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State Attorney General Defendants

"State Attorney General Defendants" can have slightly different meanings depending on whether the state's Attorney General's Office (the "AG") is conducting an investigation or whether it has filed a formal lawsuit in court against a person or a company. In some States, criminal prosecutors offices like District Attorneys' Offices are part of the State Attorney General's Office. Sometimes people refer to the District Attorneys' Offices as the AG. Most often, though, "AG" is used to refer to the statewide Attorney General's Office (or the statewide prosecutor's office if it goes by a different name), as opposed to a local District Attorney's Office or other local prosecutor's office.

Each State has its own laws and rules concerning investigations by its Attorney General's Office. Those rules may be quite different from one State to another.

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When an AG is conducting an investigation it usually believes, based on evidence available to it at the time, that a crime under that State's laws may have occurred. The AG may be assisted in its investigation by the police and/or one or more other state investigatory agencies. During an AG's investigation, a person or company that the AG believes actually did commit a crime may be referred to as a "target" of the investigation. Over the course of an AG's investigation, a person or company that the AG initially believes may be a potential "target" may come to be viewed as just an innocent witness. Likewise, someone who the AG initially believes is just a witness may come to be viewed as a "target". During an investigation, sometimes people outside of the Attorney General's Office may refer to a "target" of the investigation as a "defendant" in the investigation.

If the Attorney General's Office brings a formal lawsuit in state court against a person or company, that person or company is usually called a "defendant" or "respondent" in the lawsuit. This lawsuit in a state court may be referred to as a "prosecution" or a "criminal case".

If you would like information about The Pickholz Law Offices' experience representing State Attorney General Defendants, or those who believe that they may become a State Attorney General Defendant, please feel free to click on the "Our Cases & Results" link and the other links on the right side of this page.

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The Pickholz Law Offices represents U.S. and international clients in securities and white collar cases. The Firm has helped whistleblowers report frauds to the SEC, CFTC, and IRS, and has defended clients in investigations by the SEC, CFTC, DOJ, FINRA, and other financial and securities enforcement regulators.

The Firm’s founder, Jason Pickholz, is the author of the two-volume book Securities Crimes, has appeared on tv and radio, and has taught continuing legal education courses. A former BigLaw partner, he has been representing clients in financial and securities fraud cases since 1995. In recognition of his many achievements, Mr. Pickholz was elected by his legal peers to be a Fellow of The New York Bar Foundation, an honor limited to just 1% of all attorneys in the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Pickholz has been counsel in many high-profile cases. He was the first attorney ever to win an SEC whistleblower award on appeal to the Commission, which Inside Counsel magazine called one of the five key events in the history of the SEC whistleblower program. On the defense side, Mr. Pickholz has defended clients in the SEC’s COVID-19 investigations, the CFTC’s cryptocurrency cases, and a former US Senator, among others.

If you want to speak with a CFTC, IRS, or SEC whistleblower lawyer, or with a white collar defense lawyer, you can call the Firm at 347-746-1222.

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