What every citizen should know: What to do if federal agents want to speak with you?
Don’t do it!
Federal healthcare regulatory and enforcement agencies (HHS-OIG, FBI, DOL-OIG, etc … ) Are more active than ever. The Houston and Dallas Health Care Fraud Strike Force (Strike Force) are particularly busy, constantly conducting investigations, executing search warrants, and charging healthcare providers with fraud and kickbacks. Every day their investigative scope into healthcare offenses widens.
Why You Should Never Speak to Federal Agents Without an Attorney
If you are somehow implicated in a healthcare criminal offense, and a federal agent knocks on your door wanting to ask a few questions, there is nothing to gain and everything to lose from that conversation. Any admission you make — even with the best of intentions — will become evidence prosecutors use to convict you. If you lie to the federal agent, you face federal felony charges under 18 U.S. Code 1001 for making a false statement to a federal official (even when not under oath!).
If you believe you have been involved in a crime, do not speak to anyone about it — only your attorney. Prosecutors can use anything you say or write against you. Always assume the agent already knows the answer to every question; their goal is to get an admission or catch you in a lie.
Discussing your case with friends, family, or acquaintances is also a serious mistake. Federal agents will eventually interview everyone in your circle, and anything you told them can become evidence against you. You have no expectation of privacy in conversations with anyone except your attorney. This holds true whether you are speaking with a federal agent or a private citizen. An admission of guilt carries the same weight whether a neighbor, your accountant, or an FBI agent hears it. Assume that agents will learn what you told anyone — and that some of those people may already be informants or cooperating witnesses.
Things to keep in mind:
- Federal agents are highly trained in conducting interviews of targets and witnesses.
- Agents often appear courteous and even friendly, making you feel they are on your side. Do not be fooled — they are doing their job, not being your friend.
- Through grand jury subpoenas, agents gain access to your bank records, phone records, and other personal data. They are very likely to already know the answers to the questions they ask.
- You will never be able to talk your way out of criminal liability.
- Silence protects you; your own words can convict you.
If a federal agent contacts you — or a Grand Jury Subpoena arrives — retain a federal criminal defense attorney immediately.
Speak with an experienced federal criminal defense attorney.
I dedicate my practice to representing clients facing federal criminal investigations — whether as targets, subjects, or witnesses. In many cases, early legal intervention has allowed me to resolve these difficult situations quickly and discreetly, before charges are filed. When criminal charges become unavoidable, I work to put my clients in the strongest possible position to fight them.