An unfortunate aspect of many criminal prosecutions is that many times the defendants have been coerced to commit crimes on behalf of others, under duress.  Duress may include violence or the threat of violence, but often can involve any other unreasonable pressure.

Coercion is a useful criminal defense in that it eliminates an individual’s consent to perform the criminal act.  Pleading coercion is tantamount to agreeing that an illegal act was committed, but that the defendant cannot be held liable for their actions.

It is important to note that not all “pressure” will qualify as coercion.  Any duress involved in the criminal act implied that harm more serious than the crime that will be committed.  This aspect is not hard to claim in most white collar crimes since the threat of violence is generally considered greater danger than financial malfeasance.  For an element of coercion to be present, the accused must not have been able to avoid the situation or be free from the threat.

Making a coercion defense is not a guaranteed defense, but in the presence of undue pressure and threats in the workplace, you will be able to make a compelling case for your innocence.  To schedule a consultation with our Long Island criminal lawyers, call 516-204-7611 without delay.

In any conspiracy or wrongdoing involving multiple participants, any of the members of the scheme can mount an abandonment defense if they pull out of the scheme before the illegal activity is completed.  This is an affirmative defense that admits wrongdoing with the condition that the crime was renounced upon the nature of the scheme becoming apparent.

In order to make an abandonment or withdrawal defense, you will need to prove that the criminal nature of your actions was not readily apparent and that all criminal activity was renounced when that became apparent.  Additionally, you will need to prove that you were not aware that the scheme would be discovered and your disavowal of criminal activity was made in good faith and not due to the fear of imminent discovery.

The defendant will bear the burden of proof in this affirmative defense and will need to demonstrate the level of participation in the scheme and how the defendant renounced the illegal activity.

No criminal defense is a guaranteed of your innocence, but competent legal counsel is essential in all white collar criminal cases.  If you are implicated as part of a criminal conspiracy in New York, contact our Long Island criminal defense lawyers today at 516-204-7611 for an immediate consultation.

Mass marketing fraud involves the solicitation of a number of individuals with promises of a limited time offers, employment opportunities or opportunities to donate to charity.  These are typically the start of advance fee fraud or other pyramid schemes.  Mass marketing fraud is popular among scammers as they will be able to reach multiple audiences in a very limited time, thus increasing the potential for them to perpetrate a successful scam.

Most mass marketing scams will be quick so to avoid scrutiny and long term exposure.  The most typical of these scams are work from home and other check cashing scams.  The check mailed to the victim is counterfeit but the fraud is not detected immediately by the bank.

By then the victim has already paid fees, sent confidence money or has exposed their personal information to the “employer.”  The counterfeit is discovered at the victim will find themselves in legal trouble for counterfeiting.

Mass marketing scams on the internet target multiple individuals across several states, which is why there will be a federal investigation into alleged fraud.  When you are under investigation for mass marketing fraud, contact our New York White Collar Crimes lawyers today at 212-577-6677.

As with any large entity, there will inevitably be breaches of conduct, discipline and sometimes even the law.  To prevent this, most corporations will have a compliance unit or program that will train employees on ethics and compliance with the law.  The effectiveness of this compliance program will be an important factor in a federal investigation as the efforts of the compliance program represent due diligence and an effort, in good faith, to comply with the law.

The effective compliance program will be regularly assessed for performance and will also contain an enforcement mechanism to deal with breaches of the law.  Although the aim of the program is to prevent law-breaking, there is no expectation that the violation of the law will reflect on the program.  Rather, it is the response of the program to the violation of the law that will serve as a measure of effectiveness when coming under federal scrutiny.

The federal government sets a standard by which compliance programs must function and the provisions include spreading responsibility throughout the organization to mitigate the impact of wrongdoing, removing authority from those likely to engage in wrongdoing and ensure that no one faces retribution for reporting wrongdoing.

When coming under a federal investigation, you will want to prove due diligence to avoid serious criminal penalties.  A New York business crimes lawyer can help you organize this defense, using your compliance program as an example of this diligence.

To set up an immediate consultation, contact us at our Long Island office at (212) 577-6677 so that you may learn about your potential legal options.

A common issue in white-collar criminal defense cases is conflicts of interest.  Unfortunately not every lawyer can be trusted and some may even breach their standard of duty to their client.  Although standards of professional responsibility will vary from state to state, the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility will give you an idea of unethical conduct on the part of your lawyer.  Attorneys have a responsibility to recuse themselves from any legal matters if they represent an interest that is counterintuitive to the interest of the client.  This may even include all clients that are represented by the lawyer’s firm even if the lawyer does not represent the client directly.

