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Fraud & White Collar Defense
Fraud cases are different from every other prosecution on this site: they're built backwards, from paperwork, long before an arrest. By the time a detective calls about “some questions on a transaction,” the file already contains bank records, subpoenaed statements, and a theory with your name in it. The single most expensive mistake in a white collar case is the helpful phone interview that fills the gaps in that theory.
The second difference: intent to defraud is the heart of every one of these charges — and intent is exactly where failed businesses, sloppy bookkeeping, family financial chaos, and genuine disputes get mistaken for crimes. If an investigator, bank, or employer has raised fraud, call or text 407-846-8008 before you explain anything to anyone.
The Charges We Defend
• Scheme to defraud / organized fraud — § 817.034. A systematic course of conduct intended to defraud. Penalties scale with the aggregate take: under $20,000, a third-degree felony; $20,000 to $50,000, second-degree; $50,000 or more, a first-degree felony (up to 30 years). Each phone call, text, or email in furtherance can also be charged as a separate communications fraud count — which is how one dispute becomes a twenty-count information.
• Credit card fraud — § 817.61. Using a card (or number) without authority. More than two uses or $100+ obtained within six months makes it a felony; below that, a misdemeanor. These cases live and die on authorization — exes, roommates, and family members with a history of shared card use are the standard fact pattern, not strangers with skimmers.
• Worthless checks — § 832.05. A check of $150 or more with insufficient funds is a third-degree felony — but the statute has built-in defenses: postdated checks don't count, and neither do checks the payee knew or had reason to believe weren't yet covered. Many of these cases are civil debts wearing criminal clothes.
• Forgery and uttering — §§ 831.01, 831.02. Making or passing a forged instrument with intent to defraud — third-degree felonies, typically charged together, each requiring proof of knowledge and intent.
• Related exposure we manage in the same defense: identity theft allegations, employee theft framed as fraud, contractor disputes, and the parallel civil and licensing fallout that often matters more than the sentence.
Intent: Where These Cases Are Won
Fraud requires proof you intended to deceive — not that a business failed, a check bounced, an invoice was disputed, or a project went sideways. The defense builds the innocent narrative with the same documents the State uses: payments made, partial performance, communications showing good faith, accounting chaos rather than concealment. Juries understand the difference between a liar and a debtor — when someone shows it to them.
Two structural defenses recur: aggregation attacks (the State must tie every dollar to one scheme to reach the felony tiers — separate disputes don't stack) and civil-dispute reframing, which is also the practical path to pre-filing resolutions: restitution negotiated through counsel, before charges, can quietly end a fraud investigation before it ever becomes a case.
Frequently Asked Questions
A detective left a card asking about my old business. Should I clear it up?
No — that call is evidence-gathering, not clearing up. Counsel can speak for you, learn what's being examined, and often resolve it without charges. Alone, it's easy to make it worse.
I used my ex's card — but I'd used it a hundred times before with permission.
Prior authorized use is the defense. Texts, shared accounts, and purchase history prove the relationship the affidavit leaves out.
The “victim” is really a business partner who owes me money.
Mutual-debt disputes are civil cases that someone walked into a police station. Making the court see that — early, documented — is precisely the job.
Will paying the money back end it?
Restitution doesn't erase a crime, but timed and structured correctly it can change filing decisions, charge levels, and sentences significantly. Never pay informally or “as an apology” without counsel — that's an admission, not a solution.
Paper Cases Are Beaten With Better Paper
Chad Seibel is a former prosecutor who knows how fraud files are assembled — and where their assumptions hide. Call or text 407-846-8008 for a free, confidential consultation. Office visits are by appointment only.