Who in Identity Theft Needs a Lawyer?

Identity theft is a crime that occurs when someone obtains another persons private
information in a wrongful manner through fraud or deception, usually so that the
perpetrator can achieve economic gain. When identity theft occurs, there are two main
parties who may wish to seek legal counsel: defendants and victims.
Common Causes of Identity Theft
Identity theft can occur in a number of ways. One common cause is by retrieving discarded preapproval notices for credit and submitting this information unbeknownst to the recipient of this
communication. Identity theft may involve other crimes, such as mail fraud in which a perpetrator
intercepts mail and redirects it to another location in order to use private information. Identity theft
may also occur electronically when a perpetrator retrieves the victims credit information or
infects the computer he or she is using by getting the victim to open up spam mail.
Identity theft may include acquiring credit, loans, mortgages, social welfare benefits,
employment, money from financial accounts and other property. Identity theft may also result in
the victim having unpaid taxes in his or her name and an inaccurate record with the Social
Security Administration.
For Defendants
Being charged with identity theft and related charges is very serious. You may be charged under
federal identity theft laws, which carry very serious criminal penalties. Many states have also
enacted their own identity theft laws. Individuals who are charged with crimes of this nature may
choose to talk to a private attorney who can advise them on their options and help protect their
rights. Defendants may wish to use the services of a private attorney rather than rely on legal
representation from the overworked and busy public defenders office. He or she may make
certain recommendations, such as not talking to law enforcement outside the lawyers presence.
He or she may also help effectuate a plea agreement that minimizes the defendants criminal
exposure by offering restitution or other remedies in exchange for a lighter sentence. If the case
goes to trial, the attorney represents the defendant at trial by asserting any relevant defenses.
For Victims
When a person is a victim of a crime, the state represents his or her interests by pursuing
criminal charges with the help of the county prosecutor or the US attorney. However, an identity
theft victim may choose to retain counsel to help with a civil lawsuit against the defendant in case
the state chose not to press charges or if the victim wants to pursue a case civilly. Additionally, a
person may wish to retain an attorney to help with the process of correcting his or her credit
information or the consequences of the illegal acts. An attorney may assist victims in the
following ways:
Notification

It can be exhausting to deal with identity theft. Applications may have been made with multiple
creditors, Department of Human Services offices, the Social Security Administration, the Internal
Revenue Service and many other entities and offices. An attorney may contact each affected
business and agency, including the three major credit bureaus. An attorney may keep a log of all
contacts made and monies expended. When making a notification to banks, the victim must often
submit an affidavit. An attorney may help with the creation and wording of such documents.
Further action may be required regarding notification based on the type of identity theft created.
If the perpetrator used the persons name for employment, the Social Security Administration and
IRS may need to be contacted. If you believe that your mail has been wrongfully forwarded, you
may need to notify the postal inspector.
Request of Records
An attorney may prepare a letter or subpoena in order to acquire certain records from creditors
and other agencies to assist in criminal prosecution or in support of a civil suit. This information
can sometimes lead investigators to the perpetrator. For example, credit applications may
contain
the
culprits
physical
address
or
telephone
number.
Explanation of Rights
An attorney can also help by explaining the victims rights to him or her. For example, the victim
may want to know what to do if he or she has notified a creditor of the identity theft but one is still
trying to collect payment on it or what to do if he or she is receiving harassing phone calls from
creditors.
Copyright HG.org
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not
intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with
an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and
related topics, please contact the author.

Panama Adopts New Legislation to Supress Money Launderin

The Law responds to the continuous international claims and the listing of Panama in the
FATF gray list.
By means of Law 23 of 2015, the Government of Panama has promoted a new legislation to
combat money laundering, terrorism and weapons acquisitions.
The Law responds to the continuous international claims and the listing of Panama in the FATF
gray list. Law 23 uses as template the FATF standard. Some of the most important aspects are:
1- The Law provides a general description, whereby
it grants to different supervisory organizations and entities the capacity to supervise different
types of activities that are possible vehicles to facilitate money laundering, terrorism financing
and massive weapons proliferation.
The current existing entities are:
The Banking Superintendence
The Insurance and Reinsurance Superintendence
Securities Comission
The Cooperatives Institute
The Non Financial Activities Intendence is still to be created.
It is worth mentioning that the law establishes a special classification for what are defined as non
financial related activities, some of which are:
Free Zones
Money transfer services
Casinos and gambling, including internet
Real estate developers, brokers
Construction companies
Secure logistics and Valuables transportation
Currencies exchange houses
Pawn brokering
2- Professional Activities
Article 24 of Law 23 lists the professional activities to be supervised by the Non Financial
activities Intendence, and these include:
Legal profession
Accounting

 Notary services, and activities or services related to

Real estate transactions
Fund management, escrow services, securities custody services
Bank account management
Organization, operation and management of structures and entities such as trusts, companies
and foundations, including their sale internationally
Acting as a nominee stockholder or director or legal representative
Provision of domicile services
Acting as agent of a company
3- Due Diligence and KYC Obligations
Finally, the Law establishes the obligation for all services providers, financial and non financial, to
establish due diligence and know your clients processes. Standards of which are contemplated in
Title V, articles 26 to 47 of Law 23.
Title VII, in its Art 53, establishes the obligation to all supervised service providers to record and
provide information upon request from the authorities on suspicious transactions for over
US$10,000.00.
Art 54 of the same Title, establishes the obligation to all service providers, financial and non
financial, to report any suspicious transaction or operation related to money laundering and
terrorism financing.
Provided that the situations are reported within the time and compliance required by Title VII, all
employees and directors of the financial or non financial entity that provide the report shall be
protected in confidentiality and exempted from criminal and civil responsibility.
Title IX contemplates possible sanctions to those financial and non financial services providers
that incur in infringement of this Law, which additionally grants the supervisory entities the
capacity to regulate and implement additional sanctioning proceedings.
AUTHOR: Dr. Juan Jose Espino
Copyright Pardini & Associates
More information about Pardini & Associates
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not
intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with
an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and
related topics, please contact the author.

