Articles Posted in White Collar Criminal Defense

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Every criminal case begins the same way. The government tells a story. Sometimes that story is short, a police report describing a traffic stop, a few observations, followed by an arrest for operating while intoxicated. Sometimes it is sprawling and extraordinary, a federal superseding indictment naming a sitting head of state, Nicolás Maduro, and alleging decades-long conspiracies spanning continents, governments, and criminal organizations. The difference between the two is not as great as it seems.

The recently unsealed superseding indictment against Maduro is a useful illustration, not because of politics, and not because of the individual accused, but because it shows, in its most extreme form, how prosecutors construct narratives, and alludes to the critical importance of storytelling.

The document reads less like a tentative accusation and more like a completed moral history. It is detailed, chronological, confident, and seemingly comprehensive. Long before any evidence is tested in court, the story feels finished. None of this happened by accident. The prosecutors have crafted this story with great care because this is exactly how criminal charging documents are designed to function.

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badge-DOJIt can be difficult to know if you are under a federal investigation. However, if you are aware, there are several clues that you are under investigation by the Federal Government. One of them is the receipt of a target letter.

A target letter is a formal notification sent by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to inform an individual that they are a target of a federal criminal investigation.

The letter typically provides information about the nature of the investigation. This might include the specific crime or crimes that Government suspects you of committing.

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If you have reason to believe that you are under investigation for a crime in Michigan, it is in your best interest to seek the advice and representation of an experienced criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible.

You may feel tempted to handle the matter on your own or wait until you have been formally charged with a crime. It is important to understand that the actions you take at this early stage can have a significant impact on the outcome of your criminal case.

If you are being investigated this only means that police officers are using many investigative tools against you as they are building a case. While you may not be facing criminal charges right now, you may well soon be notified that warrant for your arrest has been issued. You are better off hiring a criminal defense attorney now to protect your rights.

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Fraud vs Embezzlement. Any embezzlement or fraud conviction would be a “crime of moral turpitude,” which can block you from obtaining a wide variety of jobs. Plus, for large amounts pilfered (e.g., from a bank account, a church, or a charitable organization), up to 20 years in prison (state or federal) and fines of over one hundred thousand dollars may be ordered to be paid by the convicted person for felony embezzlement

Define embezzlement. For any person working in a job for a business, company, church or even a charity, and who has access to checkbooks or other electronic means of siphoning off money or charging to a company credit card, all of these can be how an embezzlement defined in an indictment may read.

Types of Fraud Charges. At Barone Defense Firm, our law group is staffed and prepared to help those facing embezzlement charges and other white collar crimes, including those who were acting in a fiduciary relationship (e.g., lawyer or accountant or bookkeeper frauds).

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Michigan Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys

The Barone Defense Firm consists of some of Michigan’s top Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers. Lead Federal Attorney Keith Corbett is a former United States Attorney. He has been practicing federal criminal law for more than 35 years, and has received numerous awards for his skillful federal practice.

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Federal Criminal Defense Team

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Most of the time if you are pleading guilty it is because your lawyer has successfully engaged in plea bargaining with the prosecutor. Consequently, preparation for court when pleading guilty really begins to take place almost as soon as you first hire your lawyer. Therefore, the total preparation will take place over several weeks or months, and sometimes even years before you are set to appear in court. At a minimum the following things should have occurred before you plead guilty.

  1. You’ve reviewed all the discovery with your attorney.
  2. You’ve discussed possible defenses with your attorney.
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Soon after you are found guilty or plead guilty to a federal crime you will meet with a United States Probation Officer who will complete a presentence investigation and then prepare a report (PSIR) for the judge’s use at sentencing. If the judge sentences you to prison, then the PSIR will also be used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in making housing and other relevant determinations. Consequently, it is essential that the PSIR be accurate and complete. What follows is a description of the kind of information the probation officer will collect during your interview as well as how to be well prepared for this important process.

Why Is the Federal Presentence Report Prepared?

federal criminal lawyerThe purpose of the presentence investigation and report is to provide comprehensive information about the offender that is both objective and accurate.  This information and report will be used by the court in making the appropriate sentencing decision. The report also will assist the Bureau of Prisons in making proper determinations relative to the management of the inmates under their supervision.

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CP-certification-300x229The Barone Defense Firm is pleased to announce that founding member Patrick T. Barone has become the first Michigan lawyer to obtain certification as a Trainer, Educator and Practitioner (TEP) of Psychodrama.

Having completed the long journey toward CP and TEP certification, Barone recounts the questions he is most frequently asked, which are first and foremost is “what is psychodrama” and a close second; “what does psychodrama have to do with the practice of law?”

Barone asked himself the same questions when he first attended the Trial Lawyer’s College, the story of which is partially recounted in the 2016 Super Lawyer’s article entitled “Walking in Their Shoes, How Barone Defense Firm uses psychodrama to help clients cope with traumatic events.”

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The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that citizens accused of crimes have an absolute right to a speedy, public, trial by an impartial jury. But this right to trial by an independant jury trial was not invented in the United States. In an article in the British Library, Author Geoffrey Robertson remarked that the modern independent jury, and their right to jury nullification, arises out of the rights and limitations originally set forth in the Magna Carta.

Notice the difference in what Robertson indicates and what the U.S. Constitution indicates. Robertson refers to an independent jury whereas our Constitution refers in Article III, Sec. 2, simply to trial by jury, and the Sixth Amendment to an impartial jury. Is this a distinction without a difference? Does the Sixth Amendment, in using the word impartial also connote independence?

In the modern age, this concept of impartiality is most often thought of in the context of the jury’s fact-finding role, in which jurors must be “free of prejudice.” But from a historical perspective, might the word “impartial” as used in the Sixth Amendment also reference impartiality to, and independence from, the law itself?

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Patrick Barone and Keith Corbett Federal Criminal Defense LawyersThe best way to understand federal prescription fraud is to look at a case where this has happened. For example, the United States Department of Justice and the State of New York recently announced an indictment on federal health care fraud charges on a licensed pharmacist and business owner in New York.

The basic allegations are that the pharmacy owner paid off customers (in other words, provided kickbacks) to fill fake prescriptions at his pharmacy. The pharmacy would then bill the prescriptions to Medicaid and Medicare.

However, the government alleges that the prescriptions drugs were never actually given to the customers. Alternatively, that drugs of lesser value were given, and that it was a scheme to fraudulently get reimbursed by Medicaid and Medicare.

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