“I thought the statute of limitations was up.”
That’s something we hear a lot from people in federal prison on a drug conspiracy charge or any other kind of conspiracy.
Why does it seem like the statute of limitations is irrelevant in these kinds of cases?
Well, federal prosecutors have a tool called an “overt act.” When an overt act occurs, it functions like a magic button, where the time limit automatically resets when anybody on that conspiracy does anything related to that conspiracy.
An overt act is defined as any action taken by an individual or individuals which furthers the aims of the conspiracy. This could include scouting a location, buying materials (even legal ones), or having a conversation in furtherance of these goals.
It could be somebody you’ve never met or didn’t even know. There are literally thousands of people in federal prison right now on conspiracy charges who never met anyone but a single one of their co-defendants.
Sometimes, all they did was send a text message.
You would have known about this if you read Crimes That Never Happened: Beating Federal Conspiracies by Larry J. Levine.
Now, this is primarily about drug conspiracies, because this makes up the bulk of people incarcerated for conspiracy charges. But there’s also plenty of information about white collar conspiracies as well.
We have lots of clients at Federal Prison Tips who were involved in PPP fraud conspiracies, or other kinds of fraud.
It’s very common to be unaware that the statute of limitations reset whenever another member of the conspiracy does something to contribute to that conspiracy.
If you need our help in FSA planning, need more information about this, or other areas of expertise, give us a call: 407-434-0175