Articles Posted in Federal Crimes

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As the Internet becomes more popular and more accessible through portable and handheld devices, more people are sending sexually explicit pictures in violation of state and federal laws. These pictures are also being sent as attachments to text messages to and from cell phones. What one person thinks is a harmless or funny text or email may actually be a serious felony crime.

Federal law enforcement authorities have noted an increase in such online criminal behavior. One area that is specifically of note is the crime of sexual extortion. Sexual extortion may result when a teenager sends a naked or suggestive picture of herself over the Internet, and someone threatens to expose her behavior to family or friends unless she sends more such pictures or more sexually explicit pictures. One federal criminal affidavit labeled this kind of crime as sextortion, according to an article on SFgate.com. The article provides several examples of recent, high-profile cases involving sexual extortion over the Internet, and the punishments some of these defendants are getting are severe, including lengthy prison sentences. Some people, particularly young people, may assume that sending sexually suggestive pictures over the Internet or via text message is fun or a harmless prank. However, depending on the circumstances, state or federal law enforcement officials may consider it a serious crime with serious consequences. And emails and text messages are often easy to trace back to the sender. The best course of action is to not post any suggestive pictures of oneself or anyone else on the Internet or send them via email or text message to anyone. Once they get posted or sent, they can end up anywhere.

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For a long time in federal criminal court, sentences for crimes involving crack cocaine were much harsher than sentences for crimes involving powder cocaine. In fact, all other things being equal, a person with 100 grams of powder cocaine may likely receive the same sentence as a person with 1 gram of crack cocaine. The Obama administration has discussed changing this system so that crack cocaine crimes are punished more in line with powder cocaine crimes in federal court.

Congress recently passed a law to help accomplish that goal, at least partially. The law does not equalize powder cocaine and crack cocaine sentences, but it significantly lowers the sentencing ratio. Now, all things being equal, 1 gram of powder cocaine is punished the same way as 18 grams of crack cocaine in federal criminal cases. Additionally, 28 grams of crack cocaine will trigger the 5 year minimum mandatory prison sentence while 280 grams of powder cocaine will trigger that 5 year minimum mandatory federal prison sentence.

Now, the question for many people who are serving sentences for crack cocaine crimes in federal prison, or have pending crack cocaine cases in federal court, is whether this new law applies to them. Can a person who is serving a sentence for a crack cocaine crime who was sentenced pursuant to the 100-1 ratio go back in front of a federal judge to get his/her sentence reduced? Can a person with a pending crack cocaine case be sentenced pursuant to the new 18-1 ratio? The new law does not address these questions, i.e. when the law becomes effective, or whether the law is retroactive. Normally, when a law does not address this issue of the effective date or retroactivity, it does not apply to prior or existing cases. Normally, it would only apply to cases where the date of the offense occurred after the date the law was officially passed. However, that issue will likely be argued and litigated in federal criminal cases going forward.

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Several Employees of United Directories, a company located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, were indicted in federal court for allegedly defrauding businesses out of more than $400 million by allegedly sending fraudulent bills for Yellow Pages advertisements. Federal law enforcement officials said United Directories and its employees sent the false Yellow Pages advertisement bills of several hundred dollars each to more than 100,000 companies across the country over a four year period.

Two of the charges include mail fraud and money laundering. The federal government will charge someone with mail fraud any time a person is alleged to have used the mail to commit or facilitate fraud. Using the mail as part of a scheme to defraud confers jurisdiction upon the federal government in a criminal case. Money laundering involves taking money that is known to come from illegal activity or an illegal source and mixing it with legitimate money in an attempt to conceal the source of the money, or clean it. When this kind of money is involved in an alleged fraudulent scheme, the potential penalties can be quite severe.

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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently issued a memorandum regarding the U.S. Attorney’s Office charging of federal crimes and sentencing. The new memo basically supersedes the previous policy of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Aschcroft’s policies on charging and sentencing sought more uniformity and less discretion. Holder’s policy appears to recognize that each case and each defendant are different so more discretion and “individual assessment” are appropriate when considering the charges and sentencing enhacements.

The prior policy of the government was to charge the most serious crime(s) that can be considered consistent with the defendant’s conduct and likely to obtain a conviction. The new policy appears to encourage prosecutors to take a closer look into the characteristics of the individual defendant and the case to see if a departure from the most serious charges and sentencing enhancements may be warranted.

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The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill that would make sentences for crack cocaine crimes more in line with sentences for similar powder cocaine crimes in federal courts. As it stands now, defendants can be sentenced much more harshly for crack cocaine crimes as opposed to equivalent powder cocaine crimes. In other words, a person can have a relatively small amount of crack cocaine and receive a much higher prison sentence than a person who has an equal or even lesser amount of powder cocaine. The unfairness of this system in federal courts has been discussed for years, and the Obama administration has given a clear indication of its intent to move towards equalizing the two crimes or at least pulling sentences closer together.

