Inconsistent Penalties and White Collar Crime: What Are Your Rights?

Two cases that recently came to light in the Wall Street Journal highlight what could be perceived to be failings of our legal system -- two fairly similar fraud cases where the penalties were radically different. Florida criminal attorneys and their clients are at the mercy of judges' temperaments more than ever before, with the removal of sentencing regulation in some areas of the penal code. We look at this disparity, what causes it and what your criminal attorney can do if you feel you have received an unfair sentence.

Case 1: Michael Riolo
Michael Rioli, of West Palm Beach Florida, was found to be running a fraud scheme that cheated its investors out of around $15 million, early in 2009. His Florida criminal attorney represented well and advised Mr Riolo to hand in his computers and records as evidence to assist prosecutors, which he did. However, the judge in question handed out a 24.5 years sentence for the $15 million fraud.

Case 2: Michael Regan
Michael Regan ran a hedge fund in Massachusetts, and was also found to be defrauding investors. This time the sum in question was around $9 million, and victims included a widow and several elderly citizens. He also assisted prosecutors by handing in his evidence, and received only a seven year sentence.

Why the difference?
The difference is not due to the quality of their criminal attorney representation, but rather to two separate Supreme Court cases in 2005 and 2007 which mean that judges now have greater freedom to depart from sentencing guidelines. The point of the new laws was to give judges greater potential to ensure justice is served according to the individual merits of the case. Yet criminal attorneys are seeing cases that are superficially very similar receiving radically different sentences.

Statistics
Preliminary statistics indicate that on average, judges are giving longer sentences for white collar crimes, while social crimes are receiving fairly similar sentences across the country.

What can you do?
There is currently an inquiry running as to whether the new guidelines have created inequities and unwarranted disparities in the sentencing system. However, clients do not need to wait for the outcome of the trial - your Florida criminal attorney can explore all legal avenues and let you know whether you have a good case to appeal a sentence.

The Law and You: Child Porn

The internet has made many things in our life easier -- shopping, keeping in touch with distant friends and family, researching, working - everything that counts. Unfortunately it has also made it infinitely easier to break the law. With the prevalence of porn on the internet and the lack of filtering by porn sites of legal from illegal material, you may be needing a criminal lawyer for something you didn’t know you were doing wrong. Miami criminal attorneys with experience in child pornography laws explain the basics.

The facts
The definition of child pornography in the US comes from Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 100, §2256. It designates a 'child' as any person under the age of 18, and for an image or video to be classed as pornography it must contain:
(i) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;
(ii) bestiality;
(iii) masturbation;
(iv) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or
(v) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person

The inclusion of simulated sex makes these laws much broader -- easier to be charged under, but in some cases easier for a criminal attorney to defend. Publishing the appearance of a minor being engaged in sexual misconduct can also be prosecuted under US law -- so, for example, adult websites displaying models (even legal-age ones) in pigtails, surrounded by stuffed animals and with heavy makeup making them look younger could actually be prosecuted under child pornography laws. People viewing this type of images would also be classed as consuming child porn, and may need criminal attorney services.

The First Amendment protects distribution of adult pornographic images, but not those of children.

Laws can be used against children also
In the US in the last 12-24 months, there have been a spate of cases involving teens taking nude self-portraits and distributing to partners or friends. For example, Florida criminal attorneys recently defended a 16-year-old girl and her 17-year-old boyfriend who faced court after a teacher accidentally uncovered nude images of the girl on the boy's phone. The photos were shared with nobody else, yet the teens were charged with producing, directing or promoting child porn -- even more serious than consumption of child porn.

Finding the Right Fort Lauderale Criminal Attorney

When playing golf here in Fort Lauderdale with clients or colleagues, whose name is mentioned when talk turns to hiring a criminal attorney? Chances are, the professionals in your foursome haven't yet been faced with that necessity.

If that distant possibility becomes reality, however, you'll need a trustworthy referral, fast. Here's how to quickly judge which Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer will best represent you.

You may already be putting on the brakes, denying the possibility of future prosecution. With today's complex laws governing medicine, banking and other professions, though, it's possible to find yourself under investigation without deliberately committing a crime.

And so, just as you build your referral network for other services, it's a good idea to have someone qualified in mind to call should you find yourself in need of a criminal lawyer. If you're like most professionals, you may be assuming you can call on those golfing buddies for an acceptable referral.

The first thing to remember is that, unless your colleagues have actually worked with a criminal lawyer, they may be basing their referral on secondhand knowledge. If you've been charged with a crime, you need to know the person representing you has specific experience defending against similar charges.

For example, a Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney who specializes in domestic violence or drug cases may have never defended a client accused of white collar crime. Even more importantly, professionals accused of bank fraud, insider trading or crimes likely to trigger a grand jury investigation require the services of an experienced Federal criminal defense attorney.

Once you've received a referral, research that criminal attorney by asking the following questions:

1. How much experience do they have working with defendants in cases like yours?

2. How successful has that specific history as a Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer been?

3. What resources do they have available to ensure a strong defense in your case?

4. Into what courts are they admitted to practice (US Supreme Court, Federal Courts, or US Tax Court, for example)?

5. How have they been ranked by their peers? Their Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register ranking is a good measure of their professional standing among other attorneys.

The answers to these questions will enable you to discern whether or not a Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney to whom you've been referred is actually appropriate to defend you. By taking the time to learn more about a potential defense attorney, you can be assured of the proper defense before the need ever occurs.

