Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog

January 7, 2022

More Indictments for Washington Bank Executives in Chicago

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

Most folks do not understand how our economic system really works. What is a bank? What is a security? What is a corporation? Folks who have general ideas about what the concepts mean tend to be misinformed. As an example, most folks believe that banks use deposits to issue loans. They do not. Banks can fabricate loans ex-nihilo so long as they pay interest on the loans they create. Once the loan has been issued, the bank issues a deposit to the borrower and creates a liability in its own ledger. If all goes well, the bank makes money because the interest paid by the borrower is greater than that charged by the Federal Reserve.

So, what if I created a bank just to issue worthless loans to my pals? Well, then you end up in prison. The system is actually quite easy to abuse, but the thing you have to understand is that they will catch up with you eventually. In this case, the bank was closed after accruing $66 million in non-performing loans issued to bank insiders. The government, of course, believes that they used the bank apparatus to fabricate money they had no intention of ever repaying.

The charges

January 5, 2022

Chicago Physician Accused of Insider Trading

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

Everyone has heard of insider trading, but what is it really? Essentially, as an “insider,” you are not allowed to make beneficial trades unfairly. To prove insider trading, the federal government must show that the information was embargoed or confidential prior to the execution of the trade.

In this case, a Chicago physician is being accused of purchasing shares of a California-based biotech company that recently announced positive results of a new cancer treatment. The physician is accused of making the trade before the company announced the results publicly. Hence, insider trading.

According to federal prosecutors, the defendant used his position to acquire confidential information that was embargoed for public disclosure. He then used that information to make a trade prior to the announcement of a major success and is now accused of insider trading. Federal prosecutors accuse the doctor of making $134,000 off the illegal trade, purchasing over 8,000 shares and then selling them shortly after the announcement.

December 31, 2021

Man Sentenced to Seven Years After Customer ODs

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

Two men meet in rehab. Neither is ready to commit to a life of sobriety. The one man sells the other man drugs or arranges for him to get access to drugs, and that man dies. Now, the other man is facing homicide charges. He is convicted of giving the other man a fatal dose of drugs. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to seven years.

Prosecutions such as these are becoming more popular and increasing the risk to drug dealers or even those who procure drugs from a drug dealer to deliver to a friend who is going to share the drugs with them. In this case, the victim’s parents pushed police to investigate the overdose as a homicide. Police were able to recover cell phone exchanges between the two men. Importantly, one exchange involved the victim complaining that he believed he overpaid for his drugs. The defendant responded by telling him he had given him the correct amount and the correct change.

The Controversy Surrounding This Law

December 29, 2021

Federal Jury Sides with Plaintiff in Wrongful Conviction Suit

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

A jury found that a defendant who spent more than 20 years behind bars for a double murder was intentionally framed for the incident by police. The defendant was awarded a new trial after he successfully argued that his criminal defense attorney failed to call witnesses to the stand that would have corroborated his alibi. These witnesses claimed that the defendant was inside of a restaurant playing Pac Man at the time of the double shooting. The only witness that the prosecution offered was a man who was allegedly shot by the defendant during the double murder and the brother of one of the victims. It was the defendant who called police to the scene of the crime to report the shooting. Let that be a lesson on the perils of involving police in any matter at all.

After vacating his conviction, the defendant filed a lawsuit against Chicago police and the city. The complaint alleged that the arresting officer called the suspect a racial epithet and said that no one cares about Black people, which is why the officers would get away with it. A federal jury returned an award of $25.2 million to the plaintiff.

The lineup

December 24, 2021

Jussie Smollett Faces Criminal and Civil Trials

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

It is hard to imagine a guy faking a hate crime attack just so he could get up on stage and call himself “the Gay Tupac,” but that is exactly what Jussie Smollett is accused of doing. Police believe that Smollett paid two African bodybuilders to stage an assault that made national headlines, infuriated activists, and mined the hatred and outrage surrounding recent police murders. However, investigators came to believe that Smollett had staged the attack leading to an investigation that cost the city at least $130,000. Further, he stoked the fires of racial outrage and when it turned out that the police had evidence the hate crime was staged, it made it more difficult for others facing similar assaults to report their crimes.

It is among the most frustrating and infuriating news stories all year. As of the writing of this article, Smollett has been convicted of the charges. Smollett still maintains his innocence. But the matter remains polarizing as several high-profile celebrities continue to support Smollett on the basis that the Chicago police department has a long history of wrongdoing.

