What Is the Maximum Criminal Penalty Per Violation Per Day?

The maximum criminal fine per violation per day under federal law depends on which statute was broken. Under the Clean Water Act, a knowing violation can carry up to $50,000 for every day it continues, plus up to three years in prison per count.¹ When the specific criminal law is silent on amount, the general federal fine statute caps most individual felonies at $250,000 per offense, and most organizational felonies at $500,000, unless a court applies the alternative gain-or-loss multiplier that can push the fine far higher.² The danger of per-day penalties is arithmetic. A violation that persists for weeks or months produces a total that dwarfs what most people picture when they hear “maximum penalty.”

When Each Day Counts as a Separate Offense

Some criminal statutes treat every day of ongoing illegal conduct as its own violation. Instead of a single punishment for a single act, the law stacks penalties for each day the conduct continues. The structure appears most often in environmental and regulatory crimes, where harm compounds with time. A company that discharges pollutants illegally for 30 days doesn’t face one fine. It faces 30.

Courts don’t apply this doctrine freely. The Supreme Court held in Toussie v. United States that a crime should be treated as “continuing” only when the statute’s language compels that reading or the nature of the conduct clearly demands it. A one-time failure to register, for instance, is a single offense even if the person remains unregistered for years. Active, ongoing pollution or sustained regulatory noncompliance typically does qualify, because each day brings fresh harm.

Per-Day Criminal Fines in the Major Environmental Statutes

A handful of federal environmental laws write per-day criminal fines directly into the statute. These are the base figures Congress enacted. Inflation adjustments apply to civil penalties but generally not to criminal fines keyed to Title 18.

Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act draws a sharp line between negligent and intentional conduct. A negligent violation of a discharge permit or water-quality standard carries a criminal fine between $2,500 and $25,000 per day, plus up to one year in prison. A repeat negligent offender faces up to $50,000 per day and two years.¹

Knowing violations jump to $5,000 to $50,000 per day, with up to three years in prison. A second conviction doubles the maximum to $100,000 per day and six years.¹ A factory that knowingly violated its permit for six months reaches a potential criminal fine north of $9 million before any prison time is factored in.

Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act works differently. Instead of naming a dollar-per-day figure, the statute punishes knowing violations with “a fine pursuant to Title 18” plus up to five years in prison. A second conviction doubles both the fine and the prison term.³ Each day of a continuing violation can be charged as a separate count, and each count carries the Title 18 maximum of $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for an organization. The cumulative exposure still climbs quickly.

Hazardous Waste Under RCRA

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act reaches anyone who knowingly transports, stores, treats, or disposes of hazardous waste without a permit or outside permit conditions. Criminal penalties include fines under Title 18 and imprisonment of two to five years for most violations, rising to as much as 15 years for conduct that places another person in imminent danger of death or serious injury.⁴ As with the Clean Air Act, prosecutors can charge each day of ongoing illegal storage or disposal as its own count.

The Default Fines When a Statute Is Silent

If the criminal statute at issue doesn’t set its own fine, 18 U.S.C. § 3571 fills the gap. The maximum fine for an individual is the greatest of the amount the offense statute names, the gain-or-loss alternative, or these defaults:²

Felony: up to $250,000
Misdemeanor resulting in death: up to $250,000
Class A misdemeanor without death: up to $100,000
Class B or C misdemeanor without death: up to $5,000
Infraction: up to $5,000

Organizations face higher ceilings: $500,000 for a felony or a misdemeanor resulting in death, $200,000 for a Class A misdemeanor, and $10,000 for lesser misdemeanors and infractions.² These numbers are the floor for penalty exposure, not the ceiling, because the alternative-fine provision and per-day stacking can push the total much higher.

The Alternative Fine: Twice the Gain or Twice the Loss

The most overlooked provision in federal sentencing sits in 18 U.S.C. § 3571(d). If the defendant profited from the crime, or someone else lost money because of it, the court can impose a fine of up to twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss, whichever is larger.² This provision overrides the standard caps whenever the gain or loss produces a higher number.

