When it comes to defending computer crimes at the federal level, it takes an attorney who's got some experience and has dealt with the federal government on these cases. These computer crimes can take many different forms.
The bottom line is, if you commit a crime, for example, embezzling money and you use a computer to do it, there's an extra enhancement that the government can charge you with and try to get extra time tacked onto the back of your sentence. Embezzlement is defined under 18 U.S.C. § 641.
Different Types of Federal Computer Crimes
So, computers are serious business because they're sophisticated machinery that can be used to cause a lot of damage versus a very small amount of damage.
When you use a computer, usually the person is more sophisticated and sits in a position of trust and can cause a lot of loss to a particular victim. There are different types of federal computer crimes, ranging from:
- stealing money from your company,
- stealing money from another person,
- computer hacking under 18 U.S.C § 1030,
- identity theft under 18 U.S.C § 1028,
- embezzlement under U.S.C. § 641,
- some sort of sex-related offense on the computer.
A lot of times, what the government will do is seize the computer, the phone or tablet — whatever the case may be. Then they will look through it to see if they can find evidence to support their allegation related to criminal activity.
Sometimes this can take some time because there are a lot of computers in society and what ends up happening is, they get a huge backlog where their forensic experts can't possibly digest all of the computers that they've got to go through.
Reviewing the Evidence Stored on Your Computer
Other times, it's a situation where there's so much on the computer that it takes a lot of time to go through, and finally, there's situations where they have a hard time cracking in and getting past any security features that might block them from getting to information on the computer.
You would be surprised at what the government is able to find on computers.
A lot of the security features that people think are going to prevent the government from getting to their data/information and use it against them usually fail and the government ends up finding the information and using it against a particular person.
So, if you or a loved one is charged with a computer-related offense at the federal level, it's a criminal case. You need an attorney with experience.
Come to somebody like me who's been doing this for 26 years, handled many different types of computer-related offenses against the federal government in the federal criminal court.
Federal Criminal Defense Attorney
I'll have you come in and we'll talk about whether or not you have a good defense, whether or not you can block the evidence the government has.
If you can't block it and they do have evidence against you, obviously, we're going to come up with a game plan to get you the lowest common denominator.
Also, to prevent you from going to federal prison for long time and having to spend thousands of dollars in restitution. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes know-how.
It takes experience. If you need help with a federal criminal computer crime, pick up the phone, make the call, ask to speak to Ron Hedding. I stand at the ready to help you, educate you and get you out of the federal criminal system as fast as possible.
Hedding Law Firm is a top-ranked criminal defense law firm located in Los Angeles County at 16000 Ventura Blvd #1208 Encino, CA 91436. Contact our office for a free case evaluation at (213) 542-0994.