On March 30, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court in Luis v. United States, No. 14-419, held that pretrial restraint of untainted assets needed by a criminal defendant to retain counsel of choice violates a Sixth Amendment right to counsel.  This decision, however, left unresolved the broader question of whether the United States may restrain

Whether the government can freeze all of a defendant’s assets before trial, even where those assets are not tainted by any connection to alleged federal offenses, thereby preventing a defendant from paying for his own defense, will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Luis v. United States, No. 14-419.

The federal Mandatory

The Mandatory Victim Restitution Act of 1996 (“MVRA”) provides that defendants convicted of crimes committed by “fraud or deceit” compensate victims for the full amount of their losses.  Whether the amount of restitution may be offset if an employer-victim actually profited from the fraud or deceit has been a question for the courts.

According to