Lying to federal agents is against the law, and the 5th Amendment will not protect you if you choose to do it. Under the 5th Amendment, you have the right to avoid incriminating yourself. At least, that’s the simplified version of the 5th Amendment you…
12 million Americans use payday loans every year. There are scammers who are well aware of that fact. Here’s how the scam works. They send a letter or call you up. They tell you that you took out a payday loan years and years ago.…
Polygraphs are notorious for being “junk science.” The technology behind them hasn’t been updated since the 1950s, and they are only 80% to 90% accurate. In fact, some experts say they don’t measure lies. They measure stress. Fear. Anxiety. In fact, the APA would tell…
Cybercrime is on the rise in the United States. The State of New York is not immune to the increase in cybercrime accusations and prosecutions. Each year there are more charges for computer fraud, identity theft, and phishing schemes in New York than the year…
Our team at Koch Law has a particular focus on defending cybercrimes, including cyber identity theft, computer fraud, cyber warfare, DDOS attacks, and cyber terrorism. Unlike many traditional practice areas of criminal law, for example, assault or murder, the exact definition of many cybercrimes is…
Sometimes, criminal defendants come to us not because they themselves have committed a crime, but because they have been caught up in the eddies of another person’s criminal act. They’re being charged with conspiracy, often either in a drug case, money laundering case, or fraud…
Under the federal Bank Secrecy Act, banks must report deposits, withdrawals, or transfers of more than $10,000. This doesn’t mean it’s illegal to make them, only that the federal government gets an alert when they see you do it. Some people try to divide up…
Unless you receive a target letter, it’s hard to know if you’re the subject of a federal investigation. There are some subtle signs. Certainly if you’ve done something wrong you should seriously consider you may be under investigation if you start seeing any of them.…
Sometimes it’s just not possible to get an acquittal in a federal case, even if you have a very skilled federal criminal lawyer. You have to remember that 92% of the people who get targeted for a criminal investigation tend to either plead guilty or…
Deferred prosecution can be one of the better case outcomes either at the federal or state level, depending on what you’ve been accused of, how much evidence the prosecution has, and what your alternatives are. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the prosecutor agrees not to…