Criminal Defense Lawyers

South Carolina Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers

South Carolina Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our mission is giving you the information you actually need – not the version that makes you feel better, but the version that might save you. Heres the truth about federal criminal defense in South Carolina that nobody wants to say out loud.

When federal agents contact you in South Carolina, your not at the beginning of a legal process. Your at the end of an investigation that started 18 to 36 months ago. The fight your thinking about starting has already been happening – you just werent in the room. Federal prosecutors in the District of South Carolina operate as a military-port-financial prosecution machine that spent years building evidence before you knew you were a target. By the time you receive that target letter or hear that knock on your door, they’ve already reviewed your bank records, interviewed your associates, collected your emails, and presented evidence to a grand jury that indicts 99.6% of the cases brought before it. Your not hiring a lawyer to fight charges. Your hiring someone to manage damage thats already done.

That changes everything about how you need to approach this. And if your attorney doesnt understand that timeline – if there treating this like it just started – your already in trouble.

The 99.6% Reality Nobody Mentions

Lets start with the number that shapes everything else in federal criminal court. The federal grand jury indictment rate is 99.6%. That means when federal prosecutors present evidence to a grand jury, the grand jury votes to indict in 996 out of every 1,000 cases. The system that was designed as a shield to protect citizens from unfounded prosecution became a rubber stamp.

Now heres the part that makes this worse. The overall federal conviction rate when you include plea deals is 99.6%. In fiscal year 2022, out of 71,954 federal defendants, only 290 were acquitted at trial. Thats a 0.4% acquittal rate. Let that sink in for a second. If you go to trial in federal court, you have a 99.6% chance of being convicted. Only about 2% of federal defendants even attempt to go to trial – the rest plead guilty because the math is devastating.

Your state court lawyer – the one who handled your DUI or that assault charge back in 2019 – has no idea how different this is. State prosecutors in South Carolina juggle hundreds of cases. They dismiss charges regularly. They plea down because they dont have resources to try everything. Federal prosecutors are the opposite. They cherry-pick cases they know they can win. They have the FBI, DEA, IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, ATF – unlimited investigative resources and years to build evidence before charging anyone.

The grand jury system was supposed to be your protection. It was created so that citizens – not just prosecutors – would decide if theres enough evidence to charge someone with a crime. But in federal court, only the prosecutor presents evidence. Theres no cross-examination. Your attorney cant enter the room. You cant present your side. The grand jury only hears what the prosecutor wants them to hear. And 99.6% of the time, they indict.

If your being contacted by federal authorities in South Carolina, understand this: they didnt knock on your door to investigate. They knocked because there already done investigating.

Port, Military, Financial: South Carolina’s Three Federal Machines

South Carolina isnt just one federal court handling random federal crimes. The District of South Carolina operates with three specific prosecution focuses that most people dont understand until there caught in one.

The Port of Charleston Drug Machine

First, the Port of Charleston. Its the 8th busiest container port in the United States. That economic engine your proud of? Its also the DEA’s 8th-busiest drug trafficking prosecution hub. Cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine – massive quantities come through Charleston in containers from overseas. And federal prosecutors have made port-related drug trafficking a priority.

Heres what happens. Lets say your a truck driver who picks up containers from the port. Maybe you know whats inside, maybe you dont. Maybe your being paid extra to not ask questions. When the DEA intercepts that container and finds 50 kilograms of cocaine, your not getting charged with delivering 50 kilograms. Your getting charged with conspiracy. And in a conspiracy case, your held responsible for the “reasonably foreseeable” quantity of drugs moved by the entire organization – not just what you personally touched. That truck driver who thought he was making $2,000 for one delivery ends up facing a mandatory 10-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute 500 kilograms because the organization he joined moved that amount over the course of the conspiracy.

Military Base Federal Jurisdiction

Second, South Carolinas military bases. Fort Jackson in Columbia. Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Beaufort. Charleston Air Force Base. These arent just military facilities – there federal enclaves were federal law applies even for crimes that would normally be state offenses.

The Assimilative Crimes Act allows federal prosecution of state-level crimes committed on federal property. That means if you get into a fight outside the gate at Fort Jackson, what should be a state misdemeanor assault becomes a federal crime. Simple drug possession on base? Federal. DUI on military property? Federal. The same conduct that would result in a plea deal and probation in state court becomes a federal conviction with sentencing guidelines, potential prison time, and lifetime consequences including deportation for non-citizens and security clearance loss.

Financial Crimes and SAR Triggers

Third, financial crimes. South Carolina federal prosecutors focus heavily on bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and pandemic relief fraud. The state saw massive prosecutions related to PPP loan fraud and EIDL fraud coming out of COVID relief programs. These cases often start with a Suspicious Activity Report filed by your bank. You make cash deposits that trigger reporting requirements. You structure transactions to avoid the $10,000 reporting threshold. You receive wire transfers that look unusual compared to your normal account activity.

