Who decides when a person should be investigated in a federal criminal prosecution?
Many of our clients ask us who decides to investigate someone relating to a possible federal criminal case regarding cases such as drug trafficking, mortgage and Medicare fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, public corruption, other white-collar crimes or any other federal crime including lying to federal agents, child pornography, counterfeiting, alien smuggling or tax evasion. The question is very legitimate yet complicated to answer. In most instances, the federal law-enforcement agency involved such as the FBI, DEA, ICE, IRS or Secret Service receive a complaint from a victim of a federal crime or from a financial or banking institution which is required to report certain unusual transactions under federal law. In other instances, the investigative agency receives information from established sources or informants who indicate that an individual or group are involved in some type of criminal activity. Finally, federal criminal investigations are undertaken by a particular federal law-enf
