Although criminal enterprises have historically bought goods with so-called “dirty” money and then sold those goods to “launder” the money, the rise of online and electronic banking has led to the use of offshore accounts to achieve the same result.  The countries where the offshore accounts are located will have strict privacy laws on bank accounts, or lax regulations that allow the actions necessary to launder money to take place.  Countries that host offshore accounts will also have low taxes and bank secrecy laws that protect clients and prevent scrutiny by tax authorities.

Regulations on offshore banking have increased dramatically in the past decade, primarily aimed at preventing money laundering by terrorist organizations.  Such provisions are located in the Patriot Act, which allows the government to seize assets for banks that cooperate with offshore bank fraud and money laundering.

Banking offshore has its share of advantages, but will also inevitably bring scrutiny on your finances in the event of an audit, or alleged participation in a fraudulent scheme.

If you are under scrutiny for offshore banking, seeking the legal advice of a New York financial crimes lawyer will be essential at limiting your liability and cooperating with an investigation.

To set up a consultation, call us today at 212 577 6677.

Many Americans feel that having foreign bank accounts is a “tax haven” to protect his or her own money from being reported to the IRS during filing tax season or feel that foreign bank secrecy policies can help them hide financial information from the US government. There are a number of foreign banks such as the Swiss Bank, offers secrecy and “tax havens” but it does not protect clients all the times.

Under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) of 1970, foreign institutions can cooperate with the US government to provide foreign bank account information if the US government has legitimate reasons, such as criminal investigations.

Some common criminal investigations include Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, Black market operations and many more. According to US Department of Treasury, Switzerland and the United States cooperated on an agreement in an effort to fight against these illicit activities in 2003. Swiss banks will turn over information if it finds any type of suspicious fraudulent activities.

With cooperation, financial institutions usually provide clients’ financial reports to the US government for investigations and five common types of reports include

1)    Currency Transaction Report (CTR)

2)    International Transportation of Currency or Monetary instruments (CMIR)

3)    Report on foreign bank and financial accounts (FBAR)

4)    Suspicious activity reports (SAR) (A financial institution is not allowed to tell the client that a SAR report is being filed or else face penalties.

5)    Designation of exempt person report

Based on these reports, investigators will monitor cash flow, bank activities, and analyze on patterns of suspicious transactions to see if any violates U.S. federal laws. When U.S. court finds that funds are coming from criminal activities, foreign banks are required to release information on the account owner. If foreign bank officials do not disclose such information, thereby, violating the Bank Secrecy Act, they will face severe penalty fine and possible imprisonment.

If you feel that foreign banks’ secrecy policies may protect you from US. Government investigations, it is not exactly true. When you are under investigation, the US government has the right to defer foreign laws that protect your personal information.

If you feel that you are under investigation by the federal government for your overseas banking activities, call our New York City Federal Defense Attorneys immediately at (212)577-6677 for legal advice.

Enterprise corruption does not pertain to one specific statutory definition of fraud, per se.  Enterprise corruption is defined by the New York Penal Law § 460.00 as organized crime, but it also involves a series of highly sophisticated, complex and widespread forms of criminal activity.

Enterprise corruption unlike many forms of crime can be both violent and fraudulent, which ultimately involves grander criminal charges and penalties. But from what our law office has seen, the act of enterprise corruption often includes the charges of money laundering, grand larceny, and criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions.

In many instances defendants who are charged with enterprise corruption have their property subject to criminal forfeiture. But, unlike any other article found in the New York Penal Law, even ones that involve larceny related offenses, enterprise corruption has a different forfeiture mechanism.

Forfeiture proceedings may begin right after the defendant is indicted of enterprise corruption, and that the government has established enough evident to sufficiently establish and provide a reasonable cause to believe that the property or other interest is subject to forfeiture under section 460.30 of the New York Penal Law. Property subject to criminal forfeiture not only applies to physical properties but to subjective properties as well, such as securities, bank accounts and the money held in the bank accounts.

Enterprise corruption charges often involve an aggressive pretrial and prosecution. When charged with such a crime, it is important for you to retain a criminal defense attorney who is experienced within this field and understands how to handle this specific process from start to finish.

If you have been charged or arrested for enterprise corruption in New York City, then call our office at (212) 577-6677 to get professional legal advice.

