legal fraud
- noun
- /ˈliːɡəl frɔːd/
- Formal
:
fraude legal
- The company was accused of legal fraud after concealing vital information from its investors.
Examples
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His actions constituted legal fraud because he breached the trust placed in him by the client.
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Under the law, legal fraud can lead to both civil and criminal penalties.
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The firm was accused of legal fraud.
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Have you heard about the recent case of legal fraud in the news?
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His actions constituted legal fraud because he breached the trust placed in him by the client.
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The company was accused of legal fraud after concealing vital information from its investors.
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Under the law, legal fraud can lead to both civil and criminal penalties.
Synonyms
577
4.0
Deceiving someone to get money or an unfair advantage
A breach of a duty that misleads another person without meaning to trick them
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward compositional phrase: 'legal' (pertaining to law) modifies 'fraud' (a deceptive act), so the meaning 'fraud in a legal context or breaching legal duties' is directly derivable from the parts. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift and the pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it.
Etymology
Legal fraud may come from the image of someone using law papers or a contract to hide the truth and 'cheat' another person. The word legal points to the law or official papers and fraud means 'cheating', so the phrase means cheating by breaking a legal duty or hiding important facts.