This is where per-day violations turn financially devastating. If a company saved $10 million by ignoring pollution controls for a year, the alternative fine alone can reach $20 million, on top of the per-day criminal fines the environmental statute itself imposes. A court will skip this calculation only if applying it would unduly complicate or prolong sentencing.

How Daily Counts Translate to Prison Time

When prosecutors charge each day of a continuing violation as a separate count, the prison math shifts too. Federal law gives judges discretion to run sentences concurrently (served at the same time) or consecutively (served back-to-back). Multiple sentences imposed at the same time default to running concurrently unless the court orders otherwise or the statute requires consecutive terms.⁵

Judges weigh the seriousness of each offense, the defendant’s history, and the need to protect the public when deciding whether sentences stack. The federal sentencing guidelines provide a method for grouping related counts so the total doesn’t become absurdly disproportionate to the underlying conduct. For truly egregious ongoing violations, though, consecutive sentences remain on the table, and even partial stacking can produce decades of prison exposure.

What Moves the Actual Sentence Up or Down

Statutory maximums set the ceiling. The sentence a judge actually imposes depends on case-specific considerations. Federal sentencing law directs courts to weigh the nature and seriousness of the offense, the defendant’s history, the need to deter similar conduct, and the goal of protecting the public.⁶ The guidelines allow departures from the recommended range when aggravating or mitigating circumstances weren’t adequately accounted for. A defendant who cooperated, implemented a compliance program, or self-reported the violation may receive a sentence well below the maximum. A defendant who obstructed the investigation or had prior convictions may land close to it.

Organizations face a separate framework. The sentencing guidelines start with a base fine tied to the offense and adjust it using a “culpability score.” Four factors push the penalty up: tolerance of criminal activity by management, prior violations, disobeying court orders, and obstruction. Two push it down: an effective compliance and ethics program, and self-reporting combined with cooperation.⁷ For per-day violations, this multiplier applies to the already-accumulated total. The difference between a strong compliance program and a weak one can be tens of millions of dollars.

Civil Per-Day Penalties Are a Separate Track

One frequent source of confusion: civil and criminal per-day penalties can apply to the same conduct, but they travel through different legal processes and carry very different numbers.

Civil penalties under environmental statutes are adjusted annually for inflation. As of 2025, the EPA’s inflation-adjusted civil penalty under the Clean Air Act reaches $124,426 per day per violation, and the Clean Water Act civil penalty reaches $68,445 per day.⁸ These are the large per-day figures that show up in enforcement headlines. They require only a preponderance of evidence, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If you’ve seen the $124,426 figure quoted as the Clean Air Act’s maximum per-day penalty, that’s the civil number, not the criminal one.

Criminal per-day fines are typically lower in their statutory base amounts but carry the added threat of prison time and a criminal record. In serious cases, prosecutors pursue both tracks: civil penalties to recover the economic benefit of noncompliance, and criminal charges to punish and deter. The combined exposure can dwarf what either system would produce alone.

Fines Aren’t Deductible

Criminal fines and penalties paid to a government for breaking the law are not tax deductible. The Internal Revenue Code bars any deduction for amounts paid “in relation to the violation of any law or the investigation or inquiry” into a potential violation.⁹ That rule applies whether the payment comes from a court judgment, a plea agreement, or any other arrangement.

A narrow exception exists for restitution and amounts paid to come into compliance with the law. If a court order or settlement agreement specifically identifies a payment as restitution or a compliance cost, and the defendant can document that the payment actually served that purpose, the amount may be deductible.⁹ Amounts paid voluntarily in lieu of a fine never qualify, no matter how the paperwork describes them. For a company facing millions in accumulated per-day fines, non-deductibility adds roughly 21 cents of after-tax cost to every dollar paid.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 33 US Code 1319 – Enforcement
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3571 – Sentence of Fine
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 7413 – Federal Enforcement
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 6928 – Federal Enforcement
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3584 – Implementation of a Sentence of Imprisonment
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 3553 – Imposition of a Sentence
7
United States Sentencing Commission. Chapter 8 Sentencing of Organizations
8
eCFR. 40 CFR 19.4 – Statutory Civil Monetary Penalties, as Adjusted for Inflation
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 162 – Trade or Business Expenses