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Investigations Posts
Human Trafficking Blindspot
Nov 27, 2023
Human Trafficking Blindspot
For many years now, state and federal prosecutors have become increasingly aware of the insidious nature of sexual and labor trafficking. Victimization is cultivated by strong, threatening, and cunning traffickers. Gangs have increasingly turned to sex trafficking as a source of illicit income with low visibility—a trade that does not “bring the heat” to the…
Equal Justice as Another Casualty of War
Nov 9, 2023
Equal Justice as Another Casualty of War
While many Americans properly focus on the carnage and chaos of two wars, there is also a more subtle war being waged by progressive mayors—and others in high positions—on fundamentally important notions like Rule of Law and Equal Justice. Last weekend over 100,000 protesters descended upon Washington, D.C. to chant and vandalize as a bewildering…
Not a Grande Victory for DOJ
Sep 13, 2023
Not a Grande Victory for DOJ
Frustrated with the massive influx of aliens into Texas, Texas Governor Greg Abbott came up with a plan that was physically simple, but legally complex: drop a 1000-foot-long buoy barrier into the middle of the Rio Grande. The four-foot spherical orange buoys were chained together and anchored to the riverbed near the town of Eagle…
Robocop Finds His Man, But Man Gets Robocop’s Instruction Manual
Jun 22, 2023
Robocop Finds His Man, But Man Gets Robocop’s Instruction Manual
Many years ago, a prosecutor I worked with at the time was in a fascinating murder trial, where the defense included a forensic psychiatrist opining that the defendant suffered from multiple personalities. According to this expert, one of the “inhabitants” of the defendant’s mind was a creature named Tofu the Demon Dog. On cross examination,…
Eight Finance Social Media Influencers Charged In $100 Million Market Manipulation Scheme
Dec 19, 2022
Eight Finance Social Media Influencers Charged In $100 Million Market Manipulation Scheme
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has announced charges against eight finance-oriented social media influencers in an alleged $100 million securities fraud scheme, in which they engaged in “pump-and-dump” market manipulation by leveraging their following on various social media platforms. The securities fraud charges, unsealed on December 13th, name seven defendants with an eighth…
Michigan’s High Profile Boomerang
Apr 21, 2022
Michigan’s High Profile Boomerang
About one month before the 2020 election, the Department of Justice proudly announced their disruption of a scheme to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Six men were arrested and referred to as “violent extremists.” Gov. Whitmer’s surrogates indicated that the blame was not fully on the gnarly bearded men whose pictures dominated newscasts around the…
Biden’s aggressive Justice Dept – Civil Rights Division putting local police on notice. Here’s how
May 19, 2021
Biden’s aggressive Justice Dept – Civil Rights Division putting local police on notice. Here’s how
This article was originally published on FoxNews.com on May 16th, 2021. Department of Justice priorities obviously can change with new administrations, and history shows this with regularity. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was greatly concerned with the Mafia’s activities, and John Ashcroft wanted more obscenity and pornography prosecutions. Generally, the subject matter emphasis pops up and…
Civil or Criminal Liability: Charging A Payment Processing Case by Coin Toss?
Aug 17, 2020
Civil or Criminal Liability: Charging A Payment Processing Case by Coin Toss?
In the eyes of federal investigators, when is a payment processor considered a benevolent alternative to traditional banks, and when is it viewed as a shady facilitator of all things criminal? In other words, is the client another Paypal or Venmo, or are we looking at a potential WireCard AG prosecution? We have noticed in…
Going…Going…Ghosn
May 22, 2020
Going…Going…Ghosn
While much of the focus on the Japanese prosecution of high-profile executive Carlos Ghosn has been on his spectacular private jet escape from Japan while hidden in an instruments case, his prosecution actually raises much more profound issues about white collar criminal prosecution in Japan and in the United States. Ghosn is an indisputably talented…
Death by a Thousand Cuts
May 8, 2020
Death by a Thousand Cuts
When legal scholars look back at the failed Flynn prosecution, they will not be able to pin the dismissal on a single deficiency or legal principle, but if they are fair they will recognize a small case that was plagued with innumerable flaws. The DOJ Motion to Dismiss, filed in the rarified air of a…
