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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline J · Criminal Conduct

Fraud or Deception (Criminal)

What the decided record shows for this issue, computed from public DOHA hearing-level decisions. Descriptive history, not a prediction.

Does fraud or deception (criminal) affect a security clearance?

Fraud or Deception (Criminal) is an issue decided under Guideline J, Criminal Conduct. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 526 hearing-level cases, and 13% of the 526 decided ended with access granted (67 granted, 459 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 526 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

526

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

13%

67 granted · 459 denied or revoked

Official mitigating conditions cited

The formal mitigating conditions the case profiles identified on this issue, in cases that were granted and in cases that were denied. Each is shown with its paragraph number and a plain name. Read what each condition says.

  • ¶ 32(a) · So much time has passed, or the circumstances were so unusual

    In granted cases
    43
    In denied cases
    23

  • ¶ 32(d) · Successful rehabilitation shown

    In granted cases
    23
    In denied cases
    11

  • ¶ 32(c) · No reliable evidence that the person committed the offense

    In granted cases
    21
    In denied cases
    15

  • ¶ 32(b) · The person acted under pressure that is unlikely to recur

    In granted cases
    17
    In denied cases
    9

Circumstances credited in granted cases

The specific circumstances the judge expressly credited among the granted cases on this issue where that detail was extracted.
  • rehabilitation evidence · credited in 16 granted cases
  • acknowledgment and remorse · credited in 6 granted cases
  • no subsequent offenses · credited in 5 granted cases
  • passage of time · credited in 4 granted cases
  • explanation of omission credible · credited in 3 granted cases

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 22-00888Granted2024

    ecurity clearance, the adjudicative guidelines focus on various factors, including criminal conduct and drug involvement. In this case, the applicant faced allegations under Guideline H (drug involvem…

  • ISCR Case No. 23-00317Granted2024

    49-year-old lead voice engineer, the applicant sought to obtain or retain a security clearance in connection with his work for a defense contractor. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01206Denied2026

    The applicant's security clearance was denied due to unresolved security concerns under Guideline D (Sexual Behavior) and Guideline J (Criminal Conduct). The applicant admitted to paying for sex with …

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00817Denied2026

    Applicant, a 38-year-old tradesperson for a defense contractor, was denied a security clearance after the judge found mitigated alcohol concerns but unresolved criminal conduct and personal conduct is…

See all 526 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline J

How these numbers are measured

Scope: decided hearing-level cases whose per-allegation profile records this issue, matched to the same issue value the search filters use, so a count here and a filtered search always agree. A case raising several issues counts under each one. The mitigating conditions and the credited circumstances below were extracted for a subset of the record, so both are counts of cases rather than rates. Pages exist only for issues with at least 25 decided cases, and † marks any split built on fewer than 20.

Reading the statistics

  • Granted = access granted or continued; Denied = denied or revoked.
  • Grant rate = granted ÷ (granted + denied).
  • † marks figures based on fewer than 20 cases, too few to be reliable.
  • Hovering any rate shows its statistical range (a 95% confidence interval).
  • Figures are descriptive counts over decided, public DOHA ISCR decisions, never predictions or assessments of any pending case.

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