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18 U.S.C. § 1001: Why Lying to Federal Agents Is a Crime
18 U.S.C. § 1001: Why Lying to Federal Agents Is a Crime The statute that prosecutes lying to federal agents has ended more careers than the crimes it was designed to investigate. Martha Stewart did not go to prison for insider trading. Michael Flynn did not plead guilty to anything involving foreign policy. Both were […]
read moreThe Right to Remain Silent in Federal Investigations
The Right to Remain Silent in Federal Investigations Silence, in a federal investigation, is not a condition one falls into. It is a position one must claim aloud, with precise language, at a precise moment, or it ceases to exist as a constitutional protection at all. The Supreme Court made this clear in Salinas v. […]
read moreHow Long After a Target Letter Will I Be Indicted?
How Long After a Target Letter Will I Be Indicted? The question contains its own misunderstanding. A target letter does not begin a process. It arrives near the conclusion of one. Federal prosecutors do not compose these letters at the outset of an investigation; they compose them after months of evidence collection, witness interviews, subpoena […]
read moreFederal Arson Charges: Federal Property Arson
Federal Arson Charges: Federal Property Arson Five years is the floor. That is the mandatory minimum sentence for federal arson under 18 U.S.C. § 844(f), and it applies whether the fire consumed a federal courthouse or singed a government mailbox in an unattended lot. The statute does not distinguish between the two. The sentencing guidelines […]
read moreFederal Assault on Federal Officer: LEO Assault Charges
Federal Assault on a Federal Officer: What Section 111 Charges Mean and What They Require The charge attaches faster than most defendants expect, and the statute that governs it is broader than its title implies. Under 18 U.S.C. § 111, the federal government prosecutes conduct that ranges from a threatening gesture during a warrant execution […]
read moreNew York City Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers
Federal Criminal Defense in New York City The case is not decided at trial. In the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the case is decided in the months before the indictment is unsealed, in a series of conversations that most defendants do not know are occurring until the conversations have already concluded. A […]
read moreFederal Gang Conspiracy Charges: Street Gang Prosecutions
Federal Gang Conspiracy Charges: Street Gang Prosecutions The federal government does not prosecute street gangs the way the public imagines. It constructs conspiracies. What the evening news presents as a coordinated sweep of a criminal organization is, in the courtroom, an exercise in statutory architecture: RICO, VICAR, Pinkerton liability, and the conspiracy provisions of Title […]
read moreGrand Jury Subpoena for PPP Loan Documents: What to Do
Grand Jury Subpoena for PPP Loan Documents: What to Do The subpoena you received is not the beginning of the investigation. It is closer to the end. By the time a federal grand jury issues a subpoena duces tecum for Paycheck Protection Program loan records, prosecutors have already obtained your bank’s copies of everything you […]
read moreWhat Is the Penalty for Lying on a PPP Loan Application?
What Is the Penalty for Lying on a PPP Loan Application? The penalties are federal, they are accumulating, and they have not begun to slow down. In February 2026, a judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania sentenced the last of four defendants in an $11.5 million PPP and EIDL fraud conspiracy to eight years […]
read moreFlorida Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers
Florida Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers The Southern District of Florida convicts at a rate that leaves little room for the underprepared. Across all three federal districts in this state, the government’s resources, its institutional patience, and its willingness to construct cases over years before a single charge is filed distinguish federal prosecution from anything a […]
read moreMoney Laundering Charges for Misusing PPP Funds
Money Laundering Charges for Misusing PPP Funds The fraud charge is not the one that determines the sentence. In case after case, federal prosecutors have demonstrated that the act of spending misappropriated PPP funds, not the act of obtaining them, produces the counts that carry the most severe exposure. A defendant who submitted a single […]
read moreFalse Statements Charge (18 USC 1001) for SBA Loan Fraud
False Statements Charge (18 USC 1001) for SBA Loan Fraud The Interview as Prosecution The charge most likely to attach to your SBA loan case is not the one you are preparing for. Business owners who applied for PPP or EIDL funding between 2020 and 2022 tend to assume their exposure begins and ends with […]
read moreCPA or Loan Preparer Made Errors: Am I Still Liable?
CPA or Loan Preparer Made Errors: Am I Still Liable? The signature on the return is yours. The liability, under federal law, follows the signature, not the hand that prepared the document. This is the answer most people do not wish to receive, and it is the answer that governs every conversation that follows: when […]
read moreHow to Handle an SBA Subpoena for PPP Loan Records
How to Handle an SBA Subpoena for PPP Loan Records Immediate Response to the Subpoena The subpoena is not the beginning of the investigation. It is, in most cases we have encountered, confirmation that the inquiry has been underway for months, conducted under Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, using records your […]
read moreI Was Served a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena — Now What?
I Was Served a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena: Now What A federal grand jury subpoena is the one document in American law that compels your presence, your testimony, and whatever records the government has described in terms broad enough to ensure you cannot determine what falls outside the scope. It arrives without explanation. The sealed […]
read moreWhat Happens If I Lie to the SEC?