Understanding Double Jeopardy

December 22, 2021

80 Charged in RICO Prosecution of Chicago Gang

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

The Wicked Town street gang is facing a federal RICO prosecution that has ensnared 80 of its members. The Wicked Town gang is reputed to have orchestrated at least 19 killings. In one of these killings, an innocent bystander was gunned down at a pickup basketball game.

Here’s the problem. The narco traffickers in places like Honduras have control of the government. They are not interested in boosting their reps on the streets. They simply want to move their drugs from one place to another. Meanwhile, they are supplying these drugs to street-level dealers who are more interested in boosting their own reps than they are doing business. These gangs and their leaders will often provoke worthless squabbles with other gangs simply to be harder on the street. While the Cartels kill their fair share of snitches and traitors to their business, the gangs are responsible for creating havoc on the streets for no other reason than to look as mean and strong as they possibly can.

Famous Smugglers

December 17, 2021

Analyzing Elizabeth Holmes’ Defense Strategy

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

Elizabeth Holmes is accused of lying to investors and committing fraud. The state believes that she told investors that her company’s medical device would be able to replace complex labs that perform bloodwork. However, the device did not work as advertised, cost investors millions, and tanked the company for which she was CEO. The state accuses her of knowingly providing investors with false or overstated information and omitting information concerning the results of her company’s product.

Analyzing her defense strategy

The biggest problem Holmes faces right now is that the prosecution has produced a cavalcade of witnesses who will testify that Holmes made specific statements concerning the quality of the device for the purpose of getting more money for her company. The witnesses will testify that Holmes overstated the efficacy of the device to get more capital for her company. However, the device never worked.

December 15, 2021

The People v. Elizabeth Holmes

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

Buried behind the headlines of high-profile criminal cases involving pedophile islands, modern lynchings, and public shootings, is another high-profile trial with incredibly high stakes coming out of California. However, because Elizabeth Holmes did not shoot three people, lynch a Black man, or organize the largest sex crime racket in human history, her trial is not nearly as famous as the other three. Luckily for Holmes, her trial just is not as interesting. Yet the stakes are incredibly high for the founder of Theranos who is accused of defrauding investors by overstating the functionality of a blood-testing device.

The device was believed to be a revolutionary step forward in the medical industry, but Holmes is accused of failing to disclose major shortcomings in the device to investors. For the prosecution to successfully convict Holmes, they must prove that Holmes knew the device was defective and still overstated what it could do. If true, they could convict Holmes on charges of wire fraud which carries a potential sentence of 20 years. Holmes would also be required to make restitution to investors. There is a lot of money in play, and stakeholders will be closely watching the criminal case to see how strong their civil cases are.

Understanding the Charges

December 10, 2021

The People v. Ghislaine Maxwell

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

What happens when the main suspect of a prosecution kills himself before he can go to trial? The state will find the next culpable person and nail them to the wall. In terms of Jeffrey Epstein, that person is Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was accused of running a criminal scheme targeting underage girls for sexual abuse. Epstein would pay the girls for sex, have them tell their friends that he was paying for sex, and the girls would perform sexual favors for Epstein. Maxwell is believed to have helped Epstein organize and hide his activities. The defense claims that they are targeting Maxwell because they no longer have Epstein to convict. While their claim is likely true, it does not mean necessarily that she was not involved in a criminal conspiracy to target underage girls for sexual abuse.

Maxwell is accused of soliciting minors for Epstein during the early ’90s. By the 2000s, Epstein had already employed his pyramid scheme approach which avoided Maxwell’s involvement in recruiting girls to abuse.

Analyzing the Defense Strategy

December 8, 2021

Ahmaud Arbery Killers Convicted of Felony Murder, Malice Murder

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

Kyle Rittenhouse has been eating up the headlines, but a recent verdict in favor of the prosecution may salve any lingering misgivings about his acquittal. Three men have been charged with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. The men approached Arbery on the street believing that he was loitering around a home that was under construction so that he could find something to steal. The men detained Arbery under a centuries-old citizen’s arrest law that has since been repealed after furor over the Arbery case.

Travis McMichael was convicted of malice murder, which is similar to first-degree murder in Illinois. It was the strongest conviction the prosecution was able to attain. McMichael’s son was charged with felony murder as was a third man who broke the case wide open by publishing a video of the murder.

But the case almost did not make it to trial. Now, the first prosecutor who was presented with the case is facing charges of prosecutorial misconduct for her role in preventing the case from going to trial. The state’s attorney general has charged the prosecutor with prosecutorial misconduct and corruption. She recused herself from the case when it became known that she and the McMichaels knew one another. She is accused of attempting to influence the prosecution of the case in favor of the defendants.