Wire Fraud in White Collar Crime

Without a doubt one of the most used pieces of legislation in the prosecution of white-collar crime is the Federal Wire Fraud Statute. That and the Mail Fraud Statute make nice dance partners for court.

When all is said and done, the section of the statute in question used more often than not, is section 1343 which states in its paraphrased glory "whoever plans on ripping someone off for money or property by means of sneaky pretenses and sends anything relating to those sneaky pretenses by wire, radio or TV to rip someone off shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years or both."

Not to put too fine a point on it, this is a pretty wide-open statute that gets a lot of use, as it offers prosecutors wide leeway in "massaging" charges that they may lay.

The use, and dare we say overuse, of statutes like this gives criminal defense attorneys a lot of grief. They are beginning to mount a solid defense for the person charged with either wire or mail fraud when the issue might not even have anything to do with either charge. "It can be a mixed bag when someone is charged with one or both of these offenses," says Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker Law in Austin, Texas.

These cases are fairly complex and come, in some instances, perilously close to being 'kitchen sink' prosecutions to make a point, or catch a lot of smaller fish. Defense attorneys take a rather dim view of how often this charge seems to be used when the prosecution can't seem to find something better to make a case.

The wire and mail fraud statutes are fairly similar and both are used together as a one two punch in federal indictments. They are often combined like this since both have some identical elements in common. To get a conviction, the prosecution has to show the act the defendant is charged with was done in the furtherance of a scheme to rip someone off.

Anyone charged with either offense is entitled to an aggressive defense of the charges. This is why if a person is faced with charges under one of these statues, immediately contact a board certified criminal defense attorney such as Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker Law in Austin, Texas.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

Do It to Me One More Time

Doing it one more time might be the ticket to the clinker if you don't have a thoroughly competent criminal defense lawyer. Drinking and driving is a really dumb thing to do, however many people make that choice.

"It's when these people get caught and realize they face some rather serious consequences that they call me," said Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker Law, in Austin, Texas. Repeat offenders in Texas are those with at least two convictions, and they are classified as misdemeanors.

"Texas is a bearcat on repeat offenders, largely because we have just about the highest DWI rate in the country," added Wannamaker who defends hundreds of these cases each year. He's seen and heard just about everything in his over 20 years of practicing criminal defense in Austin, Texas. "In these cases, I'd prefer the person charged was only seen and not heard. My advice is to save anything you have to say and just tell me the circumstances of the case when you call me," commented Wannamaker.

That is fine advice, and those that have chosen not to take it find out the hard way - what they said to the police at the scene has a way of coming back and haunting them. "Everything said to a police officer is taken down or recorded for use later. Telling them why you were out having a few drinks is tantamount to asking them to cuff you and take you to the station," explained Wannamaker. Going to the station may happen anyway if you refuse to take any of the roadside sobriety tests when asked to take them.

"Don't take those tests. You don't have to and if you call me and I get there soon enough, I may be able to have the charges thrown out on a technicality and save your license," indicated Wannamaker. While this is one option, the other may be if Wannamaker isn't able to mitigate the charges, he may be able to negotiate a lesser sentence later, if the case goes to court.

Conviction means you are slated for an assessment for drug or alcohol addictions. At this point, if the person does have an addiction problem the judge may offer an either/or scenario – either rehab or jail.

"If someone hits three convictions, or more for DWI, they're looking at a felony offense. It begins to make sense to some that rehab is the more attractive option," said Wannamaker. Whether someone is faced with one charge or is on their second or third, this is the time to make a smart move and call a board certified criminal defense attorney, such as Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker Law in Austin, Texas. "They may still be convicted, but I am usually able to mitigate those charges and possibly ensure they are still allowed to drive for their work," added Wannamaker.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

Organized Protection Scams

While we don't really hear this word too often, other than on TV crime shows, racketeering is alive and well in the U.S. It's complicated and costly and affects more people than you would think possible.

Being charged with racketeering is not a cut and dried moment. There is no instant guilt, instant confession or the instant resolution to a case. It goes much deeper than that, and this is why many people don't "get" what racketeering is all about.

The usual definition in legal circles is an organization (group) of people who are controlled centrally though a hierarchical system, who knowingly commit criminal activities. Now that covers a lot of ground, but you get the idea; and if you are thinking of examples, then the word Mafia might come to mind.

