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We recently achieved a rare and meaningful result for a longtime client: the expiration of a   federal restitution judgment more than twenty years after sentencing, following decades of litigation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Financial Litigation Unit (“FLU”).   The Original Case and Sentence In 2003 our client was charged in a federal HUD loan-fraud prosecution in the Eastern District of New York. In December 2005, the district judge imposed a non-custodial sentence tog

At a recent trial (now on appeal) the district court interrupted my summation and required me to take a lengthy break to cleanse my PowerPoint slides and summation notes of arguments criticizing the government. The court instructed, “Do not impugn the integrity of the government as if they’re trying to pull a fast one.” Was this kosher? The Background What precipitated this prohibition? We were trying a murder case in which the defendant was accused of murdering the victim to

Introduction  When a taxpayer steps forward to correct past mistakes through the IRS’s  Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) , the IRS is supposed to reward that honesty—not punish it. Recently, we successfully intervened when the IRS issued an unnecessary and improper summons to one of our clients  after  he had already been accepted into the VDP program and was fully cooperating with IRS requests for information.   Background: Client Accepted Into the IRS Voluntary Disclosure

I don't shy away from criticizing federal judges and magistrate judges I believe are incompetent, biased, or lazy, but I prefer, particularly in this Season of Thanks, to recognize those that display all-around excellence. One of the categories we include on our website The Robing Room ( www.therobingroom.com ) is "The Top 10 Federal Judges." Here are a few of the many judged the "best of the best" among federal district judges and magistrate judges. Hon. Thelton E. Henderson