December 9, 2021 - David M. Eskew
On November 30, 2021, Chief Judge Freda Wolfson of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey sentenced an AEL client to a sentence of probation. The sentencing hearing marks the end of a year-long passport fraud and identity theft investigation. AEL negotiated a plea deal and the client pled guilty in July 2021 to a single count information of making false statements in a passport application. At the sentencing hearing, AEL partner David Eskew and associate Katherine Kulkarni effectively advocated for a probationary sentence highlighting the client’s critical role in his family and his significant history of community engagement and charitable works, among other things. The sentencing was marked by a unique outpouring of support for the client from over a dozen family, friends and community members who attended the hearing. In handing out the probationary sentence, Chief Judge Wolfson weighed the seriousness of the offense against the client’s otherwise “laudable life.” Following the sentencing, the client offered his thoughts on AEL’s representation throughout the case: “It didn’t take more than one phone call with Ken Abell and David Eskew for me to feel confident that I would be in good hands with their firm. People make mistakes, and you want these guys on your side to resolve it. The old cliché “we became like family” was created for a situation like mine with them.”
AEL is a premier white collar criminal defense and litigation boutique that specializes in complex fraud cases and parallel investigations in the areas of healthcare fraud, securities fraud, bank and wire fraud, and computer fraud as well as qui tam / whistleblower cases and False Claims Act (FCA) cases. AEL is currently representing both individual and institutional clients in investigations and cases throughout the country in both state and federal fora, including the SDNY, EDNY, DNJ, NDNY, NY Attorney General’s Office, New York District Attorney’s Office and the King’s County District Attorney’s Office. AEL partner David Eskew is a former federal prosecutor with civil and criminal experience in both the EDNY and DNJ and served as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division and the Chief of the Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in the DNJ. Katherine Kulkarni is an associate of the Firm and previously served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Division of the New York District Attorney’s Office.