Fort Lauderdale police agencies have technology to read license plates. Once read, the plates are matched against outstanding traffic tickets. In addition, the owner’s name is matched against outstanding criminal warrants. At what point does constitutional rights run up against and, in effect, trump technologies that enhance surveillance? When does…
A fund manager in Sarasota, Florida was charged with defrauding investors of $3.8 million. The fund manager, Gaeton Della Penna, faces federal criminal charges in the Middle District of Florida for defrauding investors. Criminal charges, filed in federal court, are in addition to the SEC charges. The allegations are that…
The History Channel‘s broadcast of “Weather Warfare” focused international interest in The State of the Nation’s demand that the International Criminal Court begin a criminal investigation into what I have dubbed “The ChemtrailGate Conspiracy.” The allegations are that ChemtrailGate conspirators are spraying sulfuric acid and aluminum compounds into the upper…
Asset forfeiture is a civil process, not a criminal punishment. By that legal fiction, prosecutors can strip assets from anyone who is arrested. The arresting agency can seize property with the objective of taking title from its owner. The lead case on forfeiture statutes, Bennis v. Michigan, came from the…
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the total amount of money laundered worldwide in one year is $2 trillion U.S. Dollars. That is 3% of the world’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in U.S. dollars. To put that in perspective: it is an amount equal to the…
White-collar crime covers a lot of legal territory; from security fraud, wire-fraud, money laundering to tax evasion. In this situation the second largest bank in Switzerland, Credit Suisse, has been indicated (charged) and has been adjudicated guilty of a felony. Historically, the United States and the New York State’s Attorney…
Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the United States Civil War. Japanese Americans were interred during World War II. There are always good reasons to side step the 4th Amendment when we perceive real threats to our way of life. This topic is again in U.S. Federal Courts and it…
For Financial Advisors (stockbrokers), the easing of the sealing and expunging process of Financial Advisor complaints is welcome news, and for anyone who owns stocks, this news may be, well…unwelcome. First a little backgrounder: The New York Stock Exchange has been on an historic run-up. Since the meltdown of 2007-2008,…
In the late 1980’s, through the end of the 1990’s, criminal defense lawyers took on clients who were prosecuted in U.S. Federal District Courts in New York and Florida for acts that are now prosecuted under the Patriots Act. Internationally anti-terrorist military actions by the U.S. government on foreign soil…
The FBI has a policy that agents cannot use recording devices/systems when interviewing people who are arrested or are the subject of a criminal investigation; The “302” black hole. “Form 302” is the form used by the FBI, a “302” is a handwritten summary, written by an FBI agent, after…