White Collar Criminal Defense
My broad experience as a federal prosecutor has contributed to my success as a defense attorney. I understand the process the government uses when building a case against a defendant. This insight allows me to develop effective strategies for defending my clients.
During my tenure with the government I was named an outstanding attorney by the Department of Justice Tax Division on three separate occasions and I received a letter of commendation from the Attorney General of the United States for my work prosecuting organized crime in New York.
As a defense attorney, I have been praised for my innovative legal strategies and considerable experience when assisting corporations and executives with government inquiries or internal investigations.
The National Law Journal awarded me its prestigious “2015 Trailblazer” award for my work defending the former president of Stryker Biotech, who was indicted and potentially facing many years in prison before I was able to get all charges dismissed. The National Law Journal editors noted that “the battle between the corporation's attorney-client privilege and the individual manager's advice-of-counsel defense played out in the Stryker Biotech trial. The results were pretrial rulings that the individual defendant had a right to present evidence of attorney-client communications and advice over the corporation's privilege objection and severance of the individual defendant from the corporation was warranted based on this conflict.”
Decades of experience working on criminal tax and health care fraud cases. In one health care case, I was able to convince the government that their massive federal indictment against a hospital executive should be dismissed after a careful review of the evidence revealed exculpatory documents. In addition to tax and health fraud cases, I have defended mail fraud, wire fraud and RICO cases. I have experience with mental health defenses; one of my clients had his federal Ponzi scheme indictment dismissed after he was declared incompetent to stand trial.
Awareness of the collateral consequences that can flow from a criminal conviction and working to avoid them. In one criminal tax case where two business partners were facing jail time I was able to convince the court that the business would fail if both partners were sent to jail at the same time. I argued for consecutive sentences. The court agreed. The men served their time consecutively which allowed the enterprise to operate. Their business is now thriving.
In numerous cases, charges were never brought against my clients because I was able to persuade the government that charges would be inappropriate.
Experience representing many organizations in criminal proceedings both with the Department of Justice and with the Attorneys General of various states. In one case involving a large corporation, an aggressive Assistant United States Attorney promised that the indictment would be filed “within the month.” No charges were ever brought. In another case, I persuaded the New York Attorney General’s office not to bring criminal tax charges against a multinational company. I represented several companies under investigation for back dating their stock options; none were ever charged.
In addition to criminal work, I have significant experience representing companies and individuals in enforcement actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.). I have successfully used the “Wells” process to convince the Commission not to charge my clients on numerous occasions. I have also been able to negotiate favorable settlements in many cases. The S.E.C. has tremendous power, but it is not omnipotent, and I have found that careful arguments can be successful.
Of course, not all criminal cases have happy endings for the defendant, and I cannot guarantee a positive result. But I can promise a careful, creative review of your case and your options.