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Arrest and the White-Collar Defendant

By Steven F. Reich
August 18, 2003

For a person under criminal investigation, the image is a frightening one. There is pounding at your front door during the early morning hours. A voice yells, 'FBI! Open the door!' You throw on clothes, head to the front door and as you open it, agents rush by you into your living room. The FBI agent with whom your attorney has been dealing for months tells you, 'We have a warrant for your arrest. You'll have to come with us.' Your spouse and children, who have been awakened by the agents, are now seated in your living room. Your hands are cuffed behind your back and you are led from your home. Remarkably, all you can think about at this moment is that your lawyer told you the government does not arrest people in these kinds of cases. Your lawyer was wrong.

By the time a federal prosecutor decides to charge a defendant in a high-profile white-collar case, the defendant almost always knows that he or she is a target of the investigation. That is because complex fraud investigations typically stretch over a period of months or even years, and may be covered in the media. Often, prior to filing formal charges, the government either makes an effort to secure the defendant's cooperation, or to persuade him or her to plead guilty to a lesser charge. The point is that charges in these kinds of cases almost never come as a complete surprise to the defendant. Increasingly, however, what comes as a surprise is the decision of federal prosecutors in white-collar cases to obtain arrest warrants or insist on some other process that requires the defendant to spend time in a jail cell prior to an initial court appearance.

Arrests in White-Collar Cases

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