Noor Zahi Salman, (the second and current wife of the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen), told the FBI she knew of Mateen’s plan for a mass murder shooting, accompanied him to scout out potential targets, went with him to the Pulse Club in Orlando, and accompanied him to buy a holster and…
Most U.S. taxpayers do not run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division. Known as the CID, it has special agents who work either with other criminal prosecution agencies, in or with inter-agency task forces, or are assigned on a case by case basis to a U.S. Attorney…
This week the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that E.S. Financial Services, a Miami based brokerage firm, settled what could have been a major criminal case with an agreed $ 1 million penalty payment to settle the charges and possibly avoid criminal prosecution. The SEC issued a press release which…
Source: irs.gov On January 27, 2016, the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs issued a press release announcing its victory in a Virginia federal court where a gas station owner pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States in what appears to be a renewed effort…
Presentence reports are prepared by the probation officer assigned to the federal judge’s courtroom. The judge looks to the report in making sentencing decisions and defendants’ attorneys can object or supplement the presentence report. Here are some considerations on how to help yourself if you are being sentenced in a…
This past Saturday, January 9th, Sean Penn published an extensive article in Rolling Stone detailing his covert trip to Mexico to meet and interview the drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera a/k/a El Chapo, along with Mexican actress Kate Del Castillo. Sean Penn could now be the focus of a criminal investigation and…
Antitrust crime is a catch-all for unacceptable business practices and since antitrust violations are broadly defined and the decision to prosecute is more of a policy decision than anything else, the crimes are defined more in the selection of who is arrested than what the actual criminal act is. For…
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has a compassionate release program that offers early release or a reduction of sentence to certain eligible federal inmates for “particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonable have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing,” according to their Program Statement, published…
This past week, the Senate Bill S. 2123, titled, “The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015,” was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a vote of 15-5. The bill lowers minimum mandatory sentences of certain drug offenses and certain armed offenses, while establishing new minimum mandatory sentences for certain domestic violence offenses…
United States District Courts were, until recent years, required to strictly and mechanically follow the sentencing guidelines propounded by the U. S. Sentencing Commission. With the changes of the past eight years, the Courts have been largely permitted to vary or depart from the guidelines. Nonetheless, the U.S. Sentencing Commission…