Tax,
Criminal
May 28, 2020
Ruling confirms plea agreements are worth the paper they’re printed on
Courts recognize the unequal bargaining power in deciding whether a prosecutor has breached a plea agreement. As with any one-sided contract, ambiguities are construed against the drafter (i.e., the government).
Evan J. Davis
Principal
Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez
Phone: (310) 281-3288
Email: davis@taxlitigator.com
Evan pspent 11 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California, including three years in the Tax Division where he handed civil and criminal tax cases and 11 years in the Major Frauds Section of the Criminal Division where he handled white-collar, tax and other fraud cases through jury trial and appeal. He represents individuals and closely held entities in criminal tax (including foreign-account and cryptocurrency) investigations and prosecutions, civil tax controversy and litigation, sensitive issue or complex civil tax examinations and administrative tax appeals, and federal and state white-collar criminal investigations including campaign finance, FARA, money laundering, and health care fraud.
Most federal criminal cases end in a written plea agreement, and tax cases are no exception. In plea negotiations, prosecutors wield enormous power and can effectively dictate the terms to most defendants. The plea agreements are largely district-specific, boilerplate documents that even individual prosecutors can't modify outside of the factual basis, minor adjustments to appellate waivers, and options for sentencing recommendations.
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