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Federal Warrant Requirements: Challenging Federal Search Warrants

Federal Warrant Requirements: Challenging Federal Search Warrants The warrant that authorized the search of your property may be the single most important document in your case, and the government is counting on the possibility that no one will read it with care. Most motions to suppress evidence in federal court do not succeed. The reasons […]

Should I Cooperate With Federal Agents About My COVID Loan?

Cooperation Is the Second Question The distinction between a civil settlement and a federal indictment, in most COVID loan cases, turns on what the borrower said before retaining counsel. That sentence should concern you. Not because cooperation is inherently dangerous, and not because silence is inherently safe, but because the decision to speak or to […]

How Long Does a PPP Fraud Investigation Take?

How Long Does a PPP Fraud Investigation Take? The Investigation That Already Ended The federal investigation into your Paycheck Protection Program loan has, in all probability, already concluded its most consequential phase before you became aware it existed. Most business owners who contact a defense attorney with this question are not asking about the future. […]

Received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) for My EIDL Loan: Now What?

Received a Civil Investigative Demand for My EIDL Loan: Now What? The Government Already Has a Theory A Civil Investigative Demand does not arrive because someone at the Department of Justice is curious. It arrives because a theory has been constructed, evidence has been gathered to support that theory, and what remains is confirmation. The […]

Can I Talk to the SBA Inspector General Without an Attorney?

Can I Talk to the SBA Inspector General Without an Attorney? You can. The question is whether you should, and the answer, in the overwhelming majority of circumstances, is no. The SBA Office of Inspector General does not telephone a business owner to discuss a misunderstanding. By the time an OIG special agent contacts you, […]

Immigration Detention: Your Rights When Arrested by ICE

Immigration Detention: Your Rights When Arrested by ICE The right that matters most during an encounter with ICE is the one most people surrender before they comprehend that they possess it. Silence. Not the performed silence of someone who has been coached but the constitutional variety, the Fifth Amendment protection that applies to every person […]

Backdated Documents for PPP Application: Legal Consequences

Backdated Documents for PPP Applications: Legal Consequences The Document That Confesses for You A backdated document is not a lie told to a lender. It is a confession preserved in a file, addressed to a prosecutor you have not yet met, sealed with metadata you did not know existed. The business owner who alters a […]

Federal Immunity Agreements: Use and Derivative Use Immunity

Federal Immunity Agreements: Use and Derivative Use Immunity The Protection That Permits Prosecution The immunity agreement is the federal government’s most effective instrument for compelling testimony it could not otherwise obtain, and its most reliable method for preserving the right to prosecute the very person who provides it. One does not exclude the other. That […]

Federal Sex Crime Conspiracy Charges: Enterprise Prosecutions

Federal Sex Crime Conspiracy Charges: Enterprise Prosecutions The Enterprise That Was Not The most consequential sex trafficking prosecution in recent federal history concluded last July with an acquittal on the charges that mattered most. Sean Combs was cleared of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. He was convicted of two counts […]

Honest Mistake vs. Fraud: Building Your Defense

Honest Mistake vs. Fraud: Building Your Defense What Prosecutors Believe Before You Speak Every fraud prosecution is, at its foundation, a story about what the defendant understood and when the understanding arrived. The facts matter. The timeline matters. But the federal government does not charge people for making errors on a form or misreading a […]

Can a Target Letter Be Avoided? Early Intervention Strategies

Can a Target Letter Be Avoided? Early Intervention Strategies The Letter Was Never the Beginning The federal investigation concluded months before the envelope arrived. Or, if we are being precise, it concluded in the sense that mattered: the government had already fashioned its theory, assembled its witnesses, and reduced whatever you did or did not […]

What Is a Federal Target Letter and Why Did I Get One?

What Is a Federal Target Letter and Why Did I Get One? The Letter Most People Never Receive Most individuals the federal government indicts are never told it is coming. The letter in your possession is, in that respect, an anomaly. No provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure compels a prosecutor to inform […]

Federal Grand Jury Subpoena: Responding to Testimony Demands

The subpoena does not ask whether you are willing. That distinction is the first one most recipients fail to grasp, and it governs everything that follows. A federal grand jury subpoena arrives without warning and without regard for the recipient’s calendar, emotional state, or understanding of what a grand jury does. The document itself is […]

Federal Insider Trading Defense: SEC Enforcement and Criminal Charges

Federal Insider Trading Defense: SEC Enforcement and Criminal Charges The Charge That Arrives Twice Insider trading is prosecuted as two proceedings against the same person for the same conduct. The SEC constructs the civil case. The Department of Justice, working from the same trading data and often the same witness testimony, constructs the criminal one. […]

I Received an FBI Target Letter — What Should I Do Now?

