The practice of lending money at an interest rate that exceeds the maximum a jurisdiction's law permits, historically a broader term for charging any interest at all before most legal systems came to accept interest-bearing lending as a normal part of commerce. In its modern criminal sense, often called loan sharking when carried out informally or by organized crime, it involves lending at exploitative rates to borrowers who lack access to conventional credit, frequently paired with coercive or violent collection methods when a borrower falls behind. Many jurisdictions distinguish civil usury violations, which void or limit enforcement of the excessive interest term, from criminal usury, which applies to the most extreme rates or to lending carried out as an organized criminal enterprise.
Facts
Classification CodeUsury carries both a moral and a legal sense: morally the term condemns taking advantage of a borrower's misfortune, while legally it names the specific offense of charging an interest rate in excess of the maximum rate that is allowed by law, an offense that exists only where such a ceiling is set by statute. 1 Typical PenaltyPenalties for usury can be severe where the conduct is criminalized: Hong Kong's Money Lenders Ordinance makes an offender liable on summary conviction to a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for 2 years, with a substantially higher fine and longer prison term available on conviction on indictment. 1 Elements of OffenseThe offense turns entirely on a jurisdiction's own statutory ceiling rather than any fixed international threshold: in the United States each state has its own statute dictating how much interest can be charged before it is considered usurious or unlawful. 1 Notable ExampleUsury accusations have carried severe historical consequences: England's 1290 Edict of Expulsion, which ordered all Jews expelled from the kingdom, cited usury as its official justification. 1 Jurisdiction VariationStatutory ceilings vary sharply by jurisdiction: Hong Kong's Money Lenders Ordinance prohibits lending at an effective interest rate beyond 48% a year unless the lender is exempted, while Canada's Criminal Code sets a lower ceiling, limiting the interest rate to 35% a year. 1 Classification
Offense Grade Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Usury (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIntroduction, legal sense clause
an interest rate is charged in excess of the maximum rate that is allowed by law
United States section, state statutes
Each U.S. state has its own statute that dictates how much interest can be charged before it is considered usurious or unlawful.
Hong Kong section, interest rate cap
prohibits lending at an effective interest rate beyond 48% unless exempted
Canada section, Criminal Code cap
Canada's Criminal Code limits the interest rate to 35% per year.
England section, 1290 Edict of Expulsion
Usury was cited as the official reason for the Edict of Expulsion.
Hong Kong section, summary conviction penalty
a fine of $500,000 and to imprisonment for 2 years
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