Is there any counter measure that combats and prosecutes racketeering? Yes, RICO, which sounds like the name of an Italian waiter. RICO, in fact, stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It was passed in 1961 and its main raison d'etre is to break up organized crime and that includes things like gambling schemes, theft rings operating under the guise of a legitimate business, prostitution rings, and protection scams. While these particular crimes are of some concern, the larger problem is pension scams.

Pension funds run into the billions these days and what juicy pickings they are for organized crime. The unions started to get bigger than their britches at the beginning of the 20th century and they mushroomed from there into organizations with hundreds of members who socked money away into retirement funds. Nice money if you can get your hands on it, and many of the pension management contracts did go to Mafia interests. You are likely able to connect the dots here.

RICO's role changed in 2001 and it prosecutes to the max many other things including issues that deal with terrorism – in particular trying to put a finger in the dyke of money leaking out to fund terrorists. While RICO's enthusiasm for prosecution is appreciated to a certain extent, it has sometimes led to convicting innocent people. Criminal defense attorneys are not all that thrilled with how this set up works, but are still waiting to see the results over the long-term.

Where will this all end? That's the $64 million dollar question that seemingly has no answer. Think about this. Where is real justice in a process that insists in winning at any costs? If you're faced with a racketeering charge, immediately call a criminal defense attorney, as it may mean keeping your freedom.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

Online Identify Theft More Common Than You May Think

It's not too surprising to note that online identity theft is actually a much worse problem than you might think. The question becomes what do you do to protect yourself?

Being aware of what is going on while you are online is crucial to being protected against those who would vampire your identity. Spammers nab your email and find out lots of information on you just by plugging your email address into Google.

Then of course, there are the phishing schemes designed to get you to innocently cough up items like your bank account information, or your PayPal account information. That's one of the latest phishing schemes, a note supposedly from PayPal about your account being frozen because allegedly some "unauthorized third party accessed your account three months ago and transferred funds."

You do have to give spammers and pfhishers some credit for their ingenuity. One wonders how successful they may be if they attempted to get money the legitimate way instead of through backdoor chicanery?

Despite the dangers of being online and potentially having your identity stolen, protecting yourself is a bit like being smart offline. You wouldn't just hand your bank account number or PIN over to any Tom, Dick or Harriet in the offline world, so why would you do that online? This dilemma all boils down to self-protection. This doesn't mean you need to be totally paranoid about it, but there are some things you should look for before you divulge certain information.

Prior to clicking that YES button to buy something, check the bottom of your IE window for a gold lock icon. If you see it, good stuff, you are in a highly secure area. If you don't see that icon, DO NOT click that yes button, instead call the company if they have a contact phone number listed online.

Look for signs that your transaction is being processed by a secured socket layer (SSL) and encrypted. You will see claims on the site boasting payments are processed by SSL. Many of the larger online retailers have this service; for example, PayPal, eBay, etc. One other thing you should watch for is the address bar in your browser that shows where you are when you are online (the site address). Look for the designation for the address to start with "https" (the "s" means secure) rather than the usual "http".

There are ways to legally deal with people who have stolen your identity online, but realize that they need to be caught and charged first in order for that to happen. If you have had your identity stolen online and charges have resulted, speak to a competent lawyer to find out how to proceed.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

Minor Drugs, Major Buzzkill

While having a few tokes now and then and maybe growing a bit of weed in the garden amongst the tomatoes is "cool man," be aware that even something that is seemingly relatively insignificant on the surface may dog a person for the rest of their natural lives.

"Drug offenses, even small ones, have a habit of hanging around for years, if not permanently," said Daniel H. Wannamaker of Wannamaker Law in Austin, Texas. Wannamaker would definitely know what he's talking about since one of his major areas of practice deals with defending drug offenses. "I see this kind of thing happening all the time, a simple possession charge spiraling out of control and the person gets slammed," added Wannamaker.

Wannamaker has an extensive record as a board certified criminal defense lawyer and knows immediately how to handle the various cases brought to him. "Don't assume that just because it is a "dinky" amount of weed or whatever drug you may have been busted for, that the consequences may not be more than you bargained for," explained Wannamaker. Having said that, Wannamaker's role in defending someone charged with a drug offense is to mitigate the charges, get them thrown out, mitigate the penalties, or get the case thrown out of court.

