218
Opinion of the Court
ices, or an extension, renewal, or refinancing of credit, to the extent obtained by . . . false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud."
The most straightforward reading of § 523(a)(2)(A) is that it prevents discharge of "any debt" respecting "money, property, services, or . . . credit" that the debtor has fraudulently obtained, including treble damages assessed on account of the fraud. See Field v. Mans, 516 U. S. 59, 61, 64 (1995) (describing § 523(a)(2)(A) as barring discharge of debts "resulting from" or "traceable to" fraud). First, an obligation to pay treble damages satisfies the threshold condition that it constitute a "debt." A "debt" is defined in the Code as "liability on a claim," § 101(12), a "claim" is defined in turn as a "right to payment," § 101(5)(A), and a "right to payment," we have said, "is nothing more nor less than an enforceable obligation." Pennsylvania Dept. of Public Welfare v. Davenport, 495 U. S. 552, 559 (1990). Those definitions "reflec[t] Congress' broad . . . view of the class of obligations that qualify as a 'claim' giving rise to a 'debt,' " id., at 558, and they plainly encompass treble damages: An award of treble damages is an "enforceable obligation" of the debtor, and the creditor has a corresponding "right to payment."
Moreover, the phrase "to the extent obtained by" in § 523(a)(2)(A), as the Court of Appeals recognized, does not impose any limitation on the extent to which "any debt" arising from fraud is excepted from discharge. "[T]o the extent obtained by" modifies "money, property, services, or . . . credit"—not "any debt"—so that the exception encompasses "any debt . . . for money, property, services, or . . . credit, to the extent [that the money, property, services, or . . . credit is] obtained by" fraud. The phrase thereby makes clear that the share of money, property, etc., that is obtained by fraud gives rise to a nondischargeable debt. Once it is established that specific money or property has been obtained by fraud, however, "any debt" arising therefrom is excepted from dis-
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