Cyber Crime Lawyer Blog

As a Miami sex offender registration violations defense attorney, I was pleased to see a recent piece in the Miami Herald about some of the unintended consequences of our punitive sex offender registration laws. As Miamians may know, Florida places very strict restrictions on where registered sex offenders may live -- they cannot live within 1,000 feet of any place where children congregate. Miami-Dade has an even stricter law that requires offenders to live at least 2,500 feet away from any place where children congregate. As a result, a group of sex offenders with no place else to go have taken up residence under the Julia Tuttle Causeway bridge, sparking a lawsuit from the ACLU arguing that the county law has essentially forced these people into homelessness and made it harder for police to keep track of them.

According to a July 24 article from the Miami Herald, the state of Iowa faced a similar problem until recently. Its state law, passed in 2005, kept sex offenders at least 2,000 feet from schools and day-care centers. As in Florida, this had the unintended consequence of making it very difficult for offenders to find a legal home, driving some into homelessness and others to disappear. However, unlike in Florida, the Iowa legislature has found a solution. Iowa’s recent amendment to its sex offender laws creates three tiers of sex offender, allowing people convicted of the least serious crimes to live anywhere and requiring those convicted of the most serious crimes to keep to the 2,000-foot limit. Similar efforts in Florida have failed, at least once because of opposition from Miami-Dade legislators.

As a South Florida sex offender registration violations criminal defense lawyer, I’m pleased to see attention paid to this issue. These restrictions are in place to keep us safe from sexual predators who might offend again. However, if this law drives offenders to flee or become homeless, it impedes law enforcement’s ability to track these offenders -- paradoxically creating a situation that could make us less safe. It is also an unnecessarily punitive law, particularly because these offenders have already done their time and been released.

No politician wants to be seen as soft on child molesters -- even when common sense tells them the current situation isn’t working. That’s why the political willpower mustered in Iowa is so impressive to this Fort Lauderdale sex offender registration criminal defense attorney. As one state senator observes in the article, Florida has different problems and demographics from those in Iowa. But when the problem is similar, it only makes sense to consider a similar solution, even if it takes some political courage.

I am happy to announce a new service I offer for property owners in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties: representation for homeowners seeking to challenge the assessment of their property values, and thus their property taxes. I saw a need for this kind of representation after months of reading about the difficulties facing South Florida property owners, who are facing a probable property tax hike, plummeting home values and the same financial difficulties faced by everyone else in this bad economy.

Property values are determined by a county assessor, who looks at sales prices for the property and similar properties in the year before the beginning of the current tax year. For this year’s property assessments, that means assessors are looking at property sales between Jan. 1, 2008 and Jan. 1, 2009 to determine fair market value as of Jan. 1, 2009. That works fine in an ordinary real estate market -- but this is not an ordinary market. Property values have plummeted in the past year or two, with foreclosures and short sales flooding the market and depressing prices for ordinary home sales. An assessment based on prices in early 2008 may no longer be accurate.

At the same time, homeowners are being financially squeezed in other ways. For one thing, the drop in property values means many are “underwater” or have lost equity in their homes, making it hard to refinance or sell. For another, South Florida currently has an unemployment rate around 10%, and people who do have jobs are seeing reductions in their hours, pay or customers. On top of all this, both Broward and Miami-Dade are proposing a slight increase in property taxes, to close the expected gap in revenue brought on by the drop in property values. Some cities are also raising taxes. Under these circumstances, many homeowners simply can’t afford to let an incorrect assessment stand if it means a substantial increase in property taxes.

Preliminary assessments are already out in both Miami-Dade and Broward, and they will be formally mailed in August. Homeowners who believe the assessed values of their properties are incorrect can file an appeal, to try to have the assessment changed by the November mailing of the final tax bills. That’s where I can step in, as a South Florida property tax assessment appeal attorney.

