White Collar Crimes Defence Attorney in Columbus
White Color Crimes Carry Significant Penalty
The commonly prosecuted fraud offenses in federal court (bank, mail and
wire) all involve “schemes and artifices to defraud.” There
does not need to be an actual “loss” suffered by the victim
in order for the statutes to apply; instead, an “intended loss”
will suffice. Some fraud crimes have maximum statutory penalties of 30
years whereas others have maximums of 20 years. Several years ago, Congress
even promulgated legislation to lengthen the statute of limitations of
some fraud offenses to 10 years.
The Department of Justice has made the investigation and prosecution of
identity theft cases a priority in recent years. Moreover, Congress has
significantly enhanced the statutory penalties for these crimes. If a
defendant steals a real person’s identity, he might face an aggravated
identity theft prosecution, under 18 U.S.C. §1029A. If convicted
of this offense, the defendant faces a two year consecutive sentence for
each count on top of any sentence that would be imposed for any other
substantive violation of federal law.
Money laundering prosecutions, under 18 U.S.C. §§1956 and 1957,
are very prevalent. Frequently, these charges are found in drug cases
where the defendant has accumulated significant assets with drug proceeds.
Similarly, money laundering charges are even found in fraud cases where
ill-gotten gains are disguised in the form of legitimate assets. The addition
of money laundering charges might not appear to be significant in the
face of the broad and wide-ranging indictments in which they are found.
However, the addition of these counts will lead to guideline enhancements
if they are not negotiated away in a plea agreement.
Our attorneys are experienced in many types of white collar crime cases,
including:
- Bribery
- Tax Crime
- Mortgage Crime
- Consumer Fraud
- Credit Card Fraud
- Embezzlement
- Extortion
- Forgery
- Investment Fraud
- Money Laundering
- Securities Fraud