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Cellphone geofence warrants are court orders that require technology companies to disclose location information for every device found within a defined geographic area during a specified time. In 2026, the United States Supreme Court significantly expanded Fourth Amendment protections by holding ...

Before December 2018, a federal inmate could not ask a court for a shorter sentence. Only the Bureau of Prisons could bring that request, and it rarely did. The First Step Act rewrote 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) to let prisoners file their own motions. That single procedural change turned compassio...

A federal appeal is not a second trial. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, the courts of appeals have jurisdiction over final decisions of the district courts, and that single sentence controls almost everything about how a conviction gets challenged. No new witnesses. No new exhibits. The panel reads the r...

A private equity partner does not need to steal a dollar to face a criminal indictment. Under 15 U.S.C. § 80b-6, the Investment Advisers Act makes it unlawful for any adviser to engage in a transaction or course of business that operates as a fraud or deceit on a client, and a willful violation o...

A defense contractor does not need to pay for confidential bid information to face federal prosecution. Under 41 U.S.C. §§ 2101 through 2107, simply obtaining another company's protected pricing or technical data before a federal contract is awarded can trigger criminal exposure, even if the info...

A willful failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program can carry a $250,000 fine and five years in federal prison under 31 U.S.C. § 5322, the criminal penalty section of the Bank Secrecy Act. Reckless disregard is enough to trigger it. Willful blindness works too. For fintech fo...

Federal sentencing runs on a point system with no real counterpart in California state court. A grid built from offense levels and criminal history categories tells the judge where a case should land, and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) tells the judge what to do with that number. For a corporate executive, ...

A $200 tax stamp. A months-long wait for approval. That is the only thing separating a lawfully registered machine gun from a felony that carries ten years in federal prison. Most collectors never learn this distinction until an ATF agent is standing in their gun room. 18 U.S.C. § 922 and 26 U.S....

On March 26, 2025, a federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced Joseph LaForte to 186 months in prison. LaForte was not a mob boss. He ran a merchant cash advance company called Par Funding, an operation that looked, at least on paper, like an ordinary alternative lender to small businesses. Prosecu...

The Department of Justice's Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (Corporate Enforcement Policy or CEP), together with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines under U.S.S.G. § 8C2.5, creates incentives for corporations that voluntarily disclose misconduct, fully cooperate with fede...

The federal Civil False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729, imposes liability for knowingly submitting false claims for payment to the government. In comparison, 18 U.S.C. § 287 creates criminal liability for presenting false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims to the United States. In recent years, fede...

The federal Data Security Program (DSP) restricts certain transactions involving bulk sensitive personal data and government-related data when foreign adversaries may gain access. The program is implemented under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq. Co...

Falsifying customs declarations or domestic content certifications can expose individuals and businesses to federal criminal investigations under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for making false statements to the federal government and civil enforcement under 15 U.S.C. § 45 for deceptive "Made in USA" advertisi...

A software company in Orange County sends a signed licensing agreement to a client by FedEx. Eighteen months later, two federal agents show up asking about that exact package. What looked like a contract dispute over unmet deliverables has become a mail fraud investigation under 18 U.S.C. Section...

A false statement investigation under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 is not simply about whether a statement was inaccurate. Federal prosecutors must also prove that the statement was material, meaning it was capable of influencing a federal agency's decision or action.  If a statement was not material, then...

Wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 makes it a federal crime to use interstate electronic communications in a scheme to obtain money or property through false or fraudulent representations. In export enforcement cases, the Department of Justice increasingly combines wire fraud allegations....

15 U.S.C. § 78u gives the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) broad authority to investigate securities law violations, issue subpoenas, pursue civil enforcement actions, and share evidence with the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution. In many cases of securities fraud...

The United States government maintains expansive enforcement powers when investigating white-collar crime. Among the most versatile and frequently utilized weapons in the federal prosecutor's arsenal is the federal mail fraud statute, codified under 18 U.S.C. 1341. Because the mail system touches...

The healthcare industry operates under some of the most complex regulations in the United States. To combat waste, inflation, and fraud in federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, the federal government employs aggressive investigative measures. Among the most powerful pre-liti...

An internal audit is never just a formality when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is the silent observer. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1510, federal prosecutors can charge individuals and corporate employees with obstructing a criminal investigation by interfering with communications to federal investig...

Facing a federal investigation or high-stakes federal litigation is one of the most stressful experiences an individual or business owner can encounter. Federal agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the Securities and Exchange Comm...

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is a federal law that serves to protect investors from corporate fraud and whistleblower employees from retaliation. For executives, board members, compliance officers, and accounting professionals, a signature on a financial disclosure can become the centerpiece of ...

Yesterday's strategic partnership could become tomorrow's criminal investigation in the eyes of the federal government. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1-7, federal prosecutors aggressively investigate allegations involving price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation, monopolizatio...

Federal asset forfeiture allows the government to seize money, vehicles, bank accounts, cryptocurrency, real estate, and other property that investigators claim is connected to criminal activity. In many cases, the seizure happens before any conviction, and sometimes before formal charges are eve...

Federal cryptocurrency and virtual asset fraud cases often center on allegations that someone used electronic communications to deceive investors, customers, lenders, or counterparties for financial gain. These cases can involve millions of dollars, international transactions, asset seizures, and...