Public Corruption Defense
Nathans & Biddle has successfully defended elected politicians, high level senior political appointees, corporate executives, attorneys, prominent developers and others under investigation for public corruption.
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Recent successes in public corruption matters include:
In 2007 and 2008, the Maryland Attorney General's Office declined to prosecute two of Larry Nathans' clients, in seperate investigations, for their alleged participation in soliciting bribes and bribery of a public official.
In July, 2007, Washington County prosecutors held a press conference after indicting an individual with two counts of attempted felony extortion. Thereafter, in January, 2008, after Larry Nathans and Justin Brown had been hired and completed a thorough defense investigation of the charges, the Washington County State's Attorney's Office dismissed the felony extortion charges. The client entered a no contest plea (not an admission of guilt) to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to Probation Before Judgment (not a conviction) with unsupervised probation and a $250 fine.
In August, 2007, the Office of the State Prosecutor dismissed Larry Nathans' client's Baltimore City Circuit Court felony bribery and theft charges. The case involved the alleged bribery of a Baltimore City School official.
In October, 2006, a Washington, D.C., United States District Court granted a defense downward departure from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and sentenced Larry Nathans’ client to home detention in lieu of imprisonment. The client accepted a bribe in return for approving the awarding of a Department of Education contract.
In May, 2006, Larry Nathans persuaded prosecutorial authorities to forego criminal charges against his client the head of a municipal government agency. The client had been investigated for her alleged role in accepting a bribe.
In early 2006, in a case being investigated outside of the mid-Atlantic region, Larry Nathans and Robert Biddle learned that their prominent attorney client would not be indicted for his alleged role in the improper awarding of state contracts.
On March 18, 2005, the Maryland United State's Attorney publicly announced an end to his office's 1 1/2 year public corruption investigation of the Baltimore City Council. Larry Nathans was the lead criminal defense attorney in this matter.
In 2004, Larry Nathans persuaded the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office to decline prosecution of an investment firm CFO in a Baltimore federal criminal political corruption and securities prosecution (where CEO not represented by our firm was convicted).
In 2003, Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke represented an individual associated with the Governor's election committee. Mr. Nathans and Mr. Ripke succeeded in having all charges dismissed in the Prince George's County Circuit Court and the ruling was upheld by the Maryland Court of Appeals (after oral argument). We developed a novel argument that demonstrated the 25 year-old criminal "walk-around-money" statute unconstitutionally violated the First Amendment.
Larry Nathans and Robert Biddle persuaded the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office to decline to prosecute a senior level Baltimore City executive for political corruption and tax violations.
Larry Nathans persuaded the Maryland State Prosecutor's office to decline to prosecute the CFO of a suburban District of Columbia based company alleged to have bribed a Maryland state senator.
Larry Nathans and Robert Biddle persuaded the District of Columbia United States Attorney's Office to decline to prosecute an owner of a furniture company under investigation for bribing government contract officials.
Larry Nathans persuaded a Baltimore, Maryland, Federal Judge to overturn the conviction of a senior level pharmaceutical executive in a FDA bribery case.
Larry Nathans persuaded the Greenbelt U.S. Attorney's Office to decline to prosecute a senior level military contractor alleged to have bribed military procurement officials.
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