Alphonse Gabriel Capone was never prosecuted for murder, so there was never a jury determining whether Al was responsible for the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in which seven gang rivals were executed by Capone’s underlings. Instead, “Scarface” Capone was prosecuted and convicted for felony tax evasion offenses, for which he received 11 years in prison. Since that conviction in 1931, the concept of “getting Capone for tax evasion” has been a metaphorical justification for endless federal prosecutions where the heart of the community’s concern– for example, murder– is a conspicuous back ..read more

Last week’s Supreme Court opinion on the “true threats” doctrine seemingly settles a long- brewing issue in threat-based prosecutions but also reflects the anticipatory positioning of various Associate Justices on much hotter issues that may make their way to SCOTUS consideration in the near future. As such, the debate-behind-the-debate between the Court’s members is of great interest to those who like predicting the next big rulings coming down from on high. In Counterman v. Colorado, 600 U.S.   , (2023) the Court settled a fundamental First Amendment issue implicated in the prosecu ..read more

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, the doctor volunteered to the jury that these distinct personalities within the defendant were “as individualized as a fingerprint.” The prosecutor then corrected him with, “don’t you mean a paw print, doctor?” A single snarky question destroyed the unique ..read more

On May 10, 2023, the First Circuit Court of Appeals provided welcoming news to two of the defendants in “Varsity Blues” the college admissions scandal – their convictions were being vacated. Former Wynn Resorts executive Gamal Abdelaziz and private equity executive John Wilson were just two of dozens of high-profile defendants charged with various white-collar crimes – including bribery and fraud – for making fraudulent “donations” to secure their children’s admission to competitive universities. By way of background, the college admissions scandal became public in 2019, when it was revealed t ..read more

Just as the walls seemed to be closing in on young entrepreneur Charlie Javice, a bit of offense has left her opponent, JPMorgan, in an entirely uncomfortable position largely of its own making. Javice founded a college loan planning entity called Frank, that appeared to be doing so well that JP Morgan bought it in 2021 for $175 million, purportedly lining Charlie’s pocket to the tune of about $26 million. Soon, the banking giant began to uncover some apparent puffing— Frank’s claim of having a customer base of 4.26 million was apparently overstated by about 4 million. Before long, Javice was ..read more

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 defendant charged with aiding and abetting the alleged scheme. [1] In the SEC’s press release, Joseph Sansone, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit, said, The defendants used s ..read more

This week the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stinging reminder about the need for precision in the case of U.S. v. Pikus, No. 20-3080 (2d Cir. 2022). Aleksander Pikus was one of four defendants charged with money laundering conspiracy and related offenses for bilking Medicare and Medicaid through false billings. The scheme featured unnecessary ambulance rides to a Brooklyn medical clinic apparently run for the sole purpose of tapping into federal health care dollars. A Health Care Fraud Task Force of local and federal agents brought the case to the DOJ Fraud Section and an indictment ..read more

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 country, but on Donald Trump, who had whipped up crowds at Whitmer’s expense, in part over her role in draconian COVID restrictions throughout her state. As the public attention and political drama on the case fizzled and the case wound it ..read more

Last week’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in U.S. v. Sinmayah Ceasar, 2021 WL 3640387 (2nd Cir. Aug. 18, 2021) provides some insight into the challenging area of defining a “reasonable” sentence and ascertaining the circumstances when appellate courts might overturn a judge’s sentencing decision for being “unreasonably” lenient. The case against Ceasar was not built in a day. The government obtained evidence that Ms. Ceasar was not only disseminating pro-ISIS propaganda on-line, but that she would connect likeminded Americans to ISIS travel coordinators for helping them join the figh ..read more

A Texas man named Guy Reffitt has found himself at the edge of the new legal frontier, a place where privacy rights and encrypted technology face aggressive prosecutors willing to push for their strongest criminal case. This Guy did not bring a lot of sympathy to the legal battle—he is alleged to have traveled from Wylie, Texas to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, with an AR-15 and a .40 caliber handgun, carrying the handgun on his waist at the Capitol. He also sported a helmet cam, and when it was seized a short time after the riot, the government found three video files – including two labeled ..read more