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Conspiracy Charges in Federal White Collar Cases
The Function of Conspiracy in Federal Prosecution Conspiracy is the charge that makes every other count in a white collar indictment more dangerous. It does not describe a separate act of wrongdoing so much as it describes the architecture of the wrongdoing itself, the agreement between persons that precedes, accompanies, and outlasts the substantive offense. […]
read moreFederal Customs Violations: Import/Export Crime Defense
The phone call from a customs broker is not the beginning. By the time a business owner receives notice that Customs and Border Protection has flagged an entry, the investigation has been underway for weeks, sometimes months, conducted through data analysis and cross-referencing that the importer never perceives until the consequences arrive. Federal customs violations […]
read moreFederal Firearms Offenses: Charges
Federal Firearms Offenses: Charges The federal government does not treat a firearms charge as an accessory to something else. It treats the firearm as the crime. This distinction, which most defendants do not perceive until the indictment is already filed, determines the trajectory of everything that follows: the court, the sentencing range, the absence of […]
read moreGrand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum: What Documents Must I Produce?
The subpoena duces tecum does not ask whether you possess relevant documents. It presumes that you do. The distinction matters, because the response you fashion in the first seventy-two hours will determine not only what the government receives but what it is permitted to use against you, your employees, and anyone whose name surfaces in […]
read moreCan I Refuse to Testify Before a Federal Grand Jury?
Can I Refuse to Testify Before a Federal Grand Jury? You cannot refuse the subpoena. You may, under certain conditions, refuse to answer specific questions. The distance between those two facts is where most people lose their footing, and where the consequences of misunderstanding become severe. The impulse to treat a grand jury subpoena as […]
read moreHow to Quash a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena
How to Quash a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena A federal grand jury subpoena carries a presumption of regularity that most recipients do not understand until it is too late to alter their position. The Supreme Court confirmed as much in United States v. R. Enterprises, where the burden of demonstrating that compliance would be unreasonable […]
read moreSafety Valve Provisions: Avoiding Mandatory Minimums in Drug Cases
Safety Valve Provisions: Avoiding Mandatory Minimums in Drug Cases The Criterion Nobody Prepares For The five requirements for safety valve relief under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) are not, in practice, equally difficult to satisfy. Four of them are matters of record: criminal history, the absence of violence, no death or serious bodily injury, no leadership […]
read moreFBI Search Warrant at My Home or Business: Your Rights
FBI Search Warrant at Your Home or Business: Your Rights The search warrant is not the beginning of the investigation. It is, in almost every case we encounter, confirmation that an investigation has been underway for months or years in silence. By the time federal agents arrive at a residence or place of business, the […]
read moreHow to Get a 5K1.1 Motion for Sentence Reduction
How to Get a 5K1.1 Motion for Sentence Reduction The Government’s Motion, Not Yours The single most consequential fact about a 5K1.1 motion is the one most defendants learn too late: you cannot file it yourself. Only the government can request this departure. Only the prosecutor decides whether your cooperation qualifies as substantial. Only the […]
read moreFederal Grand Jury Subpoenas
Federal Grand Jury Subpoenas The federal grand jury subpoena communicates more than most recipients perceive on first reading. Before the envelope is opened, before counsel is retained, before the words “Fifth Amendment” enter the conversation, the government has already determined that a person possesses something it requires: testimony, documents, or both. The subpoena is not […]
read moreShould I Respond to a Target Letter Without a Lawyer?
The answer to this question has already been decided for you, though not in the way you might expect. A federal target letter is not a request for your side of the story. It is a document whose purpose is to set a process in motion, and that process does not require your participation to […]
read moreVermont Federal Criminal Defense
Vermont Federal Criminal Defense The Small Docket Problem The District of Vermont prosecutes fewer federal criminal cases than nearly any district in the country, and that is precisely what makes it dangerous. A defendant in the Southern District of New York is one file among hundreds. A defendant in Vermont is one among perhaps eighty. […]
read moreIRS Criminal Investigation: Tax Crime Investigation Defense
IRS Criminal Investigation: Tax Crime Investigation Defense The Conviction Rate and What It Permits An 89 percent conviction rate should end most conversations about whether to cooperate with IRS Criminal Investigation. It does not. The number, drawn from IRS-CI’s own fiscal year 2025 annual report, reflects the agency’s selectivity more than its strength: CI initiates […]
read moreDEA Investigation Defense: Responding to Drug Enforcement Agents
DEA Investigation Defense: Responding to Drug Enforcement Agents The investigation is over before you know it has begun. The agents who appear at your door are not beginning their work; they are confirming what months of database analysis, prescription monitoring, and financial review have already suggested. You do not know what they know, and that […]
read moreFBI Investigation Defense: What to Do When Contacted by FBI
Most federal prosecutions do not begin with an arrest. They begin with a conversation the defendant believed was voluntary. The business card left in a doorframe, the voicemail requesting a callback about “a matter,” the pair of agents waiting in a parking lot who assure you this will only take a moment: each of these […]