The court may also decide if there is a conflict of interest that would reasonably prevent a client from receiving fair representation in court.  This decision can be appealed if necessary, though you will likely need another lawyer at this point.

In certain cases, when two spouses are prosecuted for the same crime, for example welfare fraud, one attorney may be able to represent both spouses with the court’s permission and with the understanding that there is no conflict of interest. This is usually the case where the defendants accept a plea deal and don’t proceed to trial.

Conflicts of interest can jeopardize your case and you will need another impartial lawyer to adequately handle your case.  If you find yourself in need of competent legal representation in Long Island, ensure that you contact our Long Island criminal lawyers today at (516) 204-7611.

Sovereign immunity is the privilege that exempts state and federal government from lawsuits.  Under ordinary circumstances, the sovereign government must consent to be sued.  The federal government has waived its sovereign immunity under the Federal Tort Claims Act and allows parties to sue the US government for those acting on behalf of the government.  The first case to be applied to this limited waiver of sovereign immunity was the crash of a B-25 bomber into the Empire State Building and the families of the victims were allowed to file suit against the government.  The Air Force pilots in this case were federal employees that caused damage.  The Tucker Act also allows the Federal government to be sued if they are a party in a contract with a private interest.

State governments also have sovereign immunity and must also waive the right to sovereign immunity to be sued.  The Eleventh Amendment, as well as legal precedent, affirms state sovereignty as well as several subsequent court decisions.  Tribal governments also have sovereign immunity but this immunity can be abrogated by the federal government.

If you feel that you have a case against the federal government in New York, you should consult with a New York federal lawyer that can assess you case and determine if your case is not invalidated by sovereign immunity. Call our lawyers at (516) 204-7611 immediately to set up an immediate consultation.

The American legal tradition takes into consideration the “guilty mind” of a person when determining if their actions were criminal.  The term, in Latin, is mens rea and measures the level of intent a person might have when committing a criminal action.  For instance, one has a “guilty mind” when they assault another, knowing that their actions will cause bodily harm.  Mens rea is an essential element in any crime and disproving that the defendant’s actions reflect mens rea can mean the difference between a guilty verdict and exoneration.

A conspiracy to commit a crime is also evidence of mens rea.  Even if you do not commit the criminal action, inciting another person to commit a crime or otherwise enabling him or her will carry a severe criminal penalty.  Under no circumstances can you expect to organize a criminal plot and expect to escape liability.

When facing a criminal charge, a skilled New York criminal defense lawyer will be able to build a case on the fact that you were unaware of the criminal intent implied by your actions.  A jury cannot convict you if you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that your actions were contributing to a criminal act and that you had a “guilty mind”.

If you need to speak with an experienced Long Island criminal attorney, call our Long Island criminal law firm at (516) 204 7611 to set up an immediate consultation.

H.E.A.T., which stands for Health care fraud prevention and Enforcement Action Team, is a joint program of the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. It was introduced in 2009 as a national attack on health care fraud. Specifically, it oversees actions of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a team that works to investigate and charge health care fraud offenders at the federal level.

This initiative reflects the intensified approach that prosecutors have adopted in recent years: they’re turning up the “heat” and they want you to know it. Recent investigations have snared unprecedented numbers of offenders and you need to make sure that you aren’t next. If you have been caught, you need to know how to respond effectively. This article can help you understand how to do just that.

Broadly defined, health care fraud is any attempt to unjustly benefit from a health care fund like Medicare or Medicaid. This offense could include any of the following: billing for services not actually rendered, performing and billing for services not medically necessary, billing for a more complex procedure than the one really performed (also known as “upcoding”), billing separately for procedures that should have been billed together (“fragmentation” or “unbundling”), and similar unlawful practices.

In short, if you tried to get public health care money that you didn’t truly earn, it was probably health care fraud.

The people behind H.E.A.T. hope that their efforts will have an effect of deterrence upon those who would otherwise commit health care fraud. Now that prosecution is up, you’re more likely to get caught and so you might be less likely to engage in questionable practices. Nonetheless, H.E.A.T.’s primary objective is to enforce anti-fraud laws and punish those who have already broken the law.

Targets of H.E.A.T. investigations have included New York health care professionals. In New York, Medicaid is run at both the state and federal level but Medicare is strictly a federal program. Consequently, for fraud linked to either program, you could face federal charges and so H.E.A.T. could therefore be involved in your case.

If you have received a letter from investigators that cited your health care billing and instructed you to respond, you may be an H.E.A.T. target.

