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Money laundering for most of us is finding a $10 bill in the clothes dryer.

Forgetting to check your pockets when you put your jeans in the laundry is the precursor to clothes dryer joy.

Forgetting to check your pockets for the $10,000.00 in pocket-change you carry when you walk onto an airplane bound for the US can be the precursor to a federal prison term.

Go not lightly into this sad goodnight. Read this money laundering site from the US government.

Not knowing what federal crimes are contained in the Patriot Act and the Bank Secrecy Act is a quick one-two punch that lands many people in jail and then in prison.

If you are a stock broker, financial advisor, banker, businessman with overseas ventures or even purchasing gifts while abroad, you need to have more than a casual awareness of money laundering and money structuring statutes.

Fort Lauderdale and Miami, like New York and Los Angeles are what the Feds call Gateway ports. Florida criminal defense lawyers see more heightened surveillance and prosecutions coming from Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and South Florida than in years past.

The South Florida federal task force focusing on domestic security casts a dragnet that snares many innocents.

If you handle sums of money in excess of $10,000 for yourself, for others, family members or business associates get a mini education on money-laundering. Any criminal defense attorney who does federal court criminal defense can give you a quick overview in less than 10 minutes.

Understanding money laundering and white collar crimes, structuring and cash transaction reports and the alphabet soup of anti-money-laundering statutes is an education best undertaken with a few hours spent googling or consulting with a good criminal defense lawyer.

You don’t want to learn about money-laundering statutes in a holding cell at a federal detention center near an airport. Better to learn about it in a criminal defense lawyer’s office. There’s no excuse for not knowing the law, information is inoculation.

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Local criminal lawyer Ralph Behr represents several mortgage brokers accused of fraud and related crimes in South Florida, Miami and Fort Lauderale. But not the one sentenced by a local Federal Judge. Sadly Mr. Villaba, who pled guilty, was sentenced to six years and a heavy send off from the local federal prosecutor.

Fraud, wire fraud, theft, conspiracy and various bank fraud statutes are the prosecutors tools for prosecuting mortgage fraud cases. The defenses are manifold and quite complex, so most of these cases should go to trial where a jury can weigh the legal complexities.

The federal prosecutors and statewide prosecutors in South Florida are in the process of filing additional cases. Be on the lookout for more news.

South Florida criminal defense attorney Ralph Behr has issued a press release outlining the defenses and defense methods: local South Florida criminal lawyers can obtain a copy from attorney Behr’s law office in Fort Lauderdale.

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FLORIDA FELONY LAW AND GUNS

The June 2008 US Supreme Court decision may arguably force a change in Florida’s law prohibiting those with a felony conviction from owning or possesing a gun.

Fort Lauderdale and Miami have the highest rate of gun ownership in Florida, and the highest felony conviction rate. It gets worse:

Florida has increased felony and felony conviction categories. More and more misdemeanors are becoming a felony.

More and more violations of probation and community control are resulting in felony convictions. Drug possession, drug trafficking, resisting arrest, fleeing and eluding have all became enhanced felony charges in Florida.

Florida law makes it a crime for anyone with a felony conviction to own or possess a gun. Things may change: here’s why:

Constitutional rights cannot be legislatively overruled: that’s basic constitutional law. Courts must apply a balancing test. The best example is your right to free speech does not permit calling out “FIRE!!” in a crowded theater.

If gun ownership is a constitutional right then it follows that the legislature cannot take it away. So the arguement goes, and it will….all the way up to the Supreme Court, and soon.

Florida criminal defense lawyers, a high concentration of them in South Florida, Miami and Fort Lauderdale will soon test Florida’s law about guns and felons. Criminal defense attorney Ralph Behr will be on the front lines of this one…. Watch for more news….

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South Florida, Miami and Fort Lauderdale have more judges on TV than any other State. Why? Miami and Fort Lauderdale have more colorful judges hearing more criminal trials then the TV moguls can shake a TV ad rate card at high rolling sponsors.
Among our now famous South Florida crime stoppers are: David Young,Cristina Penya, Judge Alex Ferrar, Judge Karen Mills. Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyers are awating news from our former Judge who sent one of the Seminole Indians most famous hotel guests into the Broward coroner’s freezer.

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July 1, 2008 is Florida’s ‘take your gun to work’ day.

South Florida workplace parking lots will soon lite up with muzzle flashes as well as street lighting.

Miami, Palm Beach, Broward, and Fort Lauderdale workplaces now must permit employees to bring a gun to work. You must have a gun carry permit and must lock the gun in the car.

NO guns at schools, government buildings, prisons and airports.

Employers in South Florida cannot overrule the law.

If you live and work in the Fort Lauderdale – Miami area check with your criminal defense attorney to be sure you are not violating the law even if you have a concealed weapon permit. Being arrested in Florida is always easy, getting out of jail is never easy.

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2008 is a bumper year for new criminal laws.

Soon the prosecutors of Florida will have a new statute to use against those arrested in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The Anti-Gang crime statute.
Singed into law it is now a first degree felony punishable by life in prison for those designated as leaders or organizers of criminal gangs to initiate, organize or pay for gang activities.

South Florida criminal defense lawyers are waiting for the State Attorney to sweep up 7th graders at local McDonalds there for after-school burgers and gang meetings.

Senate President Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach sponsored the bill. He called it the legislature’s taking back street corners from criminals.

The law offices of Ralph Behr issued a press release to the Fort Lauderdale, Broward and Miami community newspapers advising them of the new law and its implications. South Florida is long in the news when it comes to crime: drug crimes, violation of probation and murders.

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Federal criminal prosecutions too often are one-sided. For many accused and tried in Federal court it appears to them that the rules change with each turn of the wheel.

