Category Archives: Federal Government Watch
2014 Proposed Amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines by the U.S. Sentencing Commission Added to Digital Library
The 2014 Proposed Amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines by the United States Sentencing Commission (full text) have been added to the Michael Lowe Digital Library. by
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Major Changes to Federal Drug Crime Sentencing Guidelines Underway: DOJ’s Holder Helps Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers Get Lower Sentences for Drug Defendants
In 1986, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act (”ADAA”) which formed a two level (aka two-tiered) formula for use in federal sentencing of certain kinds of drug traffickers. This was the first federal legislation passed as part of the “War on Drugs” (there were others, e.g., the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010). In the ADAA,…
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Client Communications With Criminal Defense Lawyers – Keeping Your Lawyer and Client Communications Safe From Eavesdroppers and Hackers
This week, the director of the National Security Agency responded to the demand letter sent by the American Bar Association (see details on the ABA letter including its full text here) and what Director General Keith Alexander had in reply shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone: the NSA has told the ABA not to worry,…
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Privacy of Lawyer-Client Communications In Danger: The Growing Need for Greater Protections of Communications Between Attorney and Client
A couple of weeks ago, the American Bar Association (ABA) wrote the National Security Agency (NSA) about several concerns that lawyers all over the United States have (regardless of whether or not they are members of the ABA) regarding news that the NSA collecting confidential communications between an American law firm and its client, with…
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Philip Seymour Hoffman Heroin Dealers and the United States Supreme Court: Recent Opinion Makes It Harder to Convict Drug Dealers for Heroin Death Under Federal Law
Philip Seymour Hoffman drug dealers rejoice! The United States Supreme Court has released a new decision that defines a new standard for “causation” in a heroin death case. The High Court interprets the “resulted in the death” language of 21 U.S.C. 841 (the “Controlled Substances Act”) to really mean that it’s a “but for” cause…
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Philip Seymour Hoffman Killed Himself: Predicting the Arrest and Conviction of the Drug Dealers Who Sold Hoffman the Heroin
Philip Seymour Hoffman killed himself. Hoffman became addicted to a substance knowing that he could die using it. We know from the continuing, extensive, international news coverage of Hoffman’s death on Super Bowl Sunday that the talented actor first used heroin in his early 20s and after avoiding the drug for over 20 years, Hoffman…
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USA Today Investigation into Nursing Home Trust Fund Mismanagement Spurs Congressional Investigation: Expect More Texas Nursing Home Trust Fund Fraud Arrests Soon
Recently, USA Today published the results of its investigation into nursing home trust fund mismanagement, and now Senators up in Washington, D.C. are talking about an official federal investigation into nursing home fraud across the country. With all this hoopla, it’s safe to assume that both state and federal fraud investigators in all sorts of…
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Bank Executives Alert: Feds Focusing Upon Bankers in Money Laundering and Tax Fraud Investigations Involving Overseas Bank Accounts – and U.S. Bankers May Be Facing Federal Indictments
This week, two New York federal district judges signed federal court orders that allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve “John Doe summonses” on several different American banks. These are big banks, like the Bank of New York Mellon (Mellon); Citibank NA (Citibank); JPMorgan Chase Bank NA (JPMorgan); HSBC Bank USA NA (HSBC); and…
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Cyber Fraud Manhunt – FBI’s Most Wanted List for Internet Crime Gets Five New Additions: Computer Crimes and Internet Fraud Very Profitable
This week, there’s lots of discussion in the news media about the Obamacare web site, and the revelation that standard procedures for testing the safety and security of the software for personal data being placed into the system by Americans seeking information at the Affordable Care Act site (healthcare.gov) were not followed. (For more, see…
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Mortgage Fraud “Straw Buyer” Cases Are Major Target of Federal Fraud Investigations
Back in July 2013, we pointed out how mortgage fraud indictments have become a big part of federal arrests, investigations, plea deals, and trials and that media coverage will be reporting on a lot more federal mortgage fraud cases after Teresa Giudice and her husband, Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice, who appear in the reality show “The…
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