Honorable Pete Flores, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB2373 by Johnson (relating to financial exploitation or financial abuse using
artificially generated media or phishing communications; providing
a civil penalty; creating a criminal offense.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would create the criminal offense of financial abuse using artificially generated media or phishing, committed when a person knowingly engages in financial abuse by using artificially generated media or by deceiving or manipulating another person into providing certain information through email or certain other electronic or digital means. Punishment for the offense would range from a Class B misdemeanor through a first degree felony and would be contingent on the value of the property taken, appropriated, obtained, retained, or used.
Creating a new criminal offense may result in an increase in demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct outlined in the bill's provisions that would be subject to criminal penalties.