That SAR goes to FinCEN. FinCEN refers it to IRS Criminal Investigation or the FBI. And then nothing happens. For 18 months. Two years. The entire time, agents are reviewing every transaction in your accounts going back years. There interviewing your business partners. There looking at your tax returns. Your building invoices. Your emails discussing transactions. And you have absolutely no idea its happening.

The Unified District Advantage

The District of South Carolina is the only federal district in the country that covers an entire state. Most states have multiple districts – Louisiana has three, New York has four. South Carolina has one. That creates a centralized prosecution machine. Federal prosecutors in Charleston coordinate with agents across the entire state. DEA agents working in Greenville feed cases to the same U.S. Attorneys office handling port prosecutions in Charleston. IRS-CI agents investigating financial crimes in Columbia work with the same prosecutors handling military base cases in Beaufort. Its a unified system, and your facing all of it.

The Investigation That Started Two Years Ago

Heres what most people get catastrophically wrong about federal criminal defense in South Carolina. They think the process starts when they get contacted. When they recieve the target letter. When agents knock on the door. When the search warrant gets executed. Thats not when it starts. Thats when it ends.

Federal investigations in South Carolina typically run 18 to 36 months before any contact with the target. Let me say that again. If your receiving a target letter in 2025, the investigation probly started in 2022 or 2023. The federal agents – FBI, DEA, IRS-CI, HSI – have been building the case for years. And they did it without telling you.

Heres how it actually works. Federal prosecutors dont investigate crimes. Agents do. The FBI investigates. The DEA investigates. IRS Criminal Investigation investigates. Then, after months or years of investigation, agents bring their findings to the Assistant U.S. Attorney and say “we have enough, should we charge?” The prosecutor reviews the completed investigation and decides whether to present it to the grand jury. If they present it, the grand jury indicts 99.6% of the time.

So what are they doing during those 18 to 36 months? Lets walk through a financial crime investigation as an example, because this is were the timeline really matters.

• Month 1: Your bank files a Suspicious Activity Report because you deposited $12,000 in cash twice in one month. Maybe its from your lawn care business. Maybe you sold a car. Doesnt matter. The SAR goes to FinCEN.
• Month 3-6: FinCEN reviews the SAR and refers it to IRS Criminal Investigation because it looks like potential tax evasion or money laundering. IRS-CI opens a case file.
• Month 6-12: Agents subpoena your bank records for the past five years. They dont need a warrant for this. They dont need to tell you. The bank cant tell you either – tipping off a subject of an investigation is a federal crime for the bank. Agents are now reviewing every deposit, every withdrawal, every wire transfer, every check you wrote for five years.
• Month 12-18: Agents interview people around you. Your business partner. Your accountant. People you did transactions with. These witnesses arent targets, so they talk freely. They make statements without realizing there building a case against you. Maybe they misremember dates. Maybe they speculate about your intentions. All of that gets documented in FBI 302 reports.
• Month 18-24: Agents get your emails. If you use Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook – any cloud email provider – they can subpoena years of emails without you knowing. The provider cant tip you off. Now agents are reading every email you sent discussing business, money, transactions. There looking for intent. There looking for knowledge. There looking for emails that, out of context, look incriminating.
• Month 24-30: Agents subpoena your phone records. Not the content of your calls, but the metadata – who you called, when, how long you talked. There building a web of your associations. If your phone number shows up calling someone there already investigating, that connects you to there case.
• Month 30-36: The investigation is complete. Agents have your financial records, your emails, your phone records, witness statements, and a timeline of conduct they believe is criminal. They present it to the AUSA. The AUSA decides theres enough evidence to charge. They present it to the grand jury. The grand jury indicts.

NOW you get the target letter. Or the knock on your door. Or the search warrant. And you think the process is just beginning. But your already two years behind. Every defense strategy your considering – gathering documents, explaining transactions, providing context – the prosecutors already have there version of all of it. They have emails you forgot you sent. They have statements from people who you didnt know were talking to the FBI. They’ve constructed a narrative, and its been solidifying for years while you had no idea anything was happening.

This is why early intervention matters so much in federal cases. If you recieve a target letter, your not early. Your late. But its not over yet. An experienced federal criminal defense attorney can sometimes intervene even before charges are filed. Can present mitigating evidence to prosecutors. Can shape the narrative before it gets set in stone. But that window is small, and it closes fast.

Conspiracy Math and Relevant Conduct

Lets talk about the two doctrines that make federal sentencing in South Carolina absolutely brutal for people who dont understand how far behind they are. Conspiracy liability and relevant conduct. These are the mechanisms that turn minor involvement into major prison time.

