Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Fraud ?

Your question doesn't say whether she is actively participating in his scheme or whether she just knows about it.

Knowing about someone else's tax evasion is not a crime, and people with such knowledge are not legally obligated to report the problem to the authorities. Since the government doesn't have much of a stick with which to get such information, it uses a carrot instead. If federal taxes are involved, and if your friend turns her boss in, she will probably receive as a reward a percentage of any back taxes the IRS can get from him.

But if your friend is helping her boss then she is aiding and abetting his tax evasion and could be prosecuted for it. She could be fined and/or imprisoned, and the judge will be able to take the amount of money involved into account when setting the fine and the length of the sentence.

If she is helping her boss because he ordered her to, this fact will not be useful in her defense. People are not allowed to commit criminal acts just because their boss said to.

I don't know how likely it is that your friend -- or her boss, for that matter -- will be prosecuted. In fact, I don't know how likely it is that the authorities will ever find out about this scheme. Even if the boss is charged the prosecutor may be sympathetic to your friend and not go after her -- especially if she agrees to testify against the boss. The prosecutor may play hardball in order to get her to testify. Or he may not be willing to make such a deal at all.

Your friend is at risk and could be punished severely, but without more facts there is no way to predict the odds that she will be prosecuted or, if convicted, what her sentence will be.

Re: Fraud ?

There are too little facts here to give adequate advice. What I recommend is that your friend contact me and then we can figure it out after obtaining all the relevant facts.

Re: Fraud ?

If she isn't involved, she isn't at risk. If she is participating in any way, she is at risk of jail. She has a moral duty to inform the appropriate authorities of the crime. Our country is based upon citizens obeying the law and doing what is right.

Re: Fraud ?

If the cheating of the government you are talking about is something other than simple tax evasion -- if the guy is a government contractor overbilling for his services, or he makes false Medicare claims, for example -- then there is a special law, the False Claims Act, that provides for payment of a substantial cash bounty for turning him in. California also has a state False Claims Act for cases in which someone is cheating the state government. Some people have gotten millions of dollars this way. You have to follow specific legal procedures to have a chance at getting the cash reward; if this might possibly apply to your situation, please contact me for more information.