Appeals of property valuations are heard by a Value Adjustment Board, an administrative body convened by the county. You are free to have a Miami property tax assessment appeal lawyer represent you at this hearing -- and as with many other legal proceedings, it’s a good idea. For one thing, the law explicitly stacks the deck against homeowners by presuming the county’s assessment is correct, which means the burden of proof is on you. For another, if you lose your hearing and wish to appeal it, your next step is to file a lawsuit in civil court. And the deadlines for all of this paperwork are very short -- for example, you have just 25 days from the mailing of your appraisal to appeal it in Miami-Dade. Hiring a Fort Lauderdale property tax assessment appeal lawyer can prevent you from missing those deadlines and losing your right to contest a bad appraisal.

In exchange for this service, my office will charge a percentage of the savings we win for you. As with all of our fees, I will explain this in advance and give you a chance to ask any questions you might have. I believe this service could be extremely valuable for homeowners who receive tax bills based on property values that were accurate 18 months ago but are overly optimistic now. For families who are already struggling financially, an inaccurate property tax bill is just another blow they don’t need.

Think before your text, that is the message we need to be sending our kids. The Sexting Revolution continues to haunt our kids and there is no end in sight. I guess this what we get for giving our kids camera phones. Ultimately who is to blame? Are the courts the best way to deal with this problem? There is an ongoing list of questions that can be posed when it comes to this topic, but the end results is usually the same: kidson criminal probation for being kids; which in turn can lead to a criminal record and problems in the future.

As a Fort Lauderdale Cyber Crime and Criminal Defense Lawyer, I see this problem everyday. Cyber crime both those with sexual content and non-sexual content are plaguing society. Cyber stalking is on the rise, and sexting is here to stay. The final question at the end of all this is, will the State (prosecutor) do the right thing or use the minor as a stepping stone?

Recently a teen in Melbourne, Florida received probation for forwarding sexually explicit photos. This was charged as some serious felonies, but plead down for resolution purposes. But again, I have to ask the question, where's the crime, and what does this resolution serve? Minors sending pictures of minors, and then being charged criminally. This is NOT what the legislature had in mind when they drafted this legislation. Until the legislature amends the laws, this will be debated.

If you or anyone you know needs the assistance of a former cyber crime prosecutor turned criminal defense lawyer in Florida, call 24/7 for a free consultation.

Patience pays off...sometimes, but with police agencies actively seeking out those soliciting minors, the agents investigating have all the time in the world. Police around the State and country are growing more patient in developing their suspects. No longer do law enforcement agencies look to net the "quick fix big fish," rather they have started "stalking" their subjects. What that means is they are digging into the backgrounds of their targets and learning everything they can before they make their arrest. They will have several chats, sometimes over a period of months until they finally make an arrest.

Recently in Miami Dade County a life guard was arrested and charged with solicitation of a minor online by the Broward Sheriff's office. BSO had been tracking and following him for months as they built their case. This was a combined effort with international ties, which ultimately led to his arrest. That is what makes this case a little more interesting than most. There are several issues that can arise when dealing with international cases, the evidence they bring and methods that may or may not lead to its introduction in a United States Court of law.

Allegations are all that has been made at this time, and everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. As a cyber crime defense attorney, there are many avenues that can be taken in order to successfully win and defend against the crime of online solicitation. If you or a loved one are facing charges, cyber crime or otherwise, don't delay call David Seltzer, Miami Dade Cyber Crime Criminal Defense Attorney for a free consultation 24/7. Your freedom and restoration of civil rights is our number one goal!

Miami Court Delays UBS Lawsuit Hearing in Hope of Settlement in Tax Evasion Case

A federal judge in Miami-Dade County agreed July 13 to postpone a hearing in the hotly contested UBS lawsuit, the New York Times reported July 13. A new hearing was scheduled for Aug. 3 in the case brought against Swiss bank UBS by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is suing for the names of 52,000 Americans who have accounts with UBS, which admitted in a separate criminal case that it knowingly and intentionally helped Americans hide income from the IRS. UBS paid $780 million to the federal government to settle the criminal charges, but the IRS has threatened to indict the bank after all if it doesn’t get the names. This has created a quiet diplomatic showdown, with UBS complaining that it would violate Swiss law if it did what the IRS requests.

