Recent Supreme Court Decision Presents Avenue for Felons to Possess Guns Again Last year when the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, many advocates of Second Amendment rights saw an opening for greatly...
Federal Crimes
Department of Justice Shifting Focus to Concentrate on White Collar Crime Enforcement
High Ranking Official Highlights Appointment of Chief Counsel for Corporate Enforcement as Evidence of New Focus This past Monday, the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, Marshall Miller, announced during a panel on white-collar crime that the Department of...
Will the Federal Government Ease Marijuana Restrictions?
Federal Agency Recommends Marijuana Reclassification and Rescheduling The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), recommended that the DEA reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I substance...
Federal Sentencing Guidelines Amended for Zero Criminal History Point Offenders
Federal Sentencing Guidelines Amended for Zero Criminal History Point Offenders Defendants With No Criminal History to Receive Reduction in Guideline Level Calculation The United States Sentencing Commission recently met and made changes to the federal sentencing...
Ex-Top Staffer Found Guilty as Part of Federal Investigation into Public Corruption
Former-Chief of Staff for Former-House Speaker Madigan Found Guilty of Obstruction and Perjury A federal jury only needed 5 hours to find longtime ex-Chief of Staff to Michael Madigan, Tim Mapes eguilty of obstruction of justice and perjury charges stemming from...
Former Chicago Officers Charged with COVID-19 Relief Fraud
Federal Charges Continue to Show That No One Is Above the Law Two former Chicago Police Department (CPD) Officers were charged federally for fraudulently obtaining over $2 million in money earmarked for COVID-19 relief programs. Last month, Torrey Price retired from...
Landmark Case Over Cryptocurrency Security Classification
Federal Judge Rejects SEC Case, Rules Cryptocurrency Token Not a Security In an update to our earlier coverage over the ongoing efforts of the SEC to regulate aspects of the cryptocurrency market, a Southern District of New York judge recently ruled that a token...
Department of Justice Continues Crackdown on Fentanyl
DOJ Arrests Chinese Nationals for Fentanyl Distribution Two weeks ago the Department of Justice announced that they indicted eight Chinese nationals and filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies for alleged fentanyl manufacturing and...
Government Expands Investigation Tools for PPP Fraud and Other Pandemic Relief Programs
Governor Pritzker Likely to Extending Statute of Limitations for Pandemic Relief Fraud It is widely expected that Illinois Governor Pritzker will sign recently passed legislation that will extend the statute of limitations to bring criminal charges against individuals...
Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act Effects on the Healthcare Industry
What Are the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act? The Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) is a criminal statute that was originally passed in 1972 in order to rein in healthcare abuses that had proliferated in the years immediately after the creation of Medicare and...