Conspiracy Liability Under 21 USC 841

Conspiracy liability is codified at 21 USC 841 for drug offenses and exists across almost every federal criminal statute. Heres what it means in practice. In a conspiracy, your held criminally responsible for the “reasonably foreseeable” conduct of your co-conspirators. Not just what you did. What they did. What the organization did. As long as it was in furtherance of the conspiracy and reasonably foreseeable to you.

Example. Your involved in a drug distribution operation in South Carolina. Maybe you made three deliveries. Each delivery was one kilogram of cocaine. So you personally handled three kilograms. But the organization you were working with moved 200 kilograms over two years. In a conspiracy prosecution, your sentence is based on 200 kilograms – not three – because the governments going to argue that you knew the organization was moving large quantities even if you didnt personally touch all of it. The difference between three kilograms and 200 kilograms under federal sentencing guidelines? About 15 years of prison time.

Now heres were the two-year investigation timeline becomes devastating. While the feds were investigating for 24 months, they were building the conspiracy case. They were wiretapping phones. They were following deliveries. They were documenting every transaction by every member of the organization. By the time they arrest you, they have evidence of the entire 200-kilogram conspiracy. Your co-defendants – the ones who got arrested six months before you did – already cooperated. They already gave statements implicating you in the broader conspiracy. The quantity is already established. Your walking into a case were the conspiracy math is already done, and your responsible for all of it.

Relevant Conduct Under USSG §1B1.3

Relevant conduct is the second doctrine, and its codified in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines at §1B1.3. It means that when calculating your sentence, the judge considers not just the conduct you were convicted of, but ALL conduct that was part of the same course of conduct or common scheme. Even conduct you were never charged with. Even conduct you were acquitted of at trial.

Example. Your charged with one count of wire fraud for a $50,000 PPP loan application. You go to trial. The government presents evidence of three other fraudulent loan applications totaling $200,000. Your convicted of the $50,000 charge. Your acquitted of the other three. At sentencing, the judge can still consider the $200,000 in acquitted conduct as “relevant conduct” when calculating your sentence. Your sentenced based on $250,000 in fraud, even though you were only convicted of $50,000.

The standard of proof for relevant conduct is preponderance of the evidence – more likely than not. Not beyond a reasonable doubt. Not the trial standard. So prosecutors can introduce uncharged conduct, acquitted conduct, conduct they never even tried to prove at trial – and as long as the judge thinks its more likely than not that you did it, it increases your sentence.

Now combine these two doctrines with the two-year investigation timeline. The feds spent two years documenting every aspect of your conduct. Every transaction. Every email. Every communication. Even if they only charge you with a fraction of it, all of that uncharged conduct becomes relevant conduct at sentencing. Your sentence is based on everything they found during the investigation, whether they charged it or not.

This is why cooperation becomes so critical in federal cases in South Carolina. When your facing conspiracy liability for conduct you barely participated in, and relevant conduct calculations that include everything the government investigated, your sentencing exposure can be 20, 30, 40 years. Cooperation under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b) and USSG §5K1.1 is often the only way to bring that number down to something survivable. But cooperation requires substantial assistance. Testimony against co-defendants. Undercover work. Information that leads to other prosecutions. And the value of your cooperation depends on how early you come in. If your the tenth person to cooperate, your information isnt valuable anymore. Everyone else already gave it up.

Your two years behind before you even know your in a case. That head start is everything.

What the Murdaugh Case Reveals About Federal Selectivity

Everyone in South Carolina knows the Alex Murdaugh case. Prominent attorney. Family with a legal dynasty spanning generations. Murdered his wife and son. Convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole. But heres what most people dont know: federal prosecutors investigated Murdaugh for years for financial crimes and ultimately declined to prosecute him federally.

Murdaughs financial crimes involved wire fraud, money laundering, and theft from clients. He stole millions of dollars. He used interstate wires to transfer money. Thats federal jurisdiction – wire fraud under 18 USC 1343, money laundering under 18 USC 1956. The FBI investigated. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of South Carolina reviewed the case. And they passed. They let the state handle it.

Why? Because Murdaugh was already facing life without parole for the murders. Federal prosecutors didnt need to charge him. The state case already guaranteed he’d die in prison. Federal resources are limited. U.S. Attorneys offices are selective. They prosecute cases where federal charges add value – either because state prosecution isnt happening, or because federal sentences are significantly longer, or because the case involves federal priorities like national security or large-scale fraud.

This reveals something critical about federal prosecution in South Carolina. The feds dont prosecute every federal crime. They prosecute the cases they choose to prosecute. And if your being prosecuted federally, it means they chose your case. That selectivity is what drives the 99.6% conviction rate. They’re not required to bring charges just because a crime occurred. They can decline prosecution even when theres overwhelming evidence of guilt. They only charge when they’re confident they’ll win and when the case serves federal priorities.

