The victims of money laundering are not just those that lose the funds but also those that are used in disposing of it. This much is made clear by the provisions of legislative instrument number 720 ILCS 5/29B-1 of Chicago. It is not uncommon for family members to be unwittingly…
The breach of trust in insider trading is not as obvious as other forms of breach of trust. The basic premise of the law is that there is an implicit trust by members of the public that financial institutions will follow the letter of the law. However, there are those…
The crime of bank fraud is sometimes thought of as being harmless given the fact that it involves big powerful corporations and rarely involves any violence. However, the courts take it seriously and are quite capable of imposing significant penalties for it. The technical definitions of the crime include the…
Crimes or accusations of inference and supposition ought to be relatively easy to defend because of the lack of clarity surrounding them. However, the reality is that the legislation has been written in such a way as to favor the prosecutor and the accusing officer. The basic tenets of the…
The crime television niche has done much to highlight the intricacies of the solicitation of murder for hire. Like in all legal jurisdictions in the world, this is a serious crime in Chicago. It involves a certain amount of breach of trust by a loved one. For the media, it…
There has been much public debate about how and why the law as it stands is relevant to the daily lives of people in America. It is therefore not surprising that the enactment of the Chicago law on unlawful restraint has exercised lawyers on both ends of the spectrum. Some…
The lack of clarity about the law on obstruction of justice (and the significant leeway that is afforded the law enforcement agencies) make this one of the most controversial areas of legal practice. Those misgivings notwithstanding, a charge of this nature brings serious consequences. Quite often defendants are caught off…
The law of public indecency in Chicago is complex precisely because it touches on the interaction between personal freedom and societal norms. What some consider to be harmless exhibitionism may meet the statutory minimum for the crime of public indecency (see People v Reed). Generally speaking, society has condemned indecent…
Just like in many jurisdictions, Illinois takes vehicular hijacking to be a particularly serious crime as listed in the provisions of the legislative instrument number 720 ILCS 5/18-4. Upon conviction, the defendant can expect a term of imprisonment that ranges anywhere from four to 15 years. There are specific aggravating…
The felony charge sits just below terrorism and treason when ranking the criminal offenses that are known in the Chicago statues. It is a step up from the misdemeanor and carries a lot of serious consequences for the defendant including the loss of their liberty and a debilitating criminal record.…