Clint Broden was hired to represent a client on appeal after the client was convicted of three counts of money laundering, a white collar crime, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The client was sentenced to 252 months (21 years) in federal prison. Even with good-time credit, the client would have served almost 18 years in prison before release.
Broden argued the federal criminal appeals case before the United States Court of Appeals on November 9, 2011. He has argued over thirty cases before various Federal courts of appeals including the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Clint Broden is Board Certified in Appellate Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in addition to being Board Certified in general Criminal Law.
On January 3, 2012, a unanimous three-judge panel reversed the client’s convictions. It held that the evidence was insufficient to support the convictions and that simply paying money for drugs, even by using financial transactions to hide one’s identity, does not constitute money laundering. It also ordered that judgments of acquittal be entered so that the client cannot be subject to retrial.
A client who would have been serving almost two decades in prison will be released. In addition, the government will have to return several hundred thousand dollars worth of property it seized from the client. Broden & Mickelsen, LLP are one of the few criminal defense firms in the country to get property seized by the government, back to clients in what is known as a Hyde Amendment Motion.