Alternatives to Jail

States and counties around the country have offered criminal defendants a number of
alternatives to jail. These alternatives help to keep more people outside of overcrowded
jails and provide an incentive to reform behavior.
Overview
Alternative sentencing consists of anything beyond an ordinary jail or prison sentence. It includes
a number of different arrangements. The availability of such alternatives is based on the state
and local jurisdictions. Additionally, certain types of criminal conduct may prohibit the issuance of
an alternative sentence.
Many of these alternatives are not a defendants natural right. Instead, his or her defense
attorney may negotiate an available alternative through a plea agreement with the prosecutors
office. The prosecutor often has the discretion to determine whether or not to offer such an
alternative. He or she may offer such alternatives to individuals who have ongoing
responsibilities and who may be affected more dramatically by incarceration. In some
jurisdictions, the defendant must apply for alternative sentencing through the county sheriffs
office and receive approval from the judge responsible for sentencing. The defendant is usually
responsible for the cost associated with any alternative sentencing.
Work Release
This type of program is set up to prevent a person from losing his or her job. The defendant may
be released from the jail in order to work his or her regular shift and then returns to the jail after
this shift. In order to be approved for this type of alternative sentencing, the defendants employer
may have to be in contact with the defendants probation officer. The defendant may also be
required to wear a tracking device in order to ensure that he or she is actually going only to
work.
Weekend Incarceration
This alternative sentencing works the opposite of work release in which the defendant is at home
most of the time but then is at jail during the weekend or other days off when he or she is not
working. This alternative sentencing is sometimes given to defendants who have a minimal
sentence to serve, such as under 30 days.
House Arrest
House arrest allows a person to serve his or her sentence in the comfort of his or her own home.
The defendant usually wears an ankle monitoring device that shows that he or she is at home.
He or she may be permitted to make limited trips outside of the home, but the defendant is often
give a curfew in which he or she must return home. This type of sentencing may be given to
someone who is a caregiver or who has health issues.

Rehabilitation
In some instances, courts may order a defendant to serve time in a rehabilitation center instead
of serving time in jail. There are often caveats in these orders that state that if the defendant

leaves the center early, he or she will have to serve the original jail sentence. This type of
sentencing is often available for individuals who were convicted of a drug or alcohol crime or
whose addiction contributed to the crime.
More and more states are including drug courts in their sentencing schemes. In drug court, the
defendant pleads guilty and has his or her case transferred to the drug court division. His or her
sentence usually includes a combination of rehabilitation, drug screens, supervision contacts and
other instructions as set out by the drug court. If the defendant does not comply with any of the
orders of the court, the defendants original guilty plea is re-entered and the defendant is required
to complete the original sentence.
Counseling
In some situations, defendants may have experienced a difficult childhood, abuse or other
extenuating circumstances that the court may consider in sentencing. Sometimes the court will
order counseling because it recognizes that other factors may have contributed to the
commission of the crime.
Copyright HG.org
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not
intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with
an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and
related topics, please contact the author.

International Investigation of Crimes in Ukraine

Today the world is steadily moving to international globalization through constant
economic, political, cultural and legal integration.

Surely in the process of communication between the parties often arise conflicts that were
caused with simple misunderstanding or illegal actions.
That is why there is a need to make the international investigation to bring offenders to justice.
This activity can be carried out by specialized agencies as part of international organizations or
individual special organizations (for example International Criminal Police Commission Interpol)
and private professional entities on a fee basis.
Often in the cooperation with the agencies in international organizations specializing on offence
investigations clients meet many problems as:
- low motivation of employees to investigate the crimes and get results;
- the investigation can take a lot of time because of a large amount of cases in these bodies;
- a complicated structure of bodies specializing on an international investigation and low level of
cooperation between the agencies in different countries;
- low professional level of the employees.
Interdependence and interconnections between countries and as a result between business
entities lead to necessity in establishing relations with legal persons and individuals.
All these factors lead to low efficiency of the activities in the international investigation agencies
and, as a result, to a small percentage of successful cases.
These problems disappear when clients appeal to the private entities, since they are directly
interested in the results, and also they have much more skilled workers then the specialized
agencies in the international organizations.
Importantly, the main role in the efficiency of such activities takes the planning and organization
of the investigation, including exploration of problems and direction of investigation, ways and
means, how to achieve the objectives using rational spending of clients time, efforts, and
resources.
The investigation agencies in international organizations dont have, de facto, this component,
when the private entities give to this activity a lot of attention.
This service includes:
- carrying out of investigation actions aimed at the search of persons, firms suspected in
misconducts;
- search and collection of proofs;
- analysis of laws in the country where the crime was committed;
- legal assistance in bringing the persons to justice.
AUTHOR: Alex
Copyright APC Law Firm
More information about APC Law Firm
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not

intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with
an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and
related topics, please contact the author.