Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it was entrusted. That is the whole of Penal Code 503, and the word that matters is entrusted: the crime is not taking something you had no righ...
Money laundering is conducting a financial transaction with the proceeds of a crime, knowing they came from a crime, in order to hide their source, promote further crime, or evade reporting. The main federal s...
Structuring is breaking up cash transactions so that none of them crosses the $10,000 line that requires a bank to file a Currency Transaction Report with the federal government. Under 31 U.S.C. 5324 it is a felony punis...
Racketeering is committing crimes as part of an enterprise, and a RICO charge is the federal statute that punishes it. Under 18 U.S.C. 1962, the government must prove an enterprise, which can be a corporation, a g...
No California law makes sex in a car a crime. What the law prohibits is doing it where the public can see: Penal Code 647(a) makes it a misdemeanor to engage in lewd or dissolute conduct in any public place or any place op...
NFT Royalty Disputes can arise when an artist, collection founder, developer, studio, or other rights holder expects compensation from secondary NFT sales but payments are reduced, redirected, blocked, or eliminated. For California creators, the critical question is usually not simply what royalt...
A mandatory minimum sentence is a floor written into a statute that the judge cannot go below, no matter how sympathetic the defendant or how minor their role. Federal law has hundreds of them, concentrated in dru...
Crypto Launchpad Disputes can arise when an IDO or presale is canceled, token allocations are reduced after payment, vesting terms change, refunds are delayed, or investors receive something materially different from what the launchpad advertised. The legal question is not simply whether the toke...
Token Governance Attacks can allow a person or coordinated group to influence a DAO or blockchain protocol long enough to pass a proposal, redirect treasury assets, change smart contract parameters, weaken security controls, or benefit favored wallets. But a controversial governance vote is not a...
Crypto Liquidity Pool Losses can occur even when no one has done anything unlawful. Liquidity providers may suffer from impermanent loss, token volatility, changing trading volume, or declining rewards. Legal disputes become more likely when losses are connected to misleading statements, hidden c...
Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Criminal and Immigration Defense Nunc pro tunc is Latin for now for then. A nunc pro tunc order is entered today but takes effect as of an earlier date, and its only legitimate purpose is to make the written court record say what the court ac...
Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Criminal Defense An ex post facto law is a criminal law that operates after the fact: it makes conduct a crime that was legal when it happened, increases the punishment for a crime after it was committed, or changes the rules of evidence to m...
Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Fraud and White Collar Defense Check fraud is not one crime in California. Writing a check you know won't clear is a bad check under Penal Code 476a, a misdemeanor if the total is $950 or less and a wobbler above that. Writing a check that is...
Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Post-Conviction Defense A commutation is the Governor's reduction of a sentence that is still being served: shortening a term, advancing a parole eligibility date, or converting life without parole into life with the possibility of parole. It...
Battered woman syndrome is the older name for what California law now calls intimate partner battering and its effects: the psychological and behavioral consequences of sustained abuse by a partner, including hypervigilance, ...
Wrapped Token Disputes can arise when a token that is supposed to represent another crypto asset loses its peg, appears undercollateralized, or can no longer be redeemed for the underlying asset. A market price below the expected peg does not automatically prove misconduct. The stronger legal que...
Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Criminal Defense A preliminary hearing is the proceeding in a California felony case where a judge decides whether there is enough evidence to require the defendant to stand trial. The prosecution presents witnesses, usually police officers r...
Blockchain oracle failures can cause significant crypto losses in seconds. A faulty price feed may trigger liquidations, misprice collateral, settle transactions incorrectly, or create an opportunity for an attacker to drain a protocol. When that happens, liability does not automatically fall on ...
Bigamy is marrying one person while still legally married to another. California makes it a crime under Penal Code 281, punishable under Penal Code 283 as a misdemeanor with up to one year in county jail and a...
Updated September 2026 | The Bulldog Law | California Violent Crimes Defense In criminal law, mayhem is not chaos. It is a specific felony: unlawfully and maliciously injuring another person in a way that removes, disables, or disfigures part of their body. California's Penal Code 203 lists the ...
Crypto treasury mismanagement can turn a struggling blockchain project into a serious legal dispute. When founders, DAO contributors, multisig signers, or project operators control community funds, investor capital, stablecoins, tokens, or protocol-owned assets, questions can arise about where th...
Sextortion is extortion in which the leverage is sexual: a threat to share someone's intimate images, or to expose sexual information, unless they pay money, send more images, or perform sexual acts. California ...
Validator Slashing Disputes can create major losses when staked crypto is penalized, locked, frozen, or reduced because of validator downtime, double-signing, key mistakes, software failures, or platform mismanagement. For California investors, validators, staking providers, DAO members, and Web3...
Crypto Wallet Recovery Scams often target people who are already dealing with the shock of stolen Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, NFTs, exchange account losses, or failed wallet transfers. A person may lose money once to a phishing site, pig butchering scam, fake investment platform, compromised ...
Exigent circumstances are emergencies that excuse the warrant requirement: an officer may enter a home without a warrant to help someone who appears to be seriously hurt or in danger, to stop a suspect who is actively fleeing...