UBS has already turned over around 300 names of Americans who used its services to commit tax fraud. In anticipation of the revelation of 52,000 more, the IRS in March announced a six-month voluntary disclosure program. In this program, people with accounts at UBS are encouraged to come forward and declare any previously undeclared income. These taxpayers will still have to pay back taxes and a penalty, but they will not be prosecuted and will not be liable for the full amount of fines they might otherwise have faced. Without the voluntary disclosure, they face up to five years in prison for each tax evasion count, plus steep fines and potential loss of money and property. At least three Floridians -- two bankers and a Boca Raton man -- have already been criminally charged in the UBS matter.

As I wrote last month, many UBS clients have already sought representation from South Florida tax evasion criminal defense lawyers to help them get the best deal they can and avoid unnecessary risk as they come forward. While I am sure that some of these clients knew they were breaking the law by hiding their assets with UBS, published reports suggest that many others truly didn’t realize they had to pay taxes on their UBS accounts. One report said many UBS account holders in South Florida are children or grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who inherited the Swiss accounts and simply kept on doing what their relatives had done, trusting that their bank wouldn’t do anything illegal. As a Fort Lauderdale tax evasion criminal defense attorney, I believe prison and asset forfeiture are deeply inappropriate for such people.

I am proud to say that I represent clients in South Florida who need the help of a Miami tax evasion criminal defense lawyer to take part in the IRS voluntary disclosure plan. Finding, documenting and paying back taxes and fines can be complicated and sometimes frightening -- but waiting until the government comes after you can make the situation considerably worse. My job as a South Florida tax fraud criminal defense lawyer is to negotiate aggressively on clients’ behalf with federal prosecutors, to ensure that justice is done and get a fair settlement that leaves them with a clean criminal record.

As a South Florida cyber crime criminal defense lawyer, I was interested to read an interesting analysis by the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog July 2 of a recent cyber crime against the government of Bullitt County, Kentucky. According to the blog, criminals in the Ukraine stole $415,000 from the county’s payroll account last week through an elaborate scheme that relied partly on hacking and partly on the cooperation -- or naivete -- of Americans used as “money mules.” While criminal charges have not yet been brought, the article interviewed two anonymous Florida women who said they were fooled into acting as mules -- one of whom is now almost $9,000 overdrawn by the scam.

The Ukrainians used a malware program to get access to the computer belonging to the Bullitt County treasurer. Using that, they were able to get access to the bank account and create 25 “employees” who were really the money mules. They then wired money in amounts around $10,000 to each of the mules, sometimes more than once. The mules’ job was to send the money on to the Ukrainian scammers via wire transfer, keeping a percentage as a fee.

However, the mules’ status was not always made clear to them, according to the article. The blogger spoke with two anonymous women, both Florida residents, who said they were initially hired from CareerBuilder.com to correct bad grammar and spelling in documents sent by “Fairlove Delivery Service.” One of the woman, a Miami resident, said she was later offered a job as a “local agent” helping the company get its money to overseas clients faster. Her job was to accept the Kentucky deposits into her personal bank account and wire the money to the Ukraine. She got suspicious and only wired about a third of the money, which turned out to be wise -- after Bullitt County discovered the scam, her bank account was frozen.

The other Florida woman had a similar story, but sent along all of the money as requested. Unfortunately for her, her bank honored Bullitt County’s request to reverse its deposit, which means her trust was repaid by an overdraft charge of nearly $9,000. The bank said she would be expected to repay the money. The article said authorities have not yet finished their investigation, so it’s not clear yet whether she may also face criminal charges. The article finishes with some tips for Internet users on how to avoid scams like this, including advice on avoiding the Trojan malware that affected the Bullitt County computers as well as being wary of online-only job offers.

That might sound like obvious advice to a Fort Lauderdale cyber crime criminal defense attorney -- but it clearly wasn’t obvious to these women, who could pay a high price for their credulousness. (In fact, in this economic climate, it might be easier than ever to scam job-seekers who are desperate for work.) In addition to the financial consequences they now face, they could be criminally charged as accomplices to a crime against Bullitt County, while the ringleaders remain free in the Ukraine. It’s hard to second-guess investigative work that’s still underway, but as a Miami-Dade cyber crime criminal defense attorney, I do not believe they should be held to the same standards of culpability as the original hackers.