I Received an FBI Target Letter: What Should I Do Now? A federal target letter is the government’s admission that it does not yet possess what it needs to prosecute you. That distinction, between what the government believes and what the government can prove, is the only space in which a defense can be constructed […]

Is My Phone Wiretapped?

Is My Phone Wiretapped? The person most likely to surveil your phone is someone you know. Not a federal agent in an operations room, not an intelligence analyst reviewing your metadata for patterns of interest, but a spouse, a former partner, a business associate who remembered your iCloud password from a quieter time. The question […]

What Should I Do When the DEA Shows Up at My Pharmacy?

What Should I Do When the DEA Shows Up at My Pharmacy? The Piece of Paper That Ends Careers The form they present you is not an invitation. It is DEA Form 82, the Notice of Inspection of Controlled Premises, and the six rights printed on its face are the last constitutional protections you will […]

NYC DEA Defense Lawyers

Will I Go to Jail If the DEA Investigates My Practice?

Most practitioners who receive a visit from the DEA will not see the inside of a federal courtroom, let alone a federal prison. That sentence will not comfort you if agents arrived at your office this morning. It is, if we are being precise, not meant to comfort. It is meant to calibrate. At Spodek […]

Can The Government Break Proffer Agreements

The Contract the Government Already Plans to Leave Professional agreements with the government dissolve not because the sovereign lacks the capacity to honor them, but because it possesses a particular authority that most private parties do not: the power to terminate a contract it finds inconvenient and to characterize that termination as a matter of […]

What Is a Pill Mill?

What Is a Pill Mill? The term appears nowhere in the Controlled Substances Act. One will not locate it in the Code of Federal Regulations, in any federal indictment, or in the text of a single statute governing controlled substance distribution. “Pill mill” is an accusation, not a legal category, and the distance between the […]

FBI Took My Phone

FBI Took My Phone Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is answering the question behind the question. If you’re searching “FBI took my phone,” you’re probably thinking about how to get it back. When you can expect it returned. How inconvenient life is without your contacts, your photos, your apps. But that’s the wrong […]

Target Letter PPP Fraud

Target Letter PPP Fraud You received a target letter about your PPP loan. Your first instinct is relief – finally, you’re being told what’s happening. You have advance notice. You have time to prepare, to explain, to hire a lawyer and mount a defense. Here’s what nobody explains: the target letter isn’t advance notice. By […]

PPP Loan Preparer Under Investigation

PPP Loan Preparer Under Investigation You just learned that your PPP preparer is “under investigation.” Maybe you saw it in the news. Maybe someone told you. Maybe you got a strange phone call. Your first instinct is that this is early warning – you have time to figure out what’s going on, time to prepare, […]

If My Tax Preparer Did My PPP Am I Liable

If My Tax Preparer Did My PPP Am I Liable You had your tax preparer handle your PPP application. They calculated the payroll numbers. They filled out the forms. They submitted everything electronically. You figured that was their job – that’s why you paid them. If something was wrong with the application, that’s their problem. […]

Can I Get in Trouble If Someone Else Prepared My PPP

Can I Get in Trouble If Someone Else Prepared My PPP You didn’t fill out the PPP application yourself. Someone else did. Maybe a friend who “knew the system.” Maybe a family member who helped other people get approved. Maybe someone you found on Instagram or Telegram who charged a fee. You’re thinking this gives […]

Person Who Helped Me With PPP Loan Arrested

Person Who Helped Me With PPP Loan Arrested The person who helped you with your PPP loan just got arrested. You saw it on the news, or someone called to tell you, or you found out scrolling social media. Your first thought is that this is the beginning of a problem – that the investigation […]

Civil Investigative Demand PPP

Civil Investigative Demand PPP You received a Civil Investigative Demand about your PPP loan. The word “civil” is right there in the name. Your first instinct is relief – this isn’t criminal, it’s just a civil matter, some kind of regulatory inquiry. Here’s what nobody explains: the Civil Investigative Demand is how criminal cases begin. […]

FBI Raided My House

FBI Raided My House Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is answering the question behind the question. If you’re searching “FBI raided my house,” the chaos just happened. Agents are gone now. Your home is destroyed. Your belongings are scattered. Your sense of safety is shattered. And you’re trying to figure out what just […]

Womply PPP Loans Investigation

Womply PPP Loans Investigation You used Womply because it was everywhere. Millions of small businesses. Easy application. “PPP Fast Lane” – the name promised speed. You thought a company that big, that visible, that integrated into the banking system had to be legitimate. Here’s what nobody explains: Womply processed over 1 million PPP loans. Their […]