Practice Areas

Nashville White Collar Criminal Defense Attorney

For over two decades, Kimberly S. Hodde, Attorney at Law, has represented clients charged (or on the cusp of being charged) in “white collar” cases. She has successfully represented defendants charged with virtually every fraud-based crime punishable by law. When retained in advance of indictment (or in the pre-charging stage), she has been able to prevent numerous clients from being prosecuted for fraud crimes, including securing grants of immunity for some.

Common Law Enforcement Tactics In Fraud And Other “White Collar” Cases

Unlike gun and drug cases, the typical “white collar” case (particularly fraud cases) usually begins with a seemingly innocuous contact by law enforcement. In these types of cases and with these types of defendants (usually businessmen or women), the investigating agencies know that suspects or targets in these investigations will often give statements to police without consulting a defense attorney first.

Therefore, in those initial contacts with law enforcement, police or agents will knock on the door of the person’s home or business and ask to talk. In the ensuing discussion, the agent will take one of two approaches: (1) be extremely friendly in demeanor to try to gently coax you into making statements; or, (2) act like they already know everything, so you should go ahead and talk. Agents will often suggest that you are not really the target or focus of the investigation and/or that, if you simply cooperate with authorities, this “goodwill” will go a long way.

Hiring An Experienced Federal Criminal Defense Attorney

If you ask the agents if you should get a lawyer, the agent may say something like “if you think you did something wrong.” The person being interviewed often makes the grave mistake of thinking that hiring an attorney makes him/her look guilty. This assumption is both flatly wrong and counterproductive to your future. Ironically, Kimberly S. Hodde has represented many state and federal law enforcement agents and members of their families who have been accused of wrongdoing, and the first thing they do when confronted by investigators is hire a good lawyer and politely refuse to speak without their lawyer present.

If you have been contacted by law enforcement about an investigation or served with a federal grand jury subpoena, you need to hire a highly skilled and respected federal criminal defense attorney to represent you from the outset. Kimberly S. Hodde has an outstanding reputation for handling “white collar” cases with the savvy and intellect needed to steer clients through these stressful times with positive results.

The Damage To Defendants From Uncounseled Interviews

Unfortunately, in fraud investigations, the person who gives an interview (often a future defendant) usually interprets the deliberately misleading statements by law enforcement to mean that he/she will not be prosecuted or that he/she has some sort of deal with the agent.

What the person being interviewed does not know or realize at the time, is that:

  • Police do not have the authority to make such deals. Only the prosecuting attorney has that authority. Agreements with law enforcement are not binding or enforceable.
  • The agent who makes notes of the interview will write down only his/her interpretation of what was said and only what is helpful to the direction of the investigation. Federal agents have a policy against recording these statements, leaving their version as the only documented version of what happened. They do not write everything down, and when clients later see the agent’s summary of the statement in discovery (after the prosecution begins), almost all of them report that the statement is inaccurate, incomplete or out of context in some way.
  • Until the time you are prosecuted, you will not be able to review what the agent wrote down. More importantly, you will never be sent a copy of your statement by the agent or be offered the opportunity to edit or correct the statement.
  • When you are later prosecuted, you will see the interview statement characterized as a “confession.”
  • Finally, the statement will be admissible in court even though you were never given your Miranda warnings because police only have to read you those rights if you are in custody or under arrest at the time of the statement — which will not apply to you because you consented to the interview thinking the agents were friendly and you could explain away their concerns.

Federal Defense Of Fraud Crimes And Other “White Collar” Offenses

Kimberly S. Hodde is based in Nashville, Tennessee and regularly handles complex fraud and white collar cases.  She practices primarily in federal courts where all significant white collar cases are ultimately charged.  In defending clients charged with “white collar” and other types of economic-based crimes, Ms. Hodde regularly handles cases involving:

Kim Hodde has published articles on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions of Blakely v. Washington and United States v. Booker and has lectured on other Supreme Court cases impacting federal sentencing law (i.e., the Rita, Gall, and Kimbrough decisions). These decisions have a significant impact on courts confronting economic and white collar crimes. The punishment for these types of federal criminal defenses is driven by a calculation of factors under the United States Sentencing Guidelines. As of January 12, 2005, the guideline calculation has been relegated to merely one of several components of federal sentencing which is now governed by an application of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). However, some federal courts continue to adhere to the Guidelines to a significant extent in determining an ultimate sentence. Therefore, white collar crime cases and economic crime cases need to be handled in such a way that issues of loss and restitution are at the forefront of the overall defense strategy. If you need representation in a federal case involving economic crime or white collar crime, contact Kimberly S. Hodde.