St. Louis Criminal Defense Legal Blog

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Thursday, March 22, 2018. We suspect at the criminal defense firm of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry in St. Louis that few of our readers across Missouri and elsewhere believe there is a simple answer to the query posed above in today’s blog headline. Indeed, there isn’t, which is acknowledged in a recent Forbes article delving into corporate fraud and its underlying motivations. The white collar criminal universe is varied and tremendously complex in the United States. Moreover, it is bathed in a powerful spotlight these days. Government regulators and law enforcers are …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Thursday, March 1, 2018. An experienced Missouri criminal defense attorney has many and varied responsibilities when called upon to forcefully represent an individual in a criminal law matter. Closely investigating the state’s case in all dimensions is an obvious focus. Did authorities have probable cause to interact with a client? Are there plausible challenges to the state’s offered evidence? Did police officers comply with warrant requirements? Were all required steps and legal processes scrupulously followed? A prominent spotlight also centers sometimes on charging-related matters, especially concerning the question of whether an …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Tuesday, November 28, 2017. Criminal law authorities and enforcers in the United States are being progressively challenged these days by unfolding technologies that test their abilities to monitor citizens’ actions and call out unlawful behavior when they allege it is occurring. Investigators sometimes go to court for approval to unlock smartphones they suspect were used to abet crime, for example. The “dark web” spells a relatively new landscape where all manner of subterfuge and criminal activity is alleged. Hackers’ expertise is cited in everything from ransom attempts to large-scale identity theft. …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Tuesday, October 31, 2017. Imagine that an individual — defendant Jones — is convicted of a white collar crime — let’s say embezzlement — and sentenced to a prison term by a federal judge in St. Louis. Mr. Jones is decidedly a low-profile person. That is, he is not known to any degree in the public, and his crime is basically back-page news. Now, imagine further that a Mr. Smith is convicted in the same court for precisely the same crime. Unlike Mr. Jones, Smith is a high-profile individual widely known …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Thursday, July 13, 2017. Here’s an interesting point to note about white collar crime, and something that is occasionally acknowledged by even police investigators and prosecutors: alleged wrongdoers sometimes get ensnared in fraud-related matters with scarce — or even no — evidence that they committed an illegal act with the purposeful intention of doing so. We, too, note that fact on our criminal defense website at the trial-experienced criminal defense law firm of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry in St. Louis, pointing out that, “Confusion about legalities, panic regarding cash flow and …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. Crimes involving financial fraud, commonly referred to as white collar crimes, occur in a surprisingly diverse range of contexts. Examples include mail fraud, investment fraud and tax evasion, when an individual willfully defrauds the federal government from taxes owed. There’s even a type of health care fraud, where a provider might over charge or bill for work that was never done. White collar crimes are typically governed by federal laws, with accompanying severe penalties. For example, the federal RICO Act is a law designed to bring down …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. When you sign up for social media profiles, you think of them as something over which you have ownership. You expect a certain degree of privacy, and you even get “privacy” settings to help control who can see what. Do you have a right to privacy in all cases, or can courts use this information? For example, perhaps you’re an executive helping run a multi-state corporation. You’ve been accused of defrauding your investors. They want to pull information from your social media accounts to see if you …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. We noted in a blog post from a few weeks back “the steady stream of media stories these days chronicling tales of alleged wrongdoing” by individuals in the singular area of white collar crime. And we additionally noted in our March 31 entry at the St. Louis criminal defense firm of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry that one of the areas that has garnered top-tier attention from law enforcers and prosecutors — both state and federal — is the health care realm. That really isn’t surprising, given the close involvement …

On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Thursday, April 13, 2017. A long-time Tiffany & Co. executive seemingly had it all. And then, as she notes in her own words, Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun “lost it all in one horrible day” three years ago. That was the fateful day she decided to steal more than $1 million in jewelry from Tiffany. Unsurprisingly, she was caught. And punished in a manner she says was irrational and prohibitively expensive to society. Lederhaas-Okun writes in a recent article for a national news publication that she accepted a plea deal of 10 months in …