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18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4) makes it a federal felony to knowingly access a protected computer without authorization, or exceed authorized access, with intent to defraud, when the access furthers the intended fraud and results in obtaining something of value. The statute can apply to employees, former...

18 U.S.C. § 1348 makes it a federal felony to knowingly execute or attempt to execute a scheme to defraud a person in connection with certain securities, or to obtain money or property through false or fraudulent pretenses in connection with covered securities. The statute carries a maximum penal...

A Klein conspiracy is a federal conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, or defeating the lawful functions of the IRS through deceitful means. Under 18 U.S.C. § 371, prosecutors must prove an agreement, knowing participation, and an overt act. In an offshore investigatio...

18 U.S.C. § 2252A makes it a federal crime to knowingly receive, distribute, possess, or access with intent to view certain material involving the sexual exploitation of minors. Federal investigations may begin with P2P network monitoring, an IP address, a cloud account, or another digital identi...

18 U.S.C. § 1111 governs federal murder within the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States," applying to homicides occurring on national parks, military bases, federal research campuses, and government facilities under 18 U.S.C. § 7. Because first-degree federal murder...

21 U.S.C. § 848, the federal continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) statute, makes it a crime to participate in a continuing series of federal drug felonies with five or more people while occupying an organizer, supervisory, or management position and obtaining substantial income or resources from ...

18 U.S.C. § 1956 is the primary federal money laundering statute. It prohibits conducting or attempting financial transactions involving proceeds of specified unlawful activity when the transaction is intended to conceal the source, ownership, location, or control of those funds or to promote add...

Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) fraud involves knowingly making false statements, concealing material information, or misrepresenting eligibility to obtain federal contracts reserved for qualifying businesses. Federal prosecutors frequently rely on 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which prohibits false ...

Using withheld payroll taxes to bridge a temporary cash shortfall is one of the fastest paths from a struggling business to a federal felony indictment. Under 26 U.S.C. § 7202, willfully failing to collect, account for, or pay over trust fund taxes carries criminal penalties, and federal prosecut...

John Park never inspected a rat-infested warehouse himself. He ran Acme Markets from a desk in Philadelphia, delegated food safety to subordinates, and still ended up a convicted federal criminal. The Supreme Court upheld his 1975 conviction anyway, and the doctrine that carries his name now reac...

Cross-border wealth concealment investigations often involve allegations that individuals used domestic or foreign business entities to hide assets, evade taxes, or conceal the true ownership of companies. Federal prosecutors frequently rely on 26 U.S.C. § 7201, which addresses tax evasion, toget...

Luxury woods, exotic flooring, specialty leather, and protected plant-based materials often move through multiple countries before reaching the United States. The federal Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3371–3378, makes it a crime to import, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase certain fish, wi...

Aiding or assisting in the preparation of a false or fraudulent tax return is a federal crime under 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2). In recent years, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and the Department of Justice have devoted substantial resources to investigating syndica...

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...