What Happens If I Lie to the SEC? The lie is almost always worse than whatever it was meant to conceal. That is the pattern federal prosecutors have recognized for decades, and it is the pattern that determines sentencing, career destruction, and whether a civil inquiry becomes a criminal prosecution. When a person provides false […]
read moreFBI Agents Showed Up at My Door — What Are My Rights?
FBI Agents Showed Up at My Door: What Are My Rights? The knock is voluntary. This is the single fact that reconfigures the encounter, and it is the fact that federal agents are trained to obscure. Before the door opens, before a word is exchanged, before the identification is presented or the business card offered, […]
read moreRICO Charges in Federal Court: What You’re Really Facing
RICO Charges in Federal Court: What You’re Really Facing The federal government does not bring a RICO case it expects to lose. Before the indictment reaches the courthouse, the case has already been reviewed and approved by the Organized Crime and Gang Section in Washington, which means a second set of attorneys has examined the […]
read moreHow the SEC Works With the DOJ
How the SEC Works With the DOJ The SEC cannot send anyone to prison. That limitation defines the entire architecture of federal securities enforcement and, in particular, the relationship between the Commission and the Department of Justice that most people under investigation fail to account for at the stage when accounting for it would change […]
read moreCan an SEC Investigation Lead to Criminal Charges?
Can an SEC Investigation Lead to Criminal Charges? The SEC cannot put anyone in prison. That limitation, which is statutory and absolute, provides less comfort than one might expect. The Commission’s Division of Enforcement conducts investigations, compels testimony, collects documents, and assembles case files with a thoroughness that would satisfy any federal prosecutor. It then […]
read moreSEC Parallel Proceedings: Civil and Criminal Investigations
SEC Parallel Proceedings: Civil and Criminal Investigations The person who cooperates most willingly with an SEC civil investigation is, in a considerable number of cases, the person who furnishes the evidence for their own criminal prosecution. This is not a paradox. It is the design of the system, and it has operated this way since […]
read moreWhat Factors Do Judges Consider in 5K1.1 Departures?
What Factors Do Judges Consider in 5K1.1 Departures? The five factors enumerated in Section 5K1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines are the least interesting thing about a 5K1.1 departure. Every federal practitioner can recite them. What separates a meaningful sentence reduction from a cosmetic one is how a particular judge, in a particular district, […]
read moreWho Attends a Federal Proffer Meeting?
The room where a federal proffer session convenes is smaller than most clients expect. A conference table at the United States Attorney’s Office, fluorescent lighting, no windows in some offices, and on the government’s side of that table, a concentration of investigative and prosecutorial authority that will determine, in the span of a few hours, […]
read moreLetter Agreements vs. Formal Cooperation Plea Agreements
The letter agreement and the formal cooperation plea agreement are two instruments that sound as if they belong to the same family, though the consequences of confusing them have proven, in case after case, to be severe and permanent. In federal practice, the progression from one to the other follows a sequence that is familiar […]
read moreShould I Cooperate With Federal Prosecutors? Pros and Cons
Should I Cooperate With Federal Prosecutors? The decision to cooperate with federal prosecutors is one you cannot reverse. Once you have entered a room with an assistant United States attorney, once you have begun to speak, the architecture of your defense changes in ways that no subsequent motion or strategic pivot can reconstruct. The information […]
read moreFederal Arraignment: What to Expect
Federal Arraignment: What to Expect Most of what determines the outcome of a federal arraignment occurs before the defendant enters the courtroom. The hearing itself, governed by Rule 10 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, is brief. In many districts it concludes in under thirty minutes. The charges are read or summarized, a plea […]
read moreTarget Letter vs. Grand Jury Subpoena: What’s the Difference?
Target Letter vs. Grand Jury Subpoena: What Is the Difference? The Paradox at the Threshold The document that announces worse news carries no legal authority whatsoever. A target letter from the United States Attorney’s Office informs you that a federal grand jury has gathered what prosecutors regard as substantial evidence of your involvement in a […]
read moreWhat Happens If I Lie to the SEC?
What Happens If I Lie to the SEC? The False Statement The lie does not need to be elaborate. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, a single false statement to an SEC enforcement attorney, delivered in what appears to be a routine interview, constitutes a federal crime carrying up to five years of imprisonment. The government […]
read moreSEC Civil Penalties Explained
SEC Civil Penalties Explained The penalty is never the point. The penalty is the instrument the Commission employs to extract something more durable than money: a change in conduct, a public record of wrongdoing, a signal to the market that certain behavior carries a cost the wrongdoer did not anticipate when the behavior seemed profitable. […]
read moreFederal Heroin Trafficking Charges: Your Defense Options
Federal Heroin Trafficking Charges: Your Defense Options The person who cooperates first receives the most favorable sentence, and the person who cooperates last receives, in most cases, the mandatory minimum the statute prescribes. This is the architecture of federal heroin prosecution under 21 U.S.C. § 841, and understanding it is the difference between a sentence […]
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