The Justice System Wants You: Now What?

If you find yourself in the justice system on the wrong end of a police investigation, particularly a federal investigation, law enforcement may be prepared to offer you great promises of leniency and preferential treatment in order to obtain your cooperation. In addition to the complicated fact that the police cannot promise you anything in exchange for a confession, but they are permitted to lie to you to get a confession, this is a very dangerous situation, particularly if you are not represented by an experienced criminal defense attorney.

Unless your situation is managed well, or even if it is, the government may decide to throw you to the wolves if they do not get what they want. This is true for alleged violent crimes and white-collar crimes. Just ask alleged insider trader Mathew Martoma. After the FBI’s numerous attempts to get Mr. Martoma to flip on his former boss, Steven A. Cohn of SAC Capital Advisors, L.P. – who is one of the biggest names in the hedge-fund world – the feds have turned ugly against Mr. Martoma himself.

According to the Wall Street Journal, after refusing to cooperate and turn on his former boss, federal prosecutors, the FBI, and the SEC are now accusing Mr. Martoma of insider-trading and securities fraud. They allege that Mr. Martoma, a former portfolio manager at an affiliate of SAC Capital, and his former boss, were involved in one of the biggest insider-trading schemes ever charged. This scheme is alleged to have brought significant profits for SAC. It also allegedly enabled them to avoid losses of approximately $276 million from one of the most lucrative funds on the market.

Authorities claim that Mr. Martoma received confidential information from a professor at the University of Michigan about a drug trial. Based on this information, Martoma and Cohn supposedly made trades yielding incredible profits and avoiding significant losses shortly before public reports of the drug’s poor performance during clinical trials.

Time will tell how the chips will fall for Martoma and Cohn. However, one cannot help but wonder whether Martoma may have avoided criminal charges if he played ball with the feds.

In the Justice System, cooperation with the government is a thorny issue. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work. Sometimes truthful cooperation is the only viable alternative for persons under investigation, unless they are prepared to spend years in prison. Other times, cooperation is the worst decision a client can make. Therefore, if you or a loved one is confronted with such a dilemma, it is essential that you utilize the services of an experienced and qualified Detroit Michigan criminal defense attorney to help keep you from being thrown to the wolves.