Even a charge for a small amount of drugs may become the albatross that stuck around in a most unwelcome manner. Drug charges that stick and leave one with a criminal record of any kind will look really bad on an employment application. Even if the crime is not admitted to on the job application, if the position requires bonding of some sort, the lie will be discovered.

"People, meaning employers, are less tolerant these days of others who have a criminal record, even a minor one," indicated Wannamaker. Really, why take the chance of having a charge stick when hiring a highly qualified criminal defense attorney may make the difference between having no criminal record and a job, and having a criminal record and no job?

"If you think this is a bit far fetched, employers avoiding those with criminal backgrounds, then ask this question – if it's not a big deal, then why are more and more employers running background checks on potential new employees?" questioned Wannamaker.

The answer of course is because they cannot risk hiring someone who has a record to represent their company. It simply wouldn't do if a crisis situation came up and that employee's criminal record came to light. "This kind of a situation is called negligent hiring and it can bite someone in the pocketbook later when a lawsuit is filed," added Wannamaker.

If faced with being charged for a drug offense, hire a top-notch criminal defense lawyer who knows what they are doing. Quality is the key word here when looking for a lawyer that knows their stuff. Quality is a bit like ordering oats. If you want them clean and fresh and top quality, you must pay a fair price.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

The Texas ID Theft Crackdown

ID theft is no laughing matter. Thankfully, many of the states in the U.S. have taken matters into their own hands and are acting forcefully to protect their citizens against this crime. Texas comes down hard on businesses that do not protect their consumers.

ID theft comes about in many ways such as hacked computer information, stolen ID from your wallet or purse, or companies who either sell personal information or illegally dispose of it.

"It's one thing to take steps on your own to protect your identity from being swiped," said Daniel Wannamaker, board certified criminal defense attorney at Wannamaker & Associates in Austin, Texas. "However, it's entirely another kettle of fish when someone you have trusted with your personal information dumps it where anyone can find it, steal it and use it."

Having said that, Wannamaker is in the business of defending people and even in instances such as this, anyone who has been charged with disposing of personal information improperly is entitled to a rigorous defense, a defense for which Wannamaker is noted.

The largest problem these days appears to be the types of businesses that collect information about you (doctor, dentist, banks, credit companies, etc.), aren't that interested in shredding or properly disposing of the critical personal information of their clients. It is way too easy to just chuck personal records in the garbage dumpster and hope it gets hauled away to the dump and burned and/or buried.

Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen. There are people who specifically haunt dumpsters looking for this kind of information. What a goldmine of information to be had in one dumpster containing loan applications, dental records or patient's medical charts. Many of these businesses loathe spending the extra money, or taking the time to ensure the necessary precautionary steps are taken to destroy old files.

"Texas has an enviable reputation as being really proactive in this area," outlined Wannamaker. In fact, Texas law makes it mandatory that businesses take certain specific precautions before they get rid of any personal documents that may have information such as SS numbers, bank account numbers and driver's license information. This law certainly provides many of those offices that handle this kind of information with sober second thoughts before they dispose of personal files.

If faced with a situation like this and suspect charges are about to be laid, immediately call Daniel Wannamaker of Wannamaker & Associates, Austin, Texas, and let him know the details. If anyone is able to help, it will be Wannamaker and his ability to get right to the heart of the defense immediately.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

The Appeal Deal in Texas

An appeal in Texas can either be a big deal, involving complex issues, or it could all be over in a blink of an eye. That's the challenge of appeals and a challenge that Daniel Wannamaker, board certified criminal defense attorney of Wannamaker and Associates, is more than up to handling.

"In Texas, any decisions made by district judges may be appealed to the Court of Appeals and from there the appeal goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in criminal matters," explained Wannamaker. If the case happens to be a federal one, any decisions by a Federal District Court are appealed to the 5th Circuit and then on to the U.S. Supreme Court. Decisions that go forward to the U.S. Supreme Court may involve extremely interesting issues of law that the Court is interested in commenting on.

"The whole process, when you start with a case," explained Wannamaker, "is that all the cases we try, start in a trial court. That's the basic nuts and bolts of the system." At the trial level, the judge has the discretion to dismiss on the pleadings early in the case, or dismiss after a summary judgment motion – further along in the litigation process.

In some cases, the plaintiff and defendant deal with a judge alone, in others there may be a judge and jury. In either instance, a decision may be entered after the trial. Of interest, is that in some cases, the judge may elect to pronounce a judgment different from a jury verdict. While this is unusual, it does happen. Anyone not too thrilled with the outcome of the case when the trial is over, is free to appeal the decision, and it isn't always the loser who appeals either.