What does that mean for you? If your facing federal charges in South Carolina, you cant assume its a weak case. You cant assume they’re overreaching. The decision to prosecute you was deliberate. They evaluated your case and decided it was worth federal resources. That evaluation took into account the strength of the evidence, the likelihood of conviction, and whether your case fits there priorities.

The Murdaugh case also shows the relationship between federal and state prosecution. South Carolina state prosecutors handled the murder charges. They also prosecuted him for the financial crimes at the state level. Federal prosecutors could have taken the financial crimes, but they didnt need to. Theres coordination between federal and state authorities. Sometimes they work together. Sometimes the feds take the case, sometimes the state does, sometimes both prosecute different aspects.

If your under investigation, dont assume that just because state authorities arent involved, the feds arent either. And dont assume that just because the feds are investigating, that state prosecution wont happen too. The systems overlap, and prosecutors communicate. What you say to state investigators can be shared with federal agents. What you provide in a state proceeding can be used in federal court.

When You’re Already Two Years Behind

So what actually helps when your facing federal charges in South Carolina and your already two years behind? What can a federal criminal defense attorney actually do when the investigation is done, the evidence is collected, and the grand jury has already indicted?

Addressing the Counter-Argument

First, lets address the counter-argument. Some people say “if federal investigations take two years and conviction rates are 99.6%, that just proves federal prosecutors only charge guilty people. Innocent defendants have nothing to worry about.” Thats wrong. The 0.4% trial acquittal rate isnt proof the system only charges guilty people. Its proof the system creates overwhelming pressure to plead guilty regardless of guilt. When prosecutors have two years to collect out-of-context emails, financial transactions that look suspicious without explanation, and witness statements made without your knowledge, they can make innocent behavior look criminal. Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction for denying something she didnt do. The process itself creates crimes. The length of investigation isnt validation. Its resource asymmetry. You get a lawyer when your charged. They had the FBI for two years before that.

What Actually Works

Now, what actually helps. Todd Spodek and the team at Spodek Law Group have represented clients in federal courts across the country, including complex cases in South Carolina. Heres what we know from experience.

Early intervention is critical. If you receive a target letter – a letter from federal prosecutors informing you that your the target of a grand jury investigation – your not at the beginning of the process, but your not at the end either. You have a window, usually 30 to 45 days, to potentially influence the outcome before charges are filed. An experienced federal attorney can communicate with prosecutors, present mitigating evidence, and sometimes convince them not to charge. Once your indicted, that leverage is gone.

Understanding the specific Assistant U.S. Attorney handling your case matters enormously. Each AUSA has different approaches, different negotiation styles, different trial strategies. An attorney whos practiced regularly in the District of South Carolina knows the prosecutors. Knows which ones are willing to negotiate plea agreements and which ones take everything to trial. Knows which judges are assigned to which types of cases and how they approach sentencing. That local knowledge is invaluable.

Sentencing advocacy is were federal defense attorneys earn there value. Federal sentencing guidelines are complicated. Offense levels. Criminal history categories. Specific offense characteristics. Adjustments. Departures. The difference between guideline calculations can be decades of your life. A skilled attorney can argue for downward departures based on mitigating factors. Can challenge the governments relevant conduct calculations. Can fight conspiracy liability amounts. Can advocate for variances from the guidelines based on individual circumstances.

Cooperation is the most powerful tool for reducing sentences in federal court, but it has to be done strategically. Proffer agreements – the agreements you sign before telling prosecutors what you know – have to be negotiated carefully. What you say in a proffer can be used against you in certain circumstances. The value of your cooperation depends on how much you know, how early you come in, and whether you can deliver testimony that leads to other prosecutions. An experienced attorney knows when cooperation is the right strategy and when its a trap.

Trial. Yes, the acquittal rate is 0.4%. Yes, only 2% of defendants go to trial. But sometimes trial is the right choice. When the governments case has weaknesses. When the sentencing exposure is so high that trial is worth the risk. When your actually innocent and the evidence to prove it exists. Federal trials in South Carolina are fought in front of juries who are often skeptical of government overreach. A strong trial attorney who knows how to cross-examine federal agents, challenge expert witnesses, and present alternative narratives can win. Its rare. But it happens.

What Doesnt Help

Heres what doesnt help. Waiting. If federal agents have contacted you, if you’ve received a target letter, if your business partner just got arrested and you know your involved – dont wait. Every day you wait is a day the government is building there case. Every conversation you have without an attorney is a potential statement that can be used against you. Every document you destroy is potential obstruction of justice.

The federal government spent two years getting ready for this fight. You need to start now.

If your facing federal charges in South Carolina, or if you’ve been contacted by federal agents and charges seem likely, call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196 for a consultation. We’ll give you an honest assessment of were you stand, what your options actually are, and what it takes to fight back when your already behind. This isnt state court. The rules are different. The stakes are higher. And the time to act is right now.