Los Angeles Criminal Lawyer Blog

Recently our office has been swamped with telephone calls asking for help clarifying and dealing with a new development in the United States Federal laws having to do with disclosure of foreign bank accounts.

The Government has introduced its Voluntary Disclosure Program beginning April through September 22, 2009. The purpose of this Program is to identify holders of foreign bank accounts (offshore) and substantially increase the Government’s tax revenue. It seems that the IRS is gearing towards making certain that those under its jurisdiction comply with the requirement of disclosure of any interest (financial interest, or signature, or other authority... 31 CFR § 103.24) over a bank, security or any other financial account in a foreign country

Continue reading "FBAR: Government’s Intent on Raising Funds" »

Posted by Gurovich, Berk & Associates | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: US Federal Crimes

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Just like the State of California criminal system, the Federal criminal system comes with its own set of statutes, procedures, courts, judges and prosecutors. The difference lies, however, in that the crimes prosecuted in Federal court are those that are related to the Federal government, crimes that cross state lines, and crimes of international flavor.

Another difference between the two systems is the punishment given for the convicted offense. In a State system the judge has discretion to punish the convicted person as he sees fit, sometimes outside the guidelines set out in the violated statutes.

The Federal criminal system, on the other hand, has guideline sentences for each offense. Although these guidelines are no longer mandatory, the judge usually sticks with the guideline sentences anyway.

Let me give you an example.

Continue reading "The US Federal Criminal Justice System" »

Posted by Gurovich, Berk & Associates | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: US Federal Crimes

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