How and how long does a person have to cure or &quot;true&quot; a misrepresentation?
<p>Suppose a person writes a check that bounces because the account has "insufficient funds." That would be a misrepresentation (of the person's bank balance). How long does the person have to make the funds sufficient so that the check becomes "good" before the person can be charged with a crime. (If it is within a reasonable period of time, might it be case of "no harm, no foul.")</p>

<p>Take another example with cases a) and b). A person lies on a loan application by claiming to have insurance on a key asset (such as a house) when in fact, s/he doesn't. </p>

<p>Case A: The loan officer catches the omission before the loan closes. Can the person "cure" the omission or "true" the facts by buying the insurance and then close on the loan?</p>

<p>Case B: The loan closes and later the bank finds out about the missing insurance. Can this misrepresentation be cured?</p>

<p>I am interested in the law in any state of the United States, but particularly in New York state.</p>

<h2>No time</h2>

<p>Once a crime has been committed a crime has been committed. If a person decides to rectify the "wrong" of that crime that may influence law enforcement's decision to prosecute and/or the severity of the sentence received upon conviction but it doesn't undo the crime.</p>

<h2>The matters you name are unlikely to be the subject of criminal justice</h2>

<p>Technically, knowingly making a false representation is a crime but the specific matters you raise are unlikely to be prosecuted because:</p>

<ul>
<li>police aren't interested</li>
<li>a conviction is <em>extremely</em> unlikely - proving beyond reasonable doubt that a person <em>knew</em> they would have insufficient funds for a check or hadn't just "forgotten" the insurance is nigh on impossible.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Civil consequences</h2>

<p>These are far more likely to be dealt with by the "wronged" party in a commercial/civil law matter and the answer then becomes:</p>

<p>If these were a breach of contract or an actionable tort then the amount of time given to rectify (not undo) the wrong is whatever the parties agree or a court imposes.</p>

united-states new-york-state fraud