A Blog About Current Issues in White Collar Defense

How do you celebrate ten years of defending people against a criminal justice system that plays with a stacked deck? Bring in a renowned journalist and legal commentator to talk problems and solutions. Emily Bazelon, a staff writer at New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale… Read More

On Monday, the Supreme Court handed down Gamble v. United States, No. 17-646, an interesting decision on Double Jeopardy with practical and predictive ramifications beyond its limited facts. Terance Martez Gamble was caught possessing a loaded handgun in Mobile, Alabama, after previously having been convicted for robbery. He pleaded guilty and received one year in… Read More

There’s a saying that many prosecutors know as an exhortation to “take the long view” and to use discretion even where the law seems to permit an aggressive approach—it’s that “bad facts make bad law.” In the case of Indiana prosecutors seeking to cash in on a car seizure from a low-level drug dealer, their… Read More

A hit man walks into a restaurant where Tony Soprano and his family are eating dinner while the jukebox blares a Journey song. The last show of the highly successful series ends with an abrupt cut to black before the audience knows the fate of Tony and his family. The end of The Sopranos series… Read More

Following on the heels of the SEC’s announcement of subpoenas to crypto exchanges and token issuers, yesterday New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced “the Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative,” which he described as “a fact-finding inquiry into the policies and practices of platforms used by consumers to trade virtual or ‘crypto’ currencies like bitcoin and… Read More

For many years, it has been the federal government, with its multitude of prosecutorial and regulatory arms, that has been able to throw its policing weight around, causing business owners to snap to attention with a crisp salute.  But as the traditional business model has morphed into clouds of technology-driven, international and multinational enterprises, this… Read More

Ifrah Law partner Jim Trusty has become a staple in the national news lately: he is frequently asked to comment on the many investigations and prosecutions currently going on which involve former and current officials and operatives at the highest levels of government. With over 28 years of experience as a federal prosecutor with the… Read More

This week, a federal district court in New York was the first to decide that federal securities laws may be used to prosecute fraud involving cryptocurrencies. In United States v. Zaslavskiy, Eastern District Judge Raymond Dearie held that the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 (“Exchange Act”) and Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) are broad… Read More

The SEC has strongly indicated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will be treated as securities, and thus must comply with various registration and disclosure requirements before being used to raise capital. Companies do have, however, several options for possible exemptions from the regulatory requirements that apply to registered public offerings. This chart outlines potential exemptions… Read More