San Francisco White Collar Crime Attorney

James Owens, Former Deputy District Attorney

In white collar matters, the legal risk rarely begins with charges. It begins months earlier, with a subpoena, an audit letter, a knock on the door from a government agent, or a quiet call to your accountant. What happens between that first contact and any charging decision matters as much as anything that happens in court afterward.

James Owens is a former Deputy District Attorney who prosecuted cases in two California counties, and he defends people facing state and federal financial crime allegations in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. He knows how the government assembles these cases because assembling cases was his job, and he knows where they come apart.

If you have been contacted by investigators, received a subpoena or target letter, or learned that your name has come up in a financial investigation, the most valuable window in your case is open right now. Call (415) 824-4000, email consult@owensdefense.com, or request a confidential consultation.

The Investigation Phase, Where These Cases Are Decided

Federal white collar investigations are covert and slow by design. Agents gather records, interview witnesses, and issue grand jury subpoenas long before the target learns an investigation exists, and by the time a target letter arrives, the government's theory is usually well developed. State investigations tend to move faster and stay more local, and they are frequently just as serious, particularly where the alleged victim is an employer, an insurer, or an elderly person.

During this phase, counsel does work no one else can do. Your attorney establishes whether the government views you as a witness, a subject, or a target, and keeps you from talking your way from one category into the next. Your attorney manages every contact with agents, reviews and responds to subpoenas, negotiates their scope, and speaks with prosecutors while the charging decision is still open. In financial cases the government will often engage with defense counsel before filing, and the difference between the case they could bring and the case they do bring is frequently negotiated in that window.

Two traps deserve plain warnings. First, lying to a federal agent is itself a felony under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, so a nervous, well-intentioned interview can create a charge where none existed. The answer to investigator questions is polite silence and a lawyer, in that order. Second, the professionals already in your life are not a substitute for defense counsel. Your accountant has no privilege that protects your conversations in a criminal matter, and advice from civil lawyers or business advisors to "just cooperate and clear it up" has walked many people into charges. Cooperation is sometimes right, but it is a strategic decision for criminal counsel, made with full knowledge of your exposure.

How White Collar Charges Are Filed, and Why the Difference Matters

Federal felony charges come by grand jury indictment. The grand jury hears only the government's side, the defense does not participate, and the first real test of the evidence comes after indictment.

California works differently, and the difference is an opportunity. After felony charges are filed in state court, the defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides whether the evidence justifies sending the case toward trial. The defense cross-examines the government's witnesses under oath, tests the documents and the theory behind them, and locks in testimony that can be used later. In financial cases, where the government's theory often depends on inference stacked on inference, the preliminary hearing is where inflated cases get cut down and weak ones end.

This is home terrain for James. He has conducted more than twenty-five preliminary hearings, first building cases for the government and now dismantling them, and he treats the prelim in a financial case as a genuine battlefield rather than a formality to waive.

State and Federal White Collar Charges James Defends

California State Charges

• Grand theft — Penal Code § 487
• Embezzlement — Penal Code §§ 503, 504
• Forgery — Penal Code § 470
• Check fraud — Penal Code §§ 476, 476a
• Credit card fraud — Penal Code §§ 484e–484j
• Theft by false pretenses — Penal Code § 532
• Identity theft — Penal Code § 530.5
• Insurance fraud — Penal Code § 550
• Unauthorized computer access and fraud — Penal Code § 502
• Elder financial abuse — Penal Code § 368
• Filing false documents — Penal Code § 115
• Perjury — Penal Code § 118
• Conspiracy — Penal Code § 182
• Bribery — Penal Code § 67
• Aggravated white collar crime enhancement — Penal Code § 186.11

Federal Charges

• Wire fraud — 18 U.S.C. § 1343
• Mail fraud — 18 U.S.C. § 1341
• Bank fraud — 18 U.S.C. § 1344
• Health care fraud — 18 U.S.C. § 1347
• Securities and commodities fraud — 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) and 18 U.S.C. § 1348
• Money laundering — 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956, 1957
• Tax evasion — 26 U.S.C. § 7201
• Embezzlement involving federal programs or banks — 18 U.S.C. §§ 641, 656
• Racketeering (RICO) — 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq.
• Conspiracy to defraud the United States — 18 U.S.C. § 371
• False statements to federal investigators — 18 U.S.C. § 1001
• Obstruction of justice — 18 U.S.C. § 1512

Many financial cases could be charged in either system, and some are charged in both, one after the other. Where the case lands changes the procedure, the sentencing exposure, and the strategy, and James practices in both. (For the federal system's mechanics, see Federal Criminal Defense.)

Where Financial Cases Fall Apart

Intent. Every fraud theory rests on proving what you knew and meant, beyond a reasonable doubt. Money in the wrong place is not a crime by itself. A wire transfer that reflects a bad business decision looks identical to one the government calls fraudulent, and the difference lives in intent the prosecution must prove with evidence, not adjectives. Good-faith reliance on lawyers and accountants defeats intent, honest mistake defeats intent, and authorization defeats the theft theories entirely. James builds the intent fight first, because it is usually the case.

The documents. A paper trail is a double-edged sword. It can be a smoking gun, or it can be the place where charges go to die. Financial prosecutions inherit every weakness of their records, which means authentication problems, chain-of-custody gaps, forensic accounting that assumes its conclusions, and statements the government calls material that a jury may not. The defense reads the same documents the government reads, and often finds a different story in them.

The cooperators. Financial cases are thick with witnesses who have their own exposure, and cooperation agreements buy testimony with leniency. Every cooperator arrives with a motive to tell the government's story, and a defense that maps those incentives, and confronts them under oath, can turn the government's star witness into its biggest problem.

The process. Charging documents in financial cases frequently stack duplicative counts describing the same conduct several ways, statutes of limitations run and get missed, and investigations cut corners that suppression motions punish. James audits the process itself, because financial cases are built by long institutional pipelines, and long pipelines leak.

The number. When a financial case ends in a conviction, the sentence is driven substantially by the loss amount and the defendant's role. Contesting how loss is calculated, what conduct is fairly attributed, and whether the client led anything at all can be the difference between prison and probation. That fight is won with forensic work and advocacy, and it begins long before any sentencing hearing.

The Case Is Never the Whole Case

Financial allegations attack people whose lives are built on trust, which means the criminal file is only one front. A licensing board may open its own inquiry, an employer may act long before any verdict, civil suits and insurance claims can run alongside the prosecution, and everything said in one forum echoes in the others. Restitution demands raise their own trap, because repayment handled carelessly can read as an admission.

James defends these matters as one coordinated problem. The criminal defense leads, and the licensing exposure, the civil crossfire, the disclosure decisions, and the client's professional future are managed with it rather than discovered after it. For clients whose careers run on a license, the firm's work for licensed professionals goes deeper, and for clients whose larger fear is exposure, the approach to sensitive matters has its own page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a lawyer if I haven't been charged with anything?

That is precisely when you need one. Financial investigations run quietly for months or years, and the pre-charge window is where counsel has the most influence over whether charges are filed and what they look like. Waiting until charges arrive surrenders the most movable phase of the entire case.

If I pay the money back, will this go away?

Not by itself, and doing it wrong can hurt you. Restitution can genuinely matter to charging decisions and sentencing, but an unadvised repayment can be treated as an admission, and it does not undo the alleged conduct. Whether, when, and how to repay is a strategic decision that should be made with criminal counsel, not a reflex.

Can a financial case be resolved without prison?

Many are, particularly for people with no record, limited roles, and contested or modest loss amounts. No lawyer can promise an outcome, and no page should. What can be said is that outcomes in financial cases track preparation, and the loss amount, the role, and the intent evidence are all fights, not facts.

How does the government prove intent in a fraud case?

Almost never with a confession. Intent gets built from patterns, emails, internal messages, and the testimony of cooperators, which means intent can be unbuilt the same way, by context the government skipped, communications that cut the other direction, and cross-examination of the people telling the story.

The FBI or IRS contacted me. What now?

Decline to answer questions, politely, and call a lawyer before saying anything of substance. There is no routine conversation with a federal agent in a financial investigation, and a false statement in that conversation is a separate felony. Counsel can then establish your status and deal with the government on your behalf, which is the safest position you can occupy.