The bill that passed in the Senate does not go as far as making crack cocaine and powder cocaine crimes equal in terms of penalties, but it does reduce the disparity when a person is sentenced for crack cocaine crimes versus powder cocaine crimes. The bill also eliminates minimum mandatory sentences for people charged with simple possession of crack cocaine.

The bill making crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentences more similar, though not equal, is not yet the law. The bill still has to go through the normal legislative process. However, it is likely that at some point in the future, crack cocaine sentences and powder cocaine sentences will get in the same ballpark. But until that happens, the sentences for crack cocaine cases are much more serious than sentences for powder cocaine cases in federal courts.

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Based on the tone and substance of a recent speech and press release from Eric Holder, the federal government plans to step up investigations and prosecutions of medical professionals for health care fraud. Mr. Holder made it clear that the government considers health care fraud one of the country’s “most destructive” and “widespread” challenges. As a result, the federal government has created a couple of task forces specifically conceived to deal with health care fraud cases. Mr. Holder is also asking state and local law enforcement agencies to assist the federal government in making health care fraud cases and make their own cases.

Health care fraud, also referred to as Medicare or Medicaid fraud, can take several forms. Some of the more common accusations of health care fraud involve claims that doctors are charging the government for medical services or equipment that were not necessary or doctors are charging the government for medical services or equipment that were not provided. Investigators will look for what they consider to be excessive or unusual billing practices when investigating health care fraud cases.

According to the government, approximately $60 billion in public and private health care spending is lost each year to health care fraud. As a result, the government is increasing its budget to fight what they perceive to be health care fraud. In 2010, the federal government increased the health care fraud budget from $200 million to $300 million. As expected, health care fraud cases have increased. In the six months prior to the speech and press release, 60 health care fraud cases were filed and over 200 people were charged with health care fraud related crimes.

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A Jacksonville Beach, Florida man was recently indicted on three counts of possessing child pornography, one count of transporting child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography in federal court, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. The charges together carry a maximum potential sentence of 100 years in federal prison.

Law enforcement authorities on the state and federal levels are focusing more and more on child pornography cases. As most people should know, it is a federal crime and a state crime to possess child pornography pictures and videos, create them, share them, distribute them or receive them. Viewing child pornography on one’s computer and then deleting the file is illegal. Law enforcement officials have effective computer tracking technology which can tell them which computers may contain child pornography files. As this technology gets better and more people use the internet (which gives people better access and opportunity to view child pornography pictures and videos), state and federal law enforcement will make more and more arrests. And when these arrests are made and child pornography charges are brought, the potential penalties are very serious.

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Federal law enforcement officials arrested 26 doctors, nurses and other health care providers in Miami, New York and Detroit for Medicare fraud according to a recent article. We are also aware of similar arrests made recently in the Jacksonville, Florida area. According to the article, the alleged Medicare fraud was committed in several ways. Medicare fraud typically involves a doctor or other medical provider billing Medicare for services that were never performed or required, billing for unnecessary medical equipment or billing at an excessive rate.

In these cases, the suspects allegedly committed Medicare fraud by billing for expensive shoe inserts while providing a much cheaper version to the patients, billing for expensive treatments that were not medically necessary, submitting old ultrasound readings that were found at another doctor’s office and billing for expensive home-care visits for homeless people or people who were paid to fake symptoms. The article indicates that the total amount of the Medicare fraud cost taxpayers approximately $16 million.

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The government has established a new task force called the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force which is designed to investigate and prosecute major financial crimes, according to a Department of Justice press release. The agencies that are part of the new task force will focus primarily on the areas of mortgage fraud, securities fraud and corporate fraud. The task force is a collaboration of a variety of different agencies that work in those fields including the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI and many others along with state and local law enforcement agencies as well.

Although a similar task force was created in 2002 (which was replaced by this one), the logical result of this will be more investigations and prosecutions of so-called white collar crimes, particularly in the area of mortgage fraud. Florida is commonly seen as one of the states, if not the state, with the highest number of mortgage fraud complaints and investigations.

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After the Bernie Madoff debacle, Ponzi schemes are getting more publicity in the news. Ponzi schemes can be committed in different ways, but they typically involve a person or persons who are able to elicit trust from others who believe that person has the ability to make extraordinary returns on an investment. The Ponzi schemer will solicit money from a number of people and use those new payments from newer victims to pay prior victims just enough to keep them satisfied and avoid suspicion. However, invariably, the Ponzi schemer runs out of new investors, and money, or an investor gets suspicious and starts asking questions and requesting documentation about the investment and the Ponzi scheme falls apart.

In this case, Reed Diehl, who was a former Tennessee Titan in the NFL, solicited money from victims claiming that he would invest the money into loan programs and condominium projects in Mexico that would provide a high rate of return, according to a press release on the local U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website. When the Ponzi scheme fell apart, Mr. Diehl was ultimately charged with federal crimes such as wire fraud and money laundering. He entered a guilty plea and admitted to stealing over $5 million. There were never any investments in loans or building projects. Mr. Diehl was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison in California.

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