Counsel and procure are types of accomplice activity. Counseling and procuring a crime can lead to punishment under federal and state laws up to the punishment for the crime itself, but this is only if the person knowingly helped the person committing the underlying crime. The federal statute for accomplice liability states that whoever “aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal” (18. U.S.C. § 2).
While similar, counseling and procuring are different kinds of activity. Counseling refers to encouraging, soliciting, or giving useful information to the person committing the crime. Procuring, however, refers to assisting in getting the resources or creating the environment for another to commit the crime. For example, if a CEO is trying to create a Ponzi scheme, an employee would be an accomplice if they procured investors for the other person to steal from.
Notably, a person can only be liable for counseling and procuring if the prosecution can prove they knew of the crime being committed. In the example above, the employee recruiting investors would not be punishable as an accomplice for procuring the investors if they did not know that the CEO was committing fraud.
[Last updated in May of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]