Why Your Medical Office Needs a Criminal Attorney for FCA Violations

There's no question that healthcare billing to federal health programs is under intense scrutiny. Fraud within programs such as Medicare and Medicaid was the impetus behind the Federal False Claims Act (FCA), which spells out guidelines and penalties for prosecuting fraudulent healthcare practices. The threat of prosecution under the FCA has sent many a healthcare provider in search of a criminal attorney.

In the past, a billing from your office to Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health program that included errors might have been seen as just that, a billing error. It might have been corrected by the payor bringing the error to your billing department's attention, or within your own internal audit system.

Today, however, erroneously billing a federal health program such as Medicare or Medicaid is taken very seriously, and legal action is often initiated against the medical provider. Whether represented by a criminal lawyer from Toledo or a Miami criminal attorney, those providers need adequate legal representation to avoid serious civil and criminal penalties.

If your medical office isn't up to date on what might be pursued as a fraudulent billing violation under the FCA, it could be headed for serious legal trouble. Here are just a few of the reasons the government might pursue prosecution against your practice:

* Deliberate duplicate billings
* Misrepresenting dates, diagnoses or descriptions of services
* Charging separately for services bundled under reimbursement agreements
* Billing for non-covered services
* Billing for services not rendered

In a busy medical practice, even with the best billing practices in place, health care billing errors can occur. When they occur in billings to federal health programs, however, the consequences can be disproportionately painful.

Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney clients, for example, have reported the devastating impact the threat of legal action of this type had on their medical practices before being represented by a criminal lawyer versed in this type of defense.

As a responsible, ethical medical care provider, you do your part to help keep federal health program abuse and fraud under control. You have strong billing practices in place and your staff is well-trained.

Should errors within federal health program billings, however, result in threatened prosecution under the FCA, your first call should be to acriminal lawyer with strong experience in this type of defense. Securing such adequate representation could make all the difference in your medical office's ongoing viability.

In Plain English: Insider Trading

Insider trading is considered a serious white-collar crime by most judges, and also by the general public. Unfortunately, the recognition of one's own actions as insider trading rarely occurs to people. In the case of a stock price that is going to drop, people see it merely as self-preservation; in the case of a stock price that is going up, many people see it as getting in on the ground floor or simple luck. Many of these people end up needing experienced criminal attorneys because they followed their instincts. Here we are reviewing insider trading definitions and laws.

What is insider trading?

Insider trading means that a person is either buying or selling stock options based on information that is not generally known to the public. The law sees that losses and gains in the stock market should be regulated more by good investment practices on the part of the investor than by any inside or privileged knowledge. This is where these cases come in to the hands of criminal lawyers.

Insider trading relates to both buying and selling

Insider trading can be enacted equally innocently (that is, without knowledge of the action's status as a federal crime), from either side of the fence. Whether you buy or sell stock with inside information, though, it is equally illegal. For example, if you work at a company that is about to release a new product with high sales potential (but is still secret), and purchase a large number of shares just prior to the release, it is considered insider trading. If you work at a company that has just sustained a massive loss and sell your shares just before the news becomes public, it is also considered insider trading by criminal attorneys and judges. However, intent can go a long way towards mitigating the crime in the court's eyes.

What law does it come under?

There is no specific law that forbids insider trading, but it is generally recognized as a violation of securities law. The specific phraseology which is often pointed to is that referring to the definition and prohibition of manipulative and deceptive acts, set down in 1961.

The reason that insider trading is considered wrong is that an insider, such as a company employee or someone else with a special relationship (an accountant or other outsourcer, for example), owes a financial duty of care to the company's stockholders not to use their information of personal gain.

However, this duty extends to not telling others about the information to allow them to use it for monetary gain -- so a person who has his wife sell her shares in a company on the basis of insider information may still be convicted of the crime, depending on the individual circumstances and their criminal attorney's competence.

IRS Violations That You Could End up in Criminal Court For

Everybody who has filed a tax return knows what a huge process it is, and how much potential for error there is -- and also how much potential for exploitation. Every year, many Americans end up needing criminal attorneys to represent them in cases where the IRS is looking to prosecute for violations of tax law. Today we are looking at several violations of the tax code that could see you looking up a criminal lawyer.

Legal source tax crimes

This group of crimes is the one that catches most people. Some people believe that the tax laws are wrong, and therefore they do not have to comply with them. If you've found a way to evade tax that you are legally required to pay, you will most likely end up needing a criminal attorney. General violation categories under this umbrella include preparing your return unscrupulously, frivolous filing, not filing a tax return, and Questionable Refund Program cases.

Illegal source tax crimes

If you regularly earn money through illegal businesses -- such as through illegal gambling operations, dealing in weapons, and so on -- the IRS very often has its eye on you. You may end up needing the services of a criminal lawyer expert in IRS violations if you have records of this money.

Narcotics related financial investigations

Anyone who earns money from narcotics can be prosecuted by the IRS for evading taxes - if they fail to pay them on their income. Of course, recording the source of your income will earn you a date in criminal court as well. Narcotics related crimes are separated from other illegal source income by the IRS because of the special problem that law enforcement considers them to pose in society. Without the services of an experienced criminal attorney, you are likely to end up serving harder or longer time than for other illegal source tax crime convictions.

Counter terrorism financing activities

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, politicians have been putting strategies in place to ensure that terrorism never has the same effect on American society as it did. The truth of terrorism funding laws, though, is that they create a black and white situation out of a grey reality. Your experienced criminal attorney can help you sort these charges out.