Reading Room Document

Delegation of the Attorney General's Authority to Investigate Credit Card Fraud

The Attorney General has authority under 28 U.S.C. § 533 to investigate all criminal violations against the United States, including credit card fraud under 15 U.S.C. § 1644, except in cases in which Congress has specifically assigned the responsibility with respect to a particular investigation exclusively to another agency. The Attorney General's investigative authority under 28 U.S.C. § 533, which has been delegated to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by 28 C.F.R. § 0.85(a), may not be delegated outside of the Department of Justice to the Secret Service. A preliminary analysis reveals no independent authority for investigations of credit card fraud in the Secret Service's enabling statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3056. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/23551/download.

November 22, 1983