Category: Federal Criminal Law

January 23, 2014

Charges Against Former Virginia Governor McDonnell Brought on by Whistleblower

The media coverage of this week’s announcement that federal prosecutors have charged former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, with illegally accepting gifts from a wealthy Richmond area businessman have largely focused on what the Commonwealth’s first family may have given in return.  To be sure, the question of whether and how… Read More

December 11, 2013

Taking Advantage of a Video Poker Glitch Can Land you in Jail in Nevada

Last month, federal prosecutors in Nevada filed a motion to dismiss an indictment that shined a bright light on overly broad federal criminal statutes and the abuse of prosecutorial discretion in using them. John Kane and Andre Nestor were each charged in an indictment in January 2011 with one count of conspiracy to commit wire… Read More

July 22, 2013

Conspirators Get Prison Time for Defrauding Small Business 8(a) Program

White-collar crime can involve any number of types of fraud against the government or private parties. One that isn’t usually thought about but can result in serious jail time involves conspiracies to obtain government contracts fraudulently by setting up bogus small and minority-owned businesses in order to qualify for government preferences. In the past few… Read More

July 9, 2013

BP Employee Gains Dismissal on Obstruction of Justice Charge

When is a committee not a committee? When it is a subcommittee. More than just a punchline, this is one of the key facts that led a U.S. district judge recently to dismiss charges against an employee of British Petroleum arising from his statements made in response to inquiries from a Congressional subcommittee regarding the… Read More

May 29, 2013

House Task Force Will Address ‘Over-Criminalization’ of Federal Law

On May 31, the House Committee on Judiciary Over-Criminalization Task Force will begin a six-month investigation to determine whether the U.S. Code over-criminalizes relatively minor conduct. The bipartisan task force, composed of five Republicans and five Democrats, will conduct hearings and review thousands of federal criminal statutes for purposes of recommending consensus-based improvements to federal… Read More

March 29, 2013

Judge Strikes Down FBI’s Use of ‘National Security Letters’

In a recent decision, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California struck down the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs) as unconstitutional. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the FBI has been issuing thousands of NSLs every year. The letters demand that recipients, such as banks and telephone companies, provide customers’ information… Read More

March 5, 2013

Was This Identity Theft? Sixth Circuit Should Limit Meaning of That Term

What’s in a name? When you think of identity theft, you typically think of someone taking a person’s name plus some other identifiers, like their address and Social Security number or credit card number, to go on a spending spree or drain the victim’s bank account. You may think of fraudulent impersonation. But what if… Read More

February 26, 2013

This Gaming Case Didn’t Have to Be Prosecuted

A Nevada man now has a criminal record – simply because he placed a bet in a casino in Las Vegas and a casino employee didn’t ask him enough questions. Robert Walker recently pleaded guilty in federal court to one misdemeanor count involving a record-keeping violation and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation…. Read More