Money Laundering is a serious offense in New York, which is punishable as an E felony by up to one year of incarceration to a B felony by up to seven years of incarceration. According to the New York Penal Law Section 470.05 to 470.20, Money Laundering occurs when a person knowingly and intentionally conducts one or more financial transactions, or forms a relationship, which involves any form of property or benefit derived from criminal activity.

Money Laundering does not necessary mean that you have to actually move the criminal proceeds; the offense can also be recognized in certain tax evasion cases in which a person avoids any transaction reporting from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The New York Penal Law provides a broad and flexible definition of the crime, which allows many New York State prosecutors to include and use to elevate penalties for other fraud offenses related to the scheme.

The New York Penal Law provides a monetary guideline to classify the crime: the higher the value of the property or proceeds involved in such financial transaction, the more serious the crime will be.

Defendants charged with a fraud offense may sometimes face money laundering charges as well.

If you are recently being investigated or charged for Money Laundering in New York, then call our office at (212) 577-6677 to get professional legal assistance.

Spiros Moshopoulos, Tommy Skiada, and Daniella Radulescu, New York City residents, were charged with a total of 714 counts of fraud; each of the defendants were variously charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, money laundering, promoting gambling, tampering with a witness, conspiracy and scheme to defraud. It was alleged that the three defendants operated a bingo hall in Queens, New York and illegally siphoned funds from charity organizations.

The bingo hall allegedly used various inactive charities under the name of Romanian Orthodox Church of Sts. Constantine & Helen to generate funding and charities by conducting various bingo games. But under Moshopoulos’, Skiada’s and Radulescu’s conspiracy, the funding generated through the bingo games were purportedly used to enrich their own pockets. An approximate total of $830,000 charitable funding was allegedly stolen by the three defendants.

If convicted, each of the three defendants faces more 10 years in prison.

Six residents from California were arrested and charged in Kings County, New York State Court for allegedly selling illegal prescription painkillers and behavior-modifying drugs to students and young professionals in New York City.

The six individuals allegedly advertised their drugs through Craigslist.com to students and young professionals in New York City. Amongst the six charged individuals, defendants Haim Avila-Romero and Mischa Pinchuk were charged with obtaining prescription drugs such as Adderall and Vicodin and sent them via FedEX to a co-conspirator in New York City, Pinchas Goldshtein.

After receiving the illegally prescribed drugs, Goldshtein would then purportedly distribute the drugs to three local dealers. All six individuals are charged with laundering over $500,000 in illegal drug money.

If convicted, each of the six individuals face more than 5 year of imprisonment.

Adeniyi Adeyemi, computer technician and former contractor for Bank of New York (BNY Mellon), pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Money Laundering in the First Degree, and Computer Tampering in the First Degree, for scheming and stealing a list of personal information from 2,000 BNY employees and $1.1 million from charities and nonprofit organizations.

Within an eight-year period, Adeyemi stole and used 2,000 of his former co-workers’ personal information to create multiple dummy brokerage and bank accounts in efforts to wire and receive funds from charities’ bank accounts.

Most of the charities that were victimized had their banking information publicized over the Internet in order to facilitate donations. With his expertise background in computers, Adeyemi can easily transfer money from bank accounts using a back-end system called the Automated Clearing House network with the publicized information to move tens of thousands of dollars from the charities’ accounts to his dummy accounts.

To avoid suspicion, Adeyemi had allegedly structured all of his wire transfers to be just under $10,000.

If convicted, Adeyemi faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison.

John F. Haggerty, former volunteer for New York City’s Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s reelection campaign and Special Election Operations, LLC were arrested and charged with Grand Larceny, Money Laundering and Falsifying Business Records in their conspiracy to steal approximately $1.1 million from Mayor Bloomberg.

In the late summer of 2009, Haggerty was granted a $1.1 million of Bloomberg’s personal funds by falsely representing to Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign agents that he would arrange Election Day ballot security and poll watching operation through the New York State Independence. Haggerty also created a shell company called Special Election Operations to receive $750,000 from the party and then transfer approximately $600,000 of the stolen funds for Haggerty’s personal expenses.

If convicted, Haggerty faces a more than 44 years in prison and a forfeiture of $1.1 million.