It is undisputed that at all times during the discovery and plea-bargaining phases, Fred Winocur at Ridley Mcgreevy and Winocur had a duty to provide effective representation. That means to investigate, review evidence, and prepare a defense. Unfortunately for me, Fred Winocur determined early on that I did not have the "resources for trial”, and therefore did as little as possible in hopes of pushing me towards a quick plea deal.
Fred Winocur did very little to fulfill his constitutional duties to investigate the facts and alleged evidence against me. Had he done so, he would have discovered that the Special Agent committed perjury & fraud and that her opinions and conclusions were completely wrong. He would have learned, as I did through my own research not his, that the Agent had no experience reviewing financial transactions for a public company, had no experience reviewing and preparing forensic audits, and had no experience with GAAP accounting principles and revenue recognition. Fred Winocurs complete and total failure to provide even a modicum of investigation and review of the discovery was not a “strategic" decision. It was instead a complete and total failure to provide effective assistance of counsel. Once I was finally able to review the alleged evidence against me, only after I pled guilty at his urging me to. It was clear that the government misunderstood my business and initially thought I was operating a ponzi scheme, which I obviously was not. Reviewing the purported probable cause affidavit, it is clear the FBI did not understand the nature of the business , and after executing the search warrant in 2014 and not finding what they expected to find, they had to manufacture new allegations against me in order to charge me nearly 2.5 years later. Because the evidence was withheld from me, and the Government and Fred Winocur pushed for a quick plea deal, I did not have the opportunity to review the evidence prior to pleading. What kind of lawyer allows this? Had Fred Winocur actually provided effective counsel, I would have insisted on going to trial. Had Fred Winocur actually done the most basic of work there would have been no case.
In addition to failing to investigate the agents inexperience perjury and fraud, Fred Winocur never discovered that the prosecution failed to register the search warrants with the court - as Federal law required them to do. I, not Winocur discovered the government' s misconduct when I called the court to get certified copies of the warrants. I was told the docket reflects there are no warrants to even send certified copies of. To this day, I still don't know what ultimately the FBI was after or what it found, because the search warrants were never registered with the court and I was never provided with certified copies of any such warrants. Fred Winocur should be ashamed and shunned. Winocur never showed as he swore he would. The government took me away that day. I was immediately imprisoned and locked down for covid. This lock down caused me to miss my window in filing any malpractice claims against him.