Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog

October 8, 2021

Woman Charged in Scheme to Steal Stimulus Payments, Tax Returns

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Necromancy is the act of wielding the dead against the living. Necromancers have the power to manipulate souls or bodies and use them at their will. While necromancy is not real and is more the stuff of fantasy novels, there are some who actually perform necromancy for personal gain. For example, using the social security numbers of dead Americans to file fraudulent tax returns and gain access to stimulus payments that you’re not entitled to is using the dead to for personal gain and profit.

Now, a 50-year-old Chicago woman is facing 10 counts of wire fraud, six counts of aggravated identity theft, three counts of making false statements to the SBA, and one other count of possessing forged documents with the intent to defraud. However, she is facing zero counts of tax necromancy.

Tax Necromancy

October 6, 2021

Entrapment: A Case Study

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Most people have a grave misunderstanding of entrapment and how useless it is as a defense in court. Most folks believe that the cops cannot “generate crime.” They can. In fact, they do it as a part of sting operations all the time.

In one case, a federal agent let it slip that he was sitting on a stash of cocaine bricks valued at about $2 million. He got a few associates to help him with the stash, but they were all arrested for criminal conspiracy and drug trafficking. One of the crew was a recovering heroin addict who could not afford to go into recovery although his health was failing. The addict was charged with two weapons violations, even though he never touched a gun, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The amount of cocaine was high enough to trigger a mandatory 10-year sentence under federal guidelines.

Now, you may be inclined to think that the story above is entrapment, but it is not. Even though there was no real crime, all the drugs belonged to the ATF, and the men would not have been there but for an ATF agent telling his drinking buddies that he had a goldmine, all the men will be charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine they did not know existed until the ATF agent told them.

October 1, 2021

Former NBA Players Accused of Defrauding NBA Health Care Program

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Melvin Ely and Will Bynum, both of whom are former NBA players from the Chicago area, are facing fraud charges related to a scheme involving the NBA players’ health care program. The pair will face charges in a federal Manhattan court where the indictment was unsealed.

The indictment names 19 defendants, 18 of whom are former NBA players. The former players are accused of defrauding the Health and Welfare program of nearly $4 million. The fraud was masterminded by former New Jersey Nets star Terrence Williams. Williams was paid kickbacks of about $250,000 to actuate the fraud, while players stole a reported $2.5 in personal proceeds.

While the story by now has made it to major airwaves, details of the prosecution are as of yet unknown. The defendants are facing charges of aggravated identity theft, health care fraud, and wire fraud.

September 29, 2021

Chicago Prosecutors Begin Rejecting Mutual Combat Charges

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Chicago prosecutors have apparently changed policy and are now no longer prosecuting cases in which one individual is killed by another in a mutual combat situation. This not only applies to fistfights, apparently, but also gunfights. Now, the mayor has weighed in and is accusing the State Attorney’s office of potentially causing Chicago to become the wild west. However, it is unclear that any of the state’s attempts to maintain control of the city have resulted in anything else but failure.

The latest incident comes after one man was killed in an exchange of bullets that was related to gang violence. Prosecutors dismissed charges against all of the individuals involved in the shooting citing “mutual combat” as the reason for dismissing the charges.

Could Murder Start Looking More Like Battery?

September 24, 2021

Defendants Face Vaccine Card Charges

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Federal authorities have announced the arrest of two individuals who have been accused of embezzling vaccine cards from their place of employment for sale elsewhere. The first defendant is a registered nurse who stole vaccine cards from her employer at the VA Hospital. Another defendant is facing charges that he purchased counterfeit vaccine cards and attempted to sell them on Facebook.

The nurse is facing charges of theft of government property and embezzlement related to a health care benefit program. The Facebook guy is facing charges for trafficking in counterfeit goods and fraud related to official government documents. The charges have been filed and prosecuted by the U.S. State Attorney’s office meaning that both defendants will face federal charges for their role in distributing fraudulent vaccine cards.

The government does not take kindly to those defrauding the system. They contend such efforts place everyone at risk and undermine the efforts of health officials.

September 22, 2021

Six Charged as Part of Luxury Vehicle Theft Ring

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Illinois prosecutors have charged six individuals in conjunction with a luxury vehicle theft ring. Authorities say that the culprits targeted luxury dealerships around the state using stolen or fraudulent identities and fraudulent bank information. Two ringleaders are believed to have recruited four others in the scheme.