If you know you’ve been billing Medicaid or Medicare more than you should have been, H.E.A.T. could be investigating.
This is not to scare you, but rather to help you become informed and prepared. If you think you may be facing H.E.A.T. for health care fraud charges, you need to take a deep breath and then call an expert defense attorney. Your attorney can mitigate undesirable outcomes and ensure the best results possible.

To avoid any possible self-incrimination, do not talk to investigators directly. Instead, retain a good attorney and let him do the talking for you.

The ideal course of action is of course to avoid health care fraud in the first place, but many have had a fraud indiscretion and lived to tell the tale. If you may be facing an issue with H.E.A.T. or any aspect of health care fraud in Long Island, simply call our Long Island health care fraud defense attorneys at 516.204.7611 as soon as possible.

Yes. According to 8 USC § 1127 (a)(2)(e) and 8 USC § 1227, an alien can be deported for child abuse, child neglect, spousal abuse and other forms of domestic violence.

A crime of domestic violence under the New York State penal code is defined as any crime of violence against a person committed by a current or former spouse of the person, by an individual with whom the person shares a child in common, by an individual who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the person as a spouse, by an individual similarly situated to a spouse of the person under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction where the offense occurs, or by any other individual against a person who is protected form the individual’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the United States or New York State.

Under both the federal and New York State statutes, domestic violence does not always mean physical violence and neglect, actions such as stalking and violating an order of protection may also be considered a crime of domestic violence. Even if the conviction is not an aggravated felony, both a misdemeanor and a felony conviction fall under the language of 8 USC § 1227, which means that such convictions are deportable by federal law.

Aliens do not have the same rights as citizens, which easily subject them to deportation as soon as they get convicted of a crime; even for charges that is a misdemeanor. Thus, when you are charged with such a crime, it is important for you to retain a criminal defense attorney who is experienced within both the immigration and criminal defense fields.

If you have been charged or arrested for domestic violence in Long Island and you are not a citizen call our our Long Island criminal lawyers at 516. 204.7611 677 to get professional legal advice.

You may be surprised to learn that the answer here is yes. In a public corruption bust, anyone associated with the guilty conduct can be picked up.

You wouldn’t be charged with “public corruption” per se, but rather with whatever specific offense you may have committed.

There are two main categories of offenses for which non-officials are usually charged: kickbacks and bribery.

KICKBACKS

A kickback is a wrongful payment given in exchange for a service rendered or favor given. These are “under-the-table” deals in which the services were either not supposed to be given or the payment was not permitted.

In many public corruption schemes, the public officer misuses public funds for his own personal purposes. Specifically, he may funnel money to his friends as kickbacks for helpful services.

If you have been on the receiving end of a bestowal of this kind, you could be held liable in a public corruption case.

WRONGFUL GIFTS

In other scenarios, the friend did not perform a service but still received money from his public officer pal. Usually, the money here is given due to favoritism and abuse of power.

If you have received an illegitimate gift from a public officer, you too could face charges in a public corruption investigation.

BRIBERY

Bribery is the manipulative use of funds in order to secure a desired outcome. For example, it’s bribery to give money to a public officer for the purpose of gaining a favor or so that the officer’s official conduct is in accord with your personal wishes.

Alternatively, it’s also bribery if the official gave money to unjustly influence you.
Either way, for bribes given or received, you could get caught.

PUBLIC CORRUPTION LEGAL DEFENSE

The offenses discussed above represent complicated, nuanced illegality. The lines can blur between kickbacks, wrongful gifts, and bribery, and related offenses. Perhaps more importantly, the lines between unlawful and lawful conduct can be unclear.

If you have any questions regarding a potential involvement in a public corruption scheme in New York City or Long Island, you should speak with a qualified defense attorney as soon as you can. If you are already facing charges, you need to consult an attorney without delay in order to ensure the most favorable legal outcome possible.

As there are extremely fine lines in this area of law, investigators too can mistakenly view blameless conduct as improper. This does happen sometimes in federal prosecutions in New York. If this is your case, it’s especially important to retain a good Long Island federal defense attorney who will be able to clear your good name.

A conviction in a public corruption case can do irreparable harm to your professional reputation and to your personal life. If you have any political aspirations, a criminal conviction could put your dreams far out of reach. Even without a conviction, charges alone often generate substantial negative media in a public corruption case.

In these situations, you need an attorney who is both skilled and discrete. For any legal matters you may have in connection with a public corruption case in Long Island,  call our Long Island criminal lawyers at 516.204.7611 to get professional legal advice.