The good faith defense is a defense to charges involving fraud because good faith on the part of the person charged is not consistent with intent to defraud or willfulness. Intent or willfulness is an essential part of a fraud charge

The burden of proving good faith is not on the person charged, of course; he has no burden of proving anything. The Government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted with specific intent to defraud as charged.

A person who expresses an honest opinion or a belief cannot be charged with fraudulent intent even if the opinion was incorrect or the belief mistaken.  As such, evidence showing that a person was careless, made an error in management, or made a mistake in judgment is not sufficient to establish fraudulent intent.