Title 18, Crimes and Criminal ProcedureRelease 119-102
§1421 Accounts of Court Officers
Title 18 › PART I — CRIMES › CHAPTER 69 — NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP › § 1421
Summary
Requires court clerks or others who handle money in citizenship or alien‑registration cases to account for and pay those funds within thirty days after someone asks for them. If they on purpose fail to do so, they can be fined or sent to prison for up to five years.
Full Legal Text
Title 18, §1421
Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Whoever, being a clerk or assistant clerk of a court, or other person charged by law with a duty to render true accounts of moneys received in any proceeding relating to citizenship, naturalization, or registration of aliens or to pay over any balance of such moneys due to the United States, willfully neglects to do so within thirty days after said payment shall become due and demand therefor has been made, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on subsections (a)(34), (d) and (l) of section 746 of title 8, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Aliens and Nationality (Oct. 14, 1940, ch. 876, § 346(a)(34), (d), (l), 54 Stat. 1167, 1168). Minor changes in phraseology only were made.
Editorial Notes
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $5,000”.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
18 U.S.C. § 1421
Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Last Updated
Aug 21, 2026
Release point: 119-102