federal criminal attorney

Drug Trafficking and the Safety Valve Exception

Published on: October 14, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

The “Safety Valve” exception is a statutory exception to mandatory minimum sentencing laws. A safety valve allows a judge to sentence a person below the mandatory minimum term if certain conditions are met. The “Safety Valve” provision is a provision of law codified in 18 United States Code §3553(f). It specifically allows a judge to sentence below the minimum mandatory required by law. However, you must be eligible. There is also a two level reduction in the sentencing guidelines under United States Sentencing Guidelines §2D1.1(b)(17).

The requirements set out in 18 U.S.C. §3553(f) are:

You do not have more than 1 criminal history point.

School Threats Resulting in Criminal Charges

Published on: September 28, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

Schools across the state of Georgia are facing an increase in threats of violence. It has led schools to step up security. Each and every threat must be taken seriously. Some of these threats turn out to be real, so officials have beefed up security everywhere, including for example, Fulton County Schools implementing license plate readers on all of its campuses.

But,what if a threat is simply a result of a prank? What charges could result from calling in a threat that is not real? Criminal defense attorney Meg Strickler recently commented on NBC 11 Alive News about this very issue. Calling in a threat to a school can be very disruptive and it will always involve law enforcement. Teens can thus face charges ranging from misdemeanor to federal charges. And, the school can also suspend or expel a student for this conduct.

It is a complex situation especially in these times.

The Department of Justice in the Northern District of Georgia Federal Court will add a New Pretrial Diversion Court

Published on: May 9, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

On April 11, 2022, the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta announced the creation of a new pretrial diversion court, the Accountability, Treatment, and Leadership Court “ATL Court“. It is formed with the Northern District of Georgia, the U.S. Probation Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Federal Defender Program, and will be run by folks from each of these agencies who will be known as the ATL Court Team. Please note: The ATL Court is in addition to, and not a replacement of, the Northern District of Georgia’s existing Pretrial Diversion Program.

“THE ATL COURT MISSION: Our mission is to provide the opportunity to avoid some of the consequences of aberrant criminal conduct to certain individuals charged with non-violent crimes in the Northern District of Georgia who would most greatly benefit from intense supervision, education, or treatment.”

HOW ATL COURT WORKS

SEC Complaint, RICO, Securities Fraud – biggest case against financial crime in SDNY in a long time

Published on: April 28, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

Manhattan federal agents arrested Archegos Capital Management founder Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang on April 27, 2022 on fraud charges, roughly one year after the investment firm’s huge losses back in March 2021. Department of Justice prosecutors are charging both Hwang and Patrick Halligan, the firm’s chief financial officer, with racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud offenses as part of schemes allegedly designed to “unlawfully manipulate” the price of publicly traded securities.

The 59-page indictment, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges the men and others at Archegos sometimes timed their trades to drum up the interest of other investors, while borrowing money to make bigger and bigger bets. The Department of Justice states, “Hwang and his co-conspirators invested in stocks mostly through special contracts with banks and brokers called “swaps.” As alleged, these swaps allowed Hwang to cause massive buying of certain stocks, including at carefully selected days and times, to artificially pump up stock prices. Hwang, Halligan, and their co-conspirators lied to banks and used a series of manipulative trading techniques to keep those prices high and prevent them from falling. The lies fed the inflation, and the inflation led to more lies. The scale of this alleged fraud was stunning. In one year, Hwang turned a $1.5 billion portfolio and fraudulently pumped it up into a $35 billion portfolio.” The effective size of the firm’s stock positions swelled to $160 billion — rivaling some of the biggest hedge funds in the world. The case marks the biggest financial-crime charges to come out of the Southern District of New York under the leadership of Mr. Damian Williams, who was sworn in October 10, 2021.

The SEC has also filed a civil complaint stating that Mr. Becker, the former chief risk officer at Archegos, and Mr. Tomita, the firm’s former top trader, had led discussions with the banks about the firm’s trading positions but that Mr. Hwang and Mr. Halligan had directed and set the tone for those discussions.

What are the current DOJ priorities?

Published on: April 1, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made recent comments about what he considered to be the Department of Justice’s top priorities for 2022. Since taking office in March 2021, Garland has tried to combat crime in a tumultuous time. He has been criticized for his handling of January 6 investigation and has stated it’s the most urgent probe in history.

With all of this going on, the US Attorney’s office increased its prosecutions of individuals of white collar crimes in the year 2021. White collar charges like fraud, theft, corruption, bribery, environmental crime, tax fraud, health care fraud, procurement fraud, money laundering, PPP loan fraud, etc will continue to get more attention from the Department of Justice.

What does this mean? It means that investigations of any sort need to be taken seriously and that you should contact a lawyer immediately if any wrongdoing is alleged.

Q&A Grand Jury subpoenas

Published on: December 16, 2021 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

What is a Grand Jury?

The purpose of the grand jury is to determine whether or not there is probable cause to believe that any federal felony has been committed. A typical federal grand jury consists of between 16-23 citizens drawn from the community.

The jurors meet in a closed courtroom, with no judge, no accused, no press, and no lawyer but the prosecutor present. This means your lawyer will NOT be present in the closed court room. The grand jurors decide whether or not to indict a person or persons by listening to witnesses and evaluating evidence obtained by grand jury subpoenas. At least 12 grand jurors must find that there is sufficient probable cause in order to return a True Bill, which when signed by the prosecutor becomes the indictment: the formal criminal charge that the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. If the grand jury does not find sufficient probable cause, which almost never occurs, then it returns a No Bill.