Fraud is perhaps the most common type of white collar crime prosecuted in Texas. Fraud takes many forms. But the essential nature of fraud is that it involves acquiring the property of another through false pretenses. Fraud is also not just a matter of Texas law. Anyone who defrauds a financial institution–i.e., a bank–or uses […]

When it comes to pursuing sex crimes, such as voluntary transactions like prostitution and solicitation, Texas prosecutors take aggressive actions. Defendants can be charged with multiple independent offenses based off of one single transaction. Courts in Texas generally permits staking charges. State, City Prostitution Laws Have Different “Focus” You probably know the U.S. Constitution forbids “double […]

A57-year-old Texas man who was exonerated in late 2009 for a murder he did not commit is once again back in jail. This time around, he is facing a drug possession charge. The man was convicted in 1997 for a murder that occurred during a home invasion of a Texas drug house. The man served […]

This week, three Houston men were convicted on federal hate crime charges for the assault of an African-American man last August. The conviction is the first of its kind in the Houston area. According to the charges, the men encountered the victim at a bus stop on the night of August 13. One of the […]

The founder of a Houston record label pleaded guilty last week to charges of cocaine distribution and money laundering. Prosecutors alleged that Estell “Hump” Hobbs was part of a nationwide drug distribution network that had ties to Mexican cartels. Along with the rapper Lil’ Flip, Hobbs founded hip-hop label Suckafree Records back in 1998. Prosecutors […]

A joint federal task force arrested 94 people – many of them doctors – in a recent crackdown on Medicare fraud throughout five major cities in the United States. Prosecutors claimed that physicians, health care executives and others in four cities received $251 million in false Medicare claims. Included among the federal criminal charges were […]