Specialty Areas: Preventing Prosecution

Preventing Prosecution

Sometimes clients retain us after they have been targeted in a federal criminal investigation but before they have been formally charged with a crime. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the case, being charged with a federal crime causes anxiety, adverse publicity, embarrassment, expense, and exposure to criminal liability and punishment. When clients retain us before formal charges have been filed, therefore, our objective is to persuade the authorities to decline prosecution in the first place. Over the years we have had considerable success doing so.

Prosecutors have enormous discretion and power to build and direct federal criminal cases. The prosecutor functions virtually without court supervision. Some prosecutors work conscientiously and will err on the side of declining a marginal case, while others will seek to make “something out of nothing” by trying to stretch broad and vaguely written criminal laws to cover activity that is not clearly criminal. Some prosecutors are fair-minded and forthcoming with information about their evidence and their legal position; others keep their cards hidden.

We have decades of experience interacting with prosecutors at all levels. We know how to conduct a thorough defense investigation; we know how best to fit the facts to the law to put our client in the best possible light. Our experience helps us tailor our pre-charge strategy to the prosecutor’s particular traits.

For obvious reasons, we cannot describe these cases in a way that risks identifying clients who were not prosecuted. However, we can provide the following information that illustrates this vital facet of our work:

• Alleged Tax and Unemployment Compensation Fraud
• Alleged Environmental Protection Fraud
• Alleged Health Care Fraud and Violations of the Federal Anti-kickback Statute
• Alleged Violations of Federal Cash Transaction Reporting Laws
• Alleged Embezzlement and Mail Fraud

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