By Andrea L. Moseley As expected, fraud relating to the present COVID-19 pandemic is being prosecuted for the first time. These crimes of opportunity were predictable and the Department of Justice has come to the table, loaded for bear. Now, our white collar defense...
By Sara Kropf In Part 1 of this series, we outlined the standard that the Department of Justice follows to seek forfeiture of a criminal defense attorney’s fees. If DOJ seeks forfeiture of your fees, you could find out in the forfeiture count of an indictment against...
By Sara Kropf The Department of Justice’s Justice Manual (formerly the U.S. Attorney’s Manual) includes a section that describes “Attorney Fee Forfeiture Guidelines." Although technically not binding on anyone, the guidelines offer a helpful understanding of when and...
By: Sara Kropf David Brooks apparently lived a rather lavish lifestyle. As the head of a successful body armor company, he was rumored to have thrown a $10 million bat mitzvah party for his daughter that included performances by 50 Cent and Aerosmith. In 2007, the fun...
By: Sara Kropf What happens if a defendant’s cash is subject to forfeiture but he also owes someone else money? Who gets the forfeited cash? In a recent case out of the First Circuit, the court applied the forfeiture statutes to deny a general creditor payment of the...
By: Sara Kropf Perhaps the most troubling type of criminal forfeiture is the pretrial restraint of untainted assets. The Department of Justice will seize assets, before proving a single allegation of wrongdoing, even where those assets are not linked to the...
By: Sara Kropf On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court decided Luis v. United States. It is a big win for criminal defendants and for criminal defense lawyers alike. The Court held that For the reasons stated, we conclude that the defendant in this case has a...
By: Sara Kropf Asset forfeiture was supposed to be in decline. The Washington Post published a series of troubling stories about the rising use of asset forfeiture--without warrants or criminal charges--to the tune of $2.5 billion dollars since 2001. Former Attorney...
By: Sara Kropf The government's aggressive methods to seize a defendant’s assets before he is convicted of a crime hinders a defendant’s ability to choose—and pay for—his lawyer. A recent Second Circuit case limits the government’s ability to do so. It is based on the...
By: Sara Kropf The D.C. Circuit recently slapped down the government in a criminal forfeiture proceeding. In United States v. SunRise Academy, the D.C. Circuit reaffirmed the importance of allowing third parties a fair chance to challenge the government’s seizure of...