The Elements of the Offense of Fraudulent Receipt
- One of the main offenses attributed to the defendants is fraudulent receipt. This offense is set forth inArticle 415 30Penal LawThis is what he says:
"Whoever receives something fraudulently, shall be sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and if the offense was committed under aggravated circumstances, he shall be sentenced to five years' imprisonment."
In section 414, the term "matter" is defined as "real estate, movables, right and benefit", while the term "fraud" means: "a claim of fact in a matter in the past, present or future, which is claimed in writing, orally or in conduct, and which the claimant knows is not true or does not believe that it is true". The word "cheating" is defined insection 414 as "to deceive a person to commit an act or omission".
This offense is a consequential offense, and it requires the existence of a causal connection between the fraud and the receipt of the matter, as opposed to the offense of theft, which is a behavioral offense. The factual element of the offense includes the presentation of a false claim, i.e., the concealment of a fact that should have been presented, and the acceptance of the "thing" by virtue of that claim. As stated, the existence of a causal connection between the act of fraud and the receipt must be proved. "Acceptance" may mean the physical acceptance of a movable object or the acquisition of something that is not tangible. The "thing" itself may be real estate, movables, a right and a benefit, where the term "benefit" has been given a very broad meaning, including the receipt of a certificate that is a condition for submitting an account for payment (see, for example: Criminal Appeal 115/77 Lev v. State of Israel, IsrSC 32(2) 505).
The term "fraudulent" has a dual meaning: it is part of the physical component of the offense, which means the very false claim made in writing, orally, or in conduct, and at the same time the term also has meaning in the context of the mental element of the offense, which means the perpetrator's awareness that the claim is not true.