"If someone does want to appeal the decision in their case," said Wannamaker, "a motion for appeal is filed with the trial court. At this point, whoever is appealing is no longer called the plaintiff, but the appellant."

Daniel Wannamaker of Wannamaker and Associates in Austin, Texas, specializes in handling appeals at all levels within the Texas justice system, and is noted to have won some major victories. This is one criminal defense lawyer anyone would want on their team if they happened to be in major trouble with the law.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

The Crime of Murder in Texas

Murder isn't just plain and simple in Texas. It comes in various types and in order to get the best defense, you need to know (and so does your criminal defense attorney) precisely what type you could be charged with. Usually what makes the overall difference in the classifications is the higher consequences – for instance capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison.

Capital murder is killing a cop during the lawful discharge of his or her duty; or killing while committing another felony such as kidnapping, robbery, assault, arson or killing for money (call this murder for hire).

Texas has three classifications of murder – capital murder, murder manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Murder is intentionally or knowingly causing the death of another person or intending to cause serious bodily injury, but it results in death. It is classed as a first-degree felony and is punishable by 5 years to 99 years or life in prison.

The next class is manslaughter, and this is charged if you recklessly cause the death of somebody. It is usually classed as a second-degree felony and is punishable with a sentence ranging from 2 to 20 years.

Since the classifications are not always that clear, nor likely was your intent clear when the murder happened, this is the crucial time to contact a highly qualified board certified criminal defense attorney. Don’t say a word to anyone and head for the phone to make that call. Only your lawyer needs to hear what your circumstances are in order to mount a viable defense.

Don't guess what charge you may be facing. Pick up the phone and call an expert criminal defense lawyer. This may be the smartest thing you will ever do if you wish to retain your freedom.

Since criminal law is such a mixed bag at the best of times, spending time trying to figure out how to beat the system if you have been charged with a serious crime won't do you a lot of good. This is your lawyer's job, and this is also why you are told to not say anything to anyone until you have spoken to a lawyer. What you say to your attorney may make all the difference in the world between doing time or being set free.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas. To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, visit Wannamakerlaw.com.

The Crime of Assault

When the economy gets bad, one of the first things that seems to come apart at the seams is the crime rate. It goes up. Whether or not this has to do with the lack of money, loss of jobs or other factors, assaults seem to be on the rise.

This is shocking, but in Texas in 2007 alone, there were 73,426 assaults reported statewide. If that doesn't give you some pause, I don't know what else would. Since then, the economy has gone into the toilet and you may well imagine what those figures may be when tallied for 2008.

The crime of assault is usually defined as the intentional, knowing or reckless causing of bodily injury or threatening imminent bodily injury. This crime is usually charged as a Class "A" misdemeanor, but may be enhanced for various reasons.

Since intention is part of the definition, assault is pegged as an intentional wrongdoing that distinguishes it from negligence.

Further to this classification of assault is the aggravated assault, which means causing serious bodily injury or use of a deadly weapon. This is typically a second degree felony.

Another assault crime classification that many people are relatively familiar with, thanks to shows like CSI, is assault and battery (also a felony.) This is where actual contact is made with the victim and they require medical treatment. If convicted on this charge, there is usually time behind bars, fines, anger management classes, etc. The punishment, in most cases, suits the circumstances of the nature of the crime. Any priors will make things worse.

The thing with assault cases, and any other criminal offense, is that nothing is ever cut and dried. This is precisely why, if you are facing any of these types of charges, you must contact a qualified board certified criminal defense attorney. This is the "only" person who will be able to see to it that you get a good defense and who may be able to mitigate the charges or the punishment, and who may also be able to get the charges thrown out of court.

Make your first call to a criminal defense attorney who knows the system inside out and is familiar with the hundreds of nuances the various assault cases carry with them. It may mean your freedom or serving a reduced sentence.

Daniel Wannamaker is a board certified criminal law specialist and has 24 years of criminal trial experience with proven results as a Dallas criminal defense lawyer practicing in Austin criminal defense and Houston Texas.

To learn more about Dallas criminal defense lawyer, Houston criminal defense lawyer, Austin criminal defense lawyer, Daniel Wannamaker visit Wannamakerlaw.com.