doj Tag Archives — Georgia Criminal Defense Lawyers Blog

DOJ NDGA add a New Pretrial Diversion Court

Published on: May 9, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

On April 11, 2022, the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta announced the creation of a new pretrial diversion court, the Accountability, Treatment, and Leadership Court “ATL Court“. It is formed with the Northern District of Georgia, the U.S. Probation Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Federal Defender Program, and will be run by folks from each of these agencies who will be known as the ATL Court Team. Please note: The ATL Court is in addition to, and not a replacement of, the Northern District of Georgia’s existing Pretrial Diversion Program.

“THE ATL COURT MISSION: Our mission is to provide the opportunity to avoid some of the consequences of aberrant criminal conduct to certain individuals charged with non-violent crimes in the Northern District of Georgia who would most greatly benefit from intense supervision, education, or treatment.”

HOW ATL COURT WORKS

What are the current DOJ priorities?

Published on: April 1, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made recent comments about what he considered to be the Department of Justice’s top priorities for 2022. Since taking office in March 2021, Garland has tried to combat crime in a tumultuous time. He has been criticized for his handling of January 6 investigation and has stated it’s the most urgent probe in history.

With all of this going on, the US Attorney’s office increased its prosecutions of individuals of white collar crimes in the year 2021. White collar charges like fraud, theft, corruption, bribery, environmental crime, tax fraud, health care fraud, procurement fraud, money laundering, PPP loan fraud, etc will continue to get more attention from the Department of Justice.

What does this mean? It means that investigations of any sort need to be taken seriously and that you should contact a lawyer immediately if any wrongdoing is alleged.

PPP Loan Fraud Prosecutions Continue

Published on: July 13, 2021 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

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When the PPP program was first created, it was meant to assist business left struggling by the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the key provisions of the program, was that the Small Business Administration (SBA) would guarantee the loan which meant that borrowers could secure loans more easily. As mentioned in a previous blog, the government in the spring of 2020 started to go after the most egregious and problematic PPP loan applications and payments and really ramped up prosecutions.

But now, the DOJ, IRS, SEC etc are shifting their focus to more complex investigations. We have clients where the government is scrutinizing every aspect of the loan application such as

-was the box checked stating that you only had one entity

Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force established

Published on: May 26, 2021 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

The Department of Justice just announced that U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland created COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to enhance enforcement efforts against COVID-19 related fraud.

Cases have included:

Offers to purchase COVID-19 vaccination cards