Practice Areas & Industries: Carlton Fields, P.A.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

White collar business people have never been more intensely scrutinized than in this post-Enron era. Board members, trustees, executives and entrepreneurs are being held to the strictest, highest standards of conduct and operation. Government investigations -- and litigation -- are on the rise.

Knowledgeable legal counsel and, when necessary, aggressive legal defense have become necessities of business life and corporate survival. The White Collar Crime and Government Investigations defense practice at Carlton Fields covers all areas of white collar representation and civil cases involving allegations of criminal conduct.

We vigorously defend during Grand Jury and other government investigations. We counsel clients before federal and state courts, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal and state agencies. Moreover, we have significant experience in the areas of business, tax, and securities frauds, theft of trade secrets, money laundering, Medicare and Medicaid frauds, bank fraud and forfeiture matters, and immigration crimes.

We know Florida's Circuit and County courts, representing those involved in a variety of criminal matters. Additionally, Carlton Fields:

• Has substantial experience with investigations conducted by the Florida Attorney General's Office, including the Economic Crimes Division, which often prosecutes under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and the Environmental Crime Division
• Represents clients subject to Florida civil and administrative enforcement proceedings concerning alleged misconduct
• Conducts internal investigations for our individual and corporate clients and other entities, rooting out fraud and abuse, and helping clients design programs to prevent and detect fraud
• Presents matters to both federal and state prosecuting authorities on behalf of individual and corporate clients for the purpose of possible criminal prosecution

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

In selected recent representations and internal investigations, we:

• Represented company executives in antitrust/price-fixing investigations
• Represented company officers in U.S. Customs and Food and Drug Administration investigation
• Proved that the government had conducted an illegal search and seizure and successfully argued in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida that the evidence the government seized was inadmissible
• Represented contractors in false claims investigations and related litigation
• Represented individuals and company officers in Federal Aviation Administration investigations
• Served as counsel in Federal Grand Jury investigations of fraud
• Defended executives in wire and mail fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering investigations
• Conducted internal investigations into economic espionage and misappropriation of trade secrets
• Conducted an internal investigation of fraud and abuse at an assisted living facility
• Defended physicians in fraud investigations
• Supervised an internal investigation of business fraud and theft by company insiders
• Represented a sheriff's deputy accused of public corruption and federal civil rights violations
• Counseled executives in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Investigations