Florida imposes sales tax on commercial leases of real property, including industrial, office, and retail properties. If the real property is occupied by a for-profit business, it is generally considered commercial, subject to a few exceptions as set forth in Section 212.031, Florida Statutes. Effective June 1, 2024, the sales [...]
The False Claims Act (FCA) is used by the government to combat fraud claims, allowing whistleblowers to bring forth allegations of wrongdoing on behalf of the government (called “qui tam” lawsuits). The FCA provides that any person who knowingly submits, or causes to submit, false claims to the government is [...]
A close understanding of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines is a critical component to effective representation in U.S. District Court criminal cases. The Guidelines are published by the U.S. Sentencing Commission and serve as a roadmap for judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel to determine the potential exposure and appropriate sentence for [...]
Tax-related investigations and prosecutions appear to be on the rise. The Inflation Reduction Act provided $80 billion in additional funding to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Much of this funding has been dedicated to enforcing tax compliance through the hiring and training of agents. The IRS-Criminal Investigation Agency (IRS-CI) investigates [...]
Federal government agencies have many tools to obtain private information from people and entities prior to the initiation of formal court proceedings. One tool is a Civil Investigative Demand (CID). This is an administrative subpoena that demands the production of documents, answers to interrogatories, and/or oral testimony under oath. For [...]
Physicians and other healthcare providers (HCPs) are often invited to participate in speaker programs that include presentations on pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and healthcare initiatives. These are frequently company-sponsored events where an HCP may be paid an honorarium and remuneration for costs including mileage and meals. These arrangements are not [...]
The arrival of tax season may be a stressful time for many business owners and individual filers. IRS criminal investigators continue to aggressively pursue tax evaders, and IRS efforts have increased with additional manpower and funding. These agents have particularly been focusing, in recent months, on investigations regarding tax evasion, [...]
White collar investigations necessarily impact many different people. Federal and state white collar authorities use three different labels to categorize the individuals and companies they interact with: target, subject, and witness. The Department of Justice’s policy is to inform individuals where they fall on the spectrum—target, subject, or witness. The [...]
Matthew P. Massey was a featured legal commenter in The New York Times’ ongoing coverage of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial in article published on October 9, 2023. He analyzed Mr. Bankman-Fried’s strategy of advancing an advice of counsel defense and addressed some of the challenges with such a strategy. [...]
The “advice of counsel” defense can be an effective legal defense when used properly in white collar criminal cases. This defense will likely be used in the case of United States v. Bankman-Fried, 1:22-cr-00673, which is set for trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of [...]
