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.

Federal Criminal Defense Attorney in Columbus, OH
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: