On August 4, 2020 the Honorable Loretta A. Judge Preska of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted “compassionate release” to Protass Law PLLC client Robert Panton, reducing his life sentence to time-served after close to 30 years behind…
Topic: Appeals & Post-Conviction Litigation, Criminal Defense
An arrest in New York City is, for most people, a frightening experience. You may be the first person to whom such a person reaches out. You may also be the person on whom such a friend, family member or loved one relies as a…
Topic: Criminal Defense
First conceived in the early 1980s, the “blinding” algorithm developed by cryptographer David Chaum remains the foundation for private, decentralized financial exchanges. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, perhaps the most well-known of coins or tokens, can be used to engage in for virtually any private financial exchange…
Topic: Criminal Defense, White-Collar Crime
If the government is to be believed, the United States healthcare sector is plagued with fraud. And both federal and state authorities are cracking down on it. Simple billing errors by doctors or nurses (even if inadvertent) or misused prescriptions by pharmacists or patients (even…
Topic: Fraud
A guilty verdict (or even a guilty plea) may feel like the end of the line. But an appeal of a conviction and/or sentence always provides hope for a second chance and, perhaps, a different outcome. You have the absolute right in both the state…
The right to a jury trial is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and is the cornerstone of the American criminal justice system. Indeed, the independence of citizen jurors has always been understood as an indispensable structural check on executive, legislative and even judicial power. And…
Topic: Criminal Defense
Billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein recently committed suicide in the Special Housing Unit (the “SHU”) at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal pre-trial detention facility in Manhattan, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Judge Richard M. Berman had earlier denied Epstein’s request for…
Topic: Criminal Defense
If you work in the securities industry, the responsibilities that you shoulder can be overwhelming. You are under tremendous pressure from your firm and your clients to make the most money possible. But the government’s regulatory agencies are watching your every move, ready to pounce…
Topic: Securities Litigation
The New York State legislature recently passed sweeping reforms to the operation of the state’s criminal justice system. Those reforms, which become effective in January 2020, will profoundly transform how criminal cases are litigated in the state. Among other things, cash bail has been eliminated…
Topic: Criminal Defense
To succeed in business often requires a measure of self-promotion and puffery. No matter how good your products and services are, you won’t sell them unless you know how to get noticed. But if you take it too far, you may find yourself in trouble…
Topic: Criminal Defense, Fraud
Gang Land News
Written by Harlan Protass
A federal judge granted Eric Millian a compassionate release, calling him a rehabilitated “man of extraordinary character.”
Robert Panton was arrested in 1991 and convicted in 1994 for his role in running a “spot” that sold heroin for a criminal organization run by notorious New York narcotics boss George “Boy George” Rivera. For his crimes, Panton was sentenced to life in prison…
An executive at a Wall Street bank was alleged to have assaulted his girlfriend by pushing her into a closet – relatively straightforward charges that were complicated because he had been charged with assaulting the same girlfriend less than six months earlier and had violated…