Officials have said that the theft of luxury vehicles using identity theft is becoming a bigger problem for luxury car dealerships. This high-profile bust will help Chicago police reassure car dealerships that the matter is being taken seriously.

The bust was part of Operation Free Ride, which is a multi-state investigation into seemingly unrelated car thefts. While each of these cases appear on the surface to be an individual event, authorities believe that the same culprits are targeting multiple dealerships and then selling the vehicles on the black market, or shipping them overseas where they can charge thousands more.

September 17, 2021

Police and Prosecutors Square Off Over Shooting Suspect

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Prosecutors have dropped felony charges against a suspect who was implicated in the shooting death of a 7-year-old girl and an injury to her 6-year-old sister. Prosecutors refused to pursue felony charges against one of the suspects citing the lack of evidence and the failure of one witness to cooperate. The witness is believed to be a relative of the girls and was in a dispute with one of the suspects. Without this witness’s testimony, the murder trial against at least one suspect will not move forward. Prosecutors also cited a lack of a confession or video evidence as a reason to drop the felony charges.

The outraged police officers threatened to ignore the prosecutors and try the case themselves. But the prosecutor said they would dismiss the case if the police took that route. To avoid a public battle between police and prosecutors, police backed down from their threats. The suspect is now being held on a minor parole violation. However, the felony charges against him related to the shooting are gone.

The State Attorney’s Office issued a statement that said that prosecutors and police are now in accord with the handling of the case. Prosecutors reiterated that there was simply not enough evidence to bring the case to trial. The Chicago Police Department did not issue a comment when asked.

September 15, 2021

Chicago Woman Facing Fraud Charges After Collecting Checks From Gun Victims

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A Chicago woman is facing federal fraud charges after posing as the relative of young gun violence victims. In one case, she posed as the relative of a 7-year-old boy who was fatally shot in 2015. The 50-year-old woman posed as the boy’s aunt when she attempted to acquire the boy’s death certificate in 2019 and then filed a fraudulent tax return in the dead boy’s name.

The same defendant was given an 11-year sentence on similar charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. The woman was on supervised release when she was arrested for this crime, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors described the woman as a career con-artist who used her considerable innate abilities to steal from others as opposed to doing something useful to society. The fraud was discovered by an employee at Cook County Vital Records after he noticed that the same woman put in a request for four death certificates on the same day. The woman claimed to be the sister of each of the deceased, but each deceased individual had a different name. A check of the records showed that the woman had placed requests for 37 death certificates all in 2019 alone. Each of the individuals whose birth certificates she requested were recent homicide victims—mostly children. She was able to recover earned income and child tax credits on the deceased children, earning a passive income from her Southside home. The woman was also able to recover several COVID stimulus checks while those were still being issued.

September 9, 2021

Boyfriend Named “Person of Interest” After Woman Turns Up Missing

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The family of a missing woman is becoming increasingly more desperate as attempts to find her come up empty. The woman was on a cross-country excursion with her boyfriend at the time of her disappearance. Police have named the boyfriend a person of interest after failing to cooperate with the investigation. However, not answering the police’s questions is not an indication of wrongdoing.

Nonetheless, when police ask a close association of a missing person questions concerning their disappearance, their tendency is to assume that anyone who is impeding the investigation is responsible for the crime. However, police also tend to assume that boyfriends or husbands are responsible for the deaths of girlfriends and wives in a large cross-section of these sorts of cases. Hence, a boyfriend may be hesitant about providing information to officers who are prone to accuse him of the crime.

What happened?

September 7, 2021

Chicago Settles Wrongful Conviction Cases for $20M a Piece

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Several former defendants who were convicted on charges related to a single officer are now plaintiffs in lawsuits against the city claiming that they were framed. If you think it is hard to prove a defendant did something wrong, then you should consider how difficult it is to prove that a police officer framed a defendant. In this case, four men settled lawsuits for sums between $17 million and $21 million against the City of Chicago for false convictions, cooked evidence, and losing years of their lives to false accusations of a single police officer.

There are still eleven lawsuits pending against the same officer, all of which name the city and not the officer. Ultimately, the City of Chicago and its taxpayers will be responsible for making the victims whole. With 11 pending cases, all settling for $20 million or more apiece, the City of Chicago is looking at a $300 million budget shortfall all related to the activities of one police officer.

Hundreds of “confessions” tossed