Category Archives: Federal Criminal Law

Federal Wire Fraud Charges for Selling Fake Masterpieces Eric Ian Spoutz, the 32-year-old art dealer from the Detroit area, was arrested recently for allegedly selling fake “masterpieces” to art collectors, and claiming that they are the real thing.

  According to a press release put out by the United States Attorney’s Office (Eastern District of Michigan), a former federal prison guard is facing charges for bribery. John Jake Froehly, a 36-year-old from Newport, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of bribery.

Five Detroit people charged in Wisconsin robbery According to a recent press release from the FBI, four men and one woman from the Detroit area have been federally indicted for robbing a jewelry store in West Bend, Wisconsin.

Former Postal Worker Indicted  In 1986, in Edmond, Oklahoma, 14 postal workers were shot dead and another 6 wounded by Patrick Sherrill, a postal worker who succumbed to uncontrollable workplace rage. After his terrifying shooting spree, Sherrill killed himself. Over the next decade or so there were at least 20 incidents in which postal workers […]

History and Hollywood are littered with the interesting and often almost fantastical names of FBI operations. “Operation Chaos”, “Operation Bot Roast”, and “Operation Big Coon Dog” are but a tiny sampling of the creativity of federal operation nomenclature. But “Operation From Russia With Love” may be one of the best yet.

After a two year investigation, a 72 count indictment, and a year of court dates, a federal drug trafficking case has finally been closed. Spanning both Michigan and Ohio, nineteen people have been sentenced. They will each be serving a significant amount of time behind bars.

This is a free country, and we are entitled to freedom of speech. But don’t mistake that freedom for meaning that you can say whatever you want, whenever you want. It may come as a surprise, but there are limits to what a person can say, and threatening a police officer’s life is actually against […]

In a day and age when vaccinations are so commonplace, more than three people dying of the same relatively rare disease can trigger public outcry and the fear of epidemic. In this instance, it has also led to very serious criminal charges, including federal murder.

Members of “Block Burners” Gang Convicted Four Lansing gang members have been in the 2010 abduction and murder of a 19-year-old woman. The four men, members of the “Block Burners” gang, were convicted of multiple charges. Wallee Al-Din, 24, his brother Mustafa Al-Din, 25, Charles Lewis Sr., 35, and Raphael Crenshaw, 23, were all found guilty […]

Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act no defense in Federal court 37 people have been indicted as part of an alleged multi-county Michigan marijuana growing operation. Called ‘Medical Marijuana Team’, or MMT, it was led by a man named Shawn Taylor. Along with his wife Molly, Taylor owned a store in Muskegon called In Do Grow. The […]