Florida federal criminal defense attorneys see it again and again. From drug possession prosecutions through wire fraud and money laundering the ‘relevant conduct’ sentencing loopholes permit sentencing which has all the appearance of a kangeroo court making up rules which favor the government.

South Florida criminal lawyers, among them attorney Ralph Behr, a former member of the Federal Rules Committee of the Florida Bar, has fought for clients who have been unfairly treated at sentencing. Here’s an example:

In what may be one of a long line of cases highlighting the unfairness of Federal criminal prosecutions Anwuan Ball was sentenced by a Judge in Federal court for crimes for which he was not on trial.

An angry juror wrote:

As you remember, Judge Roberts, we spent 8 months listening to the evidence, filling countless court-supplied notebooks, making summaries of those notes, and even creating card catalogues to keep track of all the witnesses and their statements. We deliberated for over 2 months, 4 days a week, 8 hours a day. We went over everything in detail. If any of our fellow jurors had a doubt, a question, an idea, or just wanted something repeated, we all stopped and made time. Conspiracy? A crew? With the evidence the prosecutor presented, not one among us could see it. Racketeering? We dismissed that even more quickly. No conspiracy shown but more importantly, where was the money? No big bank accounts. Mostly old cars. Small apartments or living with relatives.
It seems to me a tragedy that one is asked to serve on a jury, serves, but then finds their work may not be given the credit it deserves. We, the jury, all took our charge seriously. We virtually gave up our private lives to devote our time to the cause of justice, and it is a very noble cause as you know, sir. We looked across the table at one another in respect and in sympathy. We listened, we thought, we argued, we got mad and left the room, we broke, we rested that charge until tomorrow, we went on. Eventually, through every hour-long tape of a single drug sale, hundreds of pages of transcripts, ballistics evidence, and photos, we delivered to you our verdicts.

What does it say to our contribution as jurors when we see our verdicts, in my personal view, not given their proper weight. It appears to me that these defendants are being sentenced not on the charges for which they have been found guilty but on the charges for which the District Attorney’s office would have liked them to have been found guilty. Had they shown us hard evidence, that might have been the outcome, but that was not the case.

Jurors acquitted Ball in November 2007 Ball was found not guilty on all counts of racketeering, drug conspiracy and murder. He was found guilty of possession of a half-ounce hand-to-hand crack-cocaine sale in Washington seven years prior.

Federal prosecutors requested Judge Richard W. Roberts to sentence Ball to 40 years, based on charges that were never filed or conduct the jury never asked considered.

Federal sentencing guidelines permit judges to sentence for crimes not charged under the “acquitted and uncharged conduct” federal sentencing.

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US SUPREME COURT IN SPRING 2008 RULES ON DC GUN BAN

Q: What does this mean for Florida criminal law?

In what will soon be regarded as a landmark decision, Florida criminal defense attorney Ralph Behr has issued advisories to his clients concerning gun possession and related gun possession charges.

Changes in gun laws affect all aspects of criminal law, not only gun crimes, but any criminal charges involving the use or or display of guns.

Broward County, Florida, as well as Miami Florida and Palm Beach has the highest concentration of gun owners and gun related crimes in Florida.

The decision holds that the right to own guns is guaranteed by the constitution.

The court goes on to say that the regulation of guns is not beyond the reach of government. Gun laws in Florida permit guns to be carried with a permit.

The court’s ruling allows “reasonable restrictions” but does not, as most Florida criminal lawyers agree: give enough guidance.

Criminal attorneys in Florida are waiting for gun cases to move through the courts for clarification.

Guns that are used in crimes are punished differently then when guns are trafficked. Trafficking in guns goes beyond personal use and ownership and has penalties that can rise to life imprisonment in Florida.

Similar to drug trafficking and drug possession laws, Florida criminal lawyers will look to the courts for interpretations that affect Florida residents who are charged with gun related crimes.

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SPRING TERM 2008 U.S. SUPREME COURT NEWS

The lethal injection process of execution has been found by the US Supreme Court as not violative of the US constitution.

The most recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court permits Florida to continue to execute by lethal injection.

Broward County and Fort Lauderdale continue to lead the State of Florida in convictions for capital homicide and drug trafficking charges.

Capital homicide trials continue to bifurcate: that is after a finding of guilt on homicide charges, the jury then hears argument on punishment and makes a recommendation to the judge for life in prison or execution. It is the judge who makes the decision and is not bound by the jury’s recommendation for execution or life in prison.

Fort most criminal lawyers in Fort Lauderdale the ruling was expected. Many Death Certified criminal lawyers, such as Attorney Ralph Behr, continue to preserve the issue for appelate courts by objecting at criminal trials of capital homicide cases to the death penalty.

Florida’s drug trafficking laws F.S. 921.142 provide for the death penalty in drug trafficking cases in which certain “aggravators” appear. Those “aggravators” are listed in the drug trafficking statute.

The U.S. Supreme court has not heard any Florida criminal cases in which the death penalty has been sought for drug trafficking. Fort Lauderdale and Miami send more drug trafficking case appeals to appeals courts than any other Florida districts.

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In a press release from the Law Offices of Ralph Behr on June 16, 2008 South Florida criminal defense attorney Ralph Behr announced his office will argue what may be the first criminal case in Florida which demands immunity from prosecution for lawful acts of self defense.

The criminal case currently is in the criminal trials courts of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County.

The defendant is charged with Attempted Murder, the case facts also allege the crimes of kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and two counts of armed home invasion, as well as pendindg drug trafficking charges from cocaine and cannabis found at the crime scene.

The defense will demand the court grant immunity from prosecution based on Florida’s newly passed self defense statute F.S. 776.032. The case currently is in the Broward circuit courts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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