read moreFederal Drug Task Force Investigations: Multi-Agency Prosecutions
Federal Drug Task Force Investigations: Multi-Agency Prosecutions The arrest is the last thing that happens. In a federal drug task force investigation, by the time agents appear at a door, the government has already recorded the conversations, mapped the associations, catalogued the financial transactions, and constructed a prosecution theory designed to produce a conviction. The […]
read moreFederal Drug Wiretap Cases: Title III Interceptions
Federal Drug Wiretap Cases: Title III Interceptions The necessity requirement is where federal wiretap cases are won or lost, and it is the part of Title III that most defendants never hear about until the suppression deadline has passed. Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act imposes on the government a […]
read moreFederal Drug Airport Cases: TSA and DEA Interdiction
The Difference Between a Screening and a Search The distinction between a TSA screening and a law enforcement search is the distinction upon which most federal airport drug cases either survive or collapse. One is an administrative procedure conducted under statutory authority to detect weapons and explosives. The other is a Fourth Amendment event that […]
read moreWithdrawal From Conspiracy
Withdrawal From Conspiracy Withdrawal from a federal conspiracy presupposes guilt. The defendant who raises this defense concedes participation in the agreement and argues, instead, that he took affirmative steps to sever his connection to the enterprise before the conduct he now seeks to avoid reached its conclusion. The distinction matters because most defendants and, if […]
read moreFDA Misbranding Criminal
Criminal Liability for FDA Misbranding A corporate officer can be sentenced to federal prison for a violation she did not commit, did not authorize, and did not know was occurring beneath her. Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, this outcome is not aberrational. It is the operating principle of a statute whose criminal […]
read moreIndiana Federal Crime Defense
Indiana Federal Crime Defense Most people charged with a federal crime in Indiana have already lost the case by the time they retain counsel. The government investigated for months, sometimes years, before the sealed indictment or the arrest at dawn. A defendant who contacts an attorney after being taken into custody is responding to a […]
read morePrescription Pills Without Script
Prescription Pills Without a Prescription in New York Possession of a single prescription pill without the corresponding prescription constitutes a criminal offense in New York. The statute does not distinguish between a person who purchased oxycodone from a stranger and a person who accepted a Xanax from a colleague during a difficult afternoon. Under Penal […]
read moreFirst Appearance Federal Court
First Appearance in Federal Court The pretrial services report will reach the magistrate before you do. That document, assembled from an interview most defendants regard as routine, contains the court’s first and often most durable impression of who you are, what the government believes you have done, and whether you can be trusted to return. […]
read moreDetention Hearing Strategy
Detention Hearing Strategy: Preparation, Presumptions, and the Seventy-Two Hours That Determine Everything Most defendants are detained because their attorneys treated the hearing as an argument rather than a presentation. The distinction is not minor. An argument responds to the government’s case. A presentation constructs an alternative reality in which release is the only rational conclusion, […]
read moreTrucking Company Federal Violations
When FMCSA Comes for the Owner The owner of a trucking company does not go to federal prison for a brake violation. He goes to prison for what the brake violation permitted to happen, and for the paper trail that proves he could have prevented it. That distinction, between the violation itself and the architecture […]
read moreFederal Sentencing Guidelines for COVID Loan Fraud
Federal Sentencing Guidelines for COVID Loan Fraud The sentence you receive for PPP fraud is not determined by the money you received. It is determined by the money you requested. Under USSG §2B1.1, the federal guideline governing fraud and theft offenses, courts apply the greater of actual loss or intended loss when calculating a defendant’s […]
read moreFINRA Wells Notice Explained
FINRA Wells Notice Explained The Disclosure Obligation The Wells Notice creates a record before it creates a case. For a registered representative, the written confirmation from FINRA that formal disciplinary action is under consideration triggers a Form U4 amendment, which populates BrokerCheck, which becomes visible to clients, prospective employers, and anyone with a browser and […]
read moreHow to Respond to FINRA 8210 Request
How to Respond to a FINRA Rule 8210 Request The letter arrives, and the career you have constructed over a decade or two decades becomes, in a legal sense, conditional. A FINRA Rule 8210 request is not a courtesy. It is a demand issued under authority broad enough to compel your testimony, your documents, and […]
read moreFINRA vs. SEC Investigation
FINRA vs. SEC Investigation: What Securities Professionals Must Understand Before Responding The letter arrives, and the professional who receives it has already lost something, though what exactly depends on decisions that have not yet been made. Whether the envelope contains a FINRA Rule 8210 request or an SEC subpoena, the recipient is now operating inside […]
read moreCan FINRA Bar Me From the Industry?
Can FINRA Bar Me From the Industry? The bar is permanent. Under FINRA Rule 8310 and Section 15A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority possesses the authority to expel an individual from associating with any member firm, in any capacity, without a defined endpoint. A censure fades. A fine […]
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