what you said was true, the “knowingly” element fails. Most fraud defenses live or die here, and contemporaneous documentation — bank statements, emails, records created at the time rather than afterward — is what makes the difference.
Consent
Identity theft requires the state to prove the defendant acted without the other person’s consent. If you had permission to use the information — a parent using a child’s Social Security number on a joint account, for example — an element of the offense is missing.1Justia Law. Tennessee Code 39-14-150 – Identity Theft Victims Rights Consent has to have existed at the time, not been obtained after the fact.
Challenging the Dollar Amount
Because penalty severity is tied directly to the value involved, attacking the prosecution’s number can drop a case down one or more classes — sometimes from a felony to a misdemeanor. This works best when the claimed loss includes speculative figures like projected future profits or inflated replacement costs rather than actual out-of-pocket losses.
Suppressing Improperly Obtained Evidence
Fraud cases run on documents: bank records, transaction histories, emails. If investigators obtained those records without proper authorization, a motion to suppress can exclude them, and in a paper-heavy case the prosecution’s theory may collapse without them. Tennessee does exempt subpoenas to banks in criminal investigations from the notice requirement that would otherwise alert the account holder, so the suppression fight is usually about the subpoena’s scope and basis rather than notice.15Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-12-214 – Subpoenas to Banks Exempt from Notice Requirement
Judicial Diversion: Keeping a Fraud Charge Off Your Record
For first-time offenders, judicial diversion under TCA § 40-35-313 is often the single most valuable outcome a defense attorney can negotiate. A qualified defendant pleads guilty, but the court defers further proceedings and places the defendant on probation. Complete probation successfully and the charges are dismissed, and you can then petition to have all records of the case expunged.16Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-35-313 – Probation – Conditions – Discharge and Dismissal – Expunction from Official Records
Diversion is not available to everyone. You cannot qualify if you are charged with a Class A or B felony, if you have a prior felony or a Class A misdemeanor conviction that involved confinement, or if you have previously received diversion. Elder financial exploitation under § 39-15-502 is also excluded.16Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-35-313 – Probation – Conditions – Discharge and Dismissal – Expunction from Official Records For fraud offenses that do qualify, diversion avoids a permanent conviction entirely.
Separate from diversion, the sentencing court in any fraud case can order restitution to the victim as a condition of probation, with the amount and payment schedule specified and installments permitted. When there are multiple victims, each person’s loss is determined separately.17Justia Law. Tennessee Code 40-35-304 – Restitution as Condition for Probation Paying restitution in the criminal case does not block the victim from also suing you civilly for more.
Civil Exposure Alongside the Criminal Case
A criminal fraud charge often brings a parallel civil suit, and the civil standard is lower: a plaintiff only has to prove fraud by a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt. Tennessee recognizes both actual fraud (intentional deception) and constructive fraud, where someone in a fiduciary position gains an unfair advantage through misleading conduct even without deliberate dishonesty.
Under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, TCA § 47-18-109, a consumer who suffers an ascertainable loss can sue for actual damages. If the court finds the violation was willful or knowing, damages are tripled. The court can also award the plaintiff reasonable attorney fees and costs.18Justia Law. Tennessee Code 47-18-109 – Private Right of Action – Damages – Notice to Attorney General The fee-shifting provision is what makes smaller fraud cases worth pursuing in the first place.
Punitive damages are capped in Tennessee at the greater of twice the compensatory damages or $500,000, but the cap does not apply when the defendant intentionally falsified, destroyed, or concealed records to evade liability, or when the conduct results in a felony conviction.19Justia Law. Tennessee Code 29-39-104 – Punitive Damages In large fraud cases where those exceptions apply, the civil exposure can dwarf the criminal fine.
If You Are the Victim
If you believe you have been defrauded, start with local law enforcement for any criminal act. A consumer complaint is not a substitute for a police report. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation handles complex cases, with particular focus on Medicaid fraud, public corruption, and identity theft.20State of Tennessee, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. TBI Divisions
For disputes with a business, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Affairs runs an informal complaint mediation program. Try to resolve the issue directly with the business first, then file a complaint online, by mail, fax, or email. Include supporting documents but redact Social Security and account numbers.21TN.gov. File a Complaint The Attorney General’s office cannot represent you individually in court. For a lawsuit, you need a private attorney.