The most common forms of counterfeiting at the federal level have to do with counterfeiting money on a large scale. The feds aren't going to get involved with a little tiny case, and also, counterfeiting products and goods especially with some of these big companies — whether it be a big purse company or a big company that's selling less-expensive product. Someone is knocking the products off, making the same thing and then selling them. I don't usually see the feds getting involved in these little small things like for example, here in downtown Los Angeles, people will knock-off purses and different items. The feds usually aren't going to get involved in that.
Amount of Money Involved
But, when you're talking about big dollar items, the feds will get involved where there's thousands of dollars and a lot of products that really puts a dent in whatever company's product that is. They've obviously got ties in the federal government because they pay a lot of taxes to the federal government, so you know, just like the Mafia, the federal government is going to protect those individuals and make sure that they're not losing money because they pay taxes to them.
So, once somebody starts stealing a percentage of their money by knocking off their products, big brother is going to come in and take that person out — take all their products away, freeze their bank accounts and prosecute them federally. Anybody that's involved with that is going to be prosecuted. They'll throw a wide net and grab everybody they can in these federal counterfeiting cases.
So, if you're charged with counterfeiting, a lot of times in my experience, it's more than meets the eye. Sometimes your side of the story is not gotten across to the investigators, FBI, Homeland Security or whoever is involved with the investigation. So, what you need to do is get your attorney in there and explain things to the federal government and let them know what's really going on with a particular case in a particular situation.
Developing a Defense Strategy
Pick up the phone. We'll sit down in the cloak of the attorney/client privilege and really talk about the counterfeiting case, see if they've got the goods on you so-to-speak, or whether it's a situation where you can fight the case — either file a motion because they violated your rights or take the case to jury trial and prove that you're not guilty.
Obviously, before you do that, when you're talking about counterfeiting and the federal government, you're looking at a lot of potential time in custody, fines and significant other penalties, so you're going to want to make sure that you and your federal criminal defense attorney have a meeting of the minds and really believe there is a defense to the counterfeiting case that you could be successful on; otherwise, your best bet is to workout some sort of a resolution with the government because there's a lot of benefits you can get from the sentencing guidelines if you decide to work things out in advance versus trying to fight the case, lose and then just see what happens to you.
That's usually not a good strategy when it comes to federal criminal defense, especially in these counterfeiting cases where there could be thousands of dollars on the line and a lot of money in fines. Another big issue in these counterfeiting cases is determining the restitution to the company that you're knocking off. .
So, pick up the phone. Make the phone call today and we will do everything we can to turn the tide in your federal counterfeiting case, get you the best resolution and get you out of the federal criminal system as fast as possible.
