Contrary to what many Americans believe, not all federal white collar crime cases involve billion dollar public scandals, and jet setting CEO’s caught defrauding their helpless and innocent clients. The fact is that a federal indictment can happen to anyone, including those who made one bad decision, or those who become caught up in the illegal actions of others. Even worse, these indictments are sometimes filed on completely innocent individuals due to their complex nature. Crimes such as bribery, identity theft, embezzlement, and fraud crimes including wire fraud, contracting fraud, and mail fraud require a criminal lawyer to have an expert understanding of the law and all the available defenses. White collar criminal defense also requires representation from someone who is willing to devote the time and put in the effort to tirelessly fight the federal government. The stakes are extremely high in all cases, as often a defendant with no criminal record is facing severe maximum penalties. The Herbst Firm understands the complex nature of these cases, and are willing to take on US attorneys from day one of their representation.
The US government is placing an increased emphasis on cracking down on white collar crimes that end up costing citizens and consumers billions of dollars each year. An increased emphasis by the federal government means that more arrests and prosecutions for white collar crimes are occurring each year. Some of these arrests happen to individuals who have no criminal intentions, but are caught up in some sort of scheme to defraud. These fraud schemes such as pyramid scams, work from home scams, and timeshare fraud are designed to attract innocent people who have no criminal intentions but end can up facing serious criminal charges.
White collar crimes are typically investigated by the FBI more than any other federal law enforcement agency. The FBI makes arrests for white collar fraud crimes such as insurance fraud, health care fraud, and mortgage fraud. Insurance fraud reportedly costs insurance companies roughly 30 billion dollars per year, and this loss is eventually passed onto the consumer. These insurance companies have large and powerful lobby groups that place pressure on federal and state governments to crackdown on insurance fraud. There are many private investigative and government regulatory institutions that focus their efforts on insurance fraud investigations, and thus FBI defers most of its resources to investigating large scale insurance fraud cases, and insurance fraud cases involving staged auto accidents, bodily injury fraud, and property insurance fraud. The FBI secures search warrants and arrest warrants in white collar cases using a variety tactics including deploying undercover agents and conducting covert surveillance. Do not wait to contact a lawyer if you think you are under investigation by the FBI or another US law enforcement agency. If you or someone you know is being investigated or has been arrested or indicted for a federal crime in Maryland, contact The Herbst Firm for a free consultation. We are available 24 hours a day to discuss your case, and we are willing to travel to meet you or a loved one that is incarcerated.