Federal Crimes

Pensanti & Associates has had tremendous results in defending federal cases throughout the United States. We appear in all of the Districts of California, including the Central District of the United States District Court in Los Angeles.

Attorney Louisa Pensanti has defended cases in federal court for over eight years, helping clients with Grand Jury investigations, on bail issues, and in pretrial litigation. Our firm’s federal practice areas are briefly summarized below.

Assisting Clients with Grand Jury Investigations before an Indictment

You need experienced counsel to represent you, before the United States Attorney has the Grand Jury issue an indictment. You need experienced counsel to represent you, before an appearance as a Defendant in Court. We rely on our skills and experience negotiating with federal prosecutors to minimize negative results to our clients. Talk to us before you talk to the feds!  Most people are totally unprepared to testify in front of the grand jury—they are then indicted, and face severe penalties.
The United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines [ “The Book”] carries great weight with the federal courts. We have extensive experience working within the Guidelines to obtain successful outcomes for our clients. We work with private probation officers to obtain presentencing reports that focus on the mitigating factors, we investigate our clients’ entire background including any childhood issues, and find any exculpatory evidence for a satisfactory result.

Our Federal Practice Areas
 
We provide strong and effective legal representation in all federal criminal cases, such as charges of fraud, internet crimes, corruption, large drug quantities, money laundering, RICO, and the following areas of criminal defense:

Federal Drug Crimes

We represent individuals charge with large-scale drug possession, drug trafficking, possession with intent to distribute, and conspiracy to import drugs. Our focus is to make sure that every government agent follows all constitutional requirements in any search of your property, including canine (K-9) searches. Because the quantity and purpose of drug possession, such as possession for sale rather than possession for use, often determines the range of punishment, we focus on the details. Our areas of practice include:

• Club Drugs - MDMA (ecstasy), LSD, and GHB (date rape drug)
• Cocaine and crack cocaine
• Conspiracy
• Drug cultivation and manufacturing
• Drug trafficking, transportation, and importation
• Heroin possession and sales
• Marijuana possession and sales
• Methamphetamine manufacturing and sales
• Possession of chemicals for drug manufacturing
• Possession with intent to deliver and drugs sales
• False or forged prescriptions
• Police sting operations

White Collar Crime

Many normal people make bad judgment calls because they have access to large amounts of money that is not their own. Experiencing financial pressures due to high credit card debt, hospital bills, or a gambling addiction, can often times result in an arrest for a white collar crime, such as embezzlement, property theft, wire fraud, or mail fraud. We have been able to get pre-indictment settlement of cases for clients. Often it is with the agreement to pay restitution. We have also helped businesses, contractors, and other professionals accused of the following crimes:

• Business fraud
• Accounting fraud
• Bank fraud
• Forgery
• Insider trading

Healthcare Fraud

Health care is an increasingly prevalent concern for all of us. The lawsuits filed against health care providers has increased tremendously. A health care provider accused of fraud must hire the best defense attorneys available. The risk of losing their business is colossal. The medical field is fraught with bureaucratic hang-ups that can cause long delays. We assist healthcare companies and professionals, in the following areas:

• Medicare fraud
• Medicaid fraud
• Health insurance fraud
• Medical billing fraud

Internet Crimes

Our defense strength in working with our Internet crime clients accused of online fraud or other internet related charges, is working with experienced computer forensic experts. Knowing that manipulation and morphing of computer evidence by law enforcement investigators has happened makes us scrupulously vigilant. We have helped clients in the following internet-related cases:

• Internet identity theft
• Sale of illegal products, such as illegal drugs
• Internet gambling
• Work-at-home schemes
• Hacking allegations
• Copyright violations
• Internet sex crimes

Child Pornography

One of the fastest growing areas of prosecution in federal court, child pornography offenses often carry mandatory minimum prison sentences. If images were transmitted electronically to even one other person, federal prosecutors threaten to charge you with child porn trafficking, a much harsher sentence than child pornography possession.

Internet Predator Stings

Pensanti & Associates has defended several of the “Dateline” predator sting operations where there is no “victim” just a private citizen acting as a government agent on the Internet.  Attorney Louisa Pensanti has mounted a successful counter-attack to an irresponsible government operation. Contact Pensanti & Associates now. 

CALL BEFORE YOU SPEAK TO ANY GOVERNMENT AGENTS! 
CALL BEFORE YOU TESTIFY IN FRONT OF THE GRAND JURY!