Lee County Federal Fraud Defense Attorney

Reviewed by Jason Mayberry, a Florida-admitted attorney who handles federal criminal defense matters in the Middle District of Florida. Last updated August 23, 2026.

Jason Mayberry worked as a prosecutor before years on the defense side, and his federal fraud defense practice covers how these cases are built and fought generally. This page is about what a federal fraud case looks like when it comes out of Lee County. I take those cases from my office in Tampa at (813) 444-7435, and I already practice in the Middle District of Florida, so a Fort Myers case needs no new admission.

A federal fraud accusation is a different order of problem from a state charge. The investigation is patient and document-heavy, the government has usually been building the file for months before anyone is contacted, and the sentence turns on an arithmetic of loss that most people have never heard of until they are inside it. The work of the defense starts with the numbers as much as with the facts.

Where Federal Fraud Cases From Lee County Are Prosecuted

A federal charge arising in Lee County is prosecuted in the Fort Myers Division of the Middle District of Florida, at the United States Courthouse and Federal Building, 2110 First Street. The division also covers Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, and Hendry counties. The prosecuting authority is the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District, and the investigating agencies are typically the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in health care matters, IRS Criminal Investigation, or the Postal Inspection Service.

The same conduct can also be charged by the State of Florida in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, and it sometimes is. When both systems have an interest, the federal case is usually the one that governs the exposure, which is why identifying early which prosecutor holds the file changes the whole approach. For how a Southwest Florida case moves through the system generally, see criminal defense in Lee County.

What Must the Government Prove in a Federal Fraud Case?

Federal fraud statutes share a common core: a scheme to defraud, an intent to defraud, and a jurisdictional act that makes the scheme a federal crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, wire fraud requires that an interstate wire communication, a phone call, an email, a bank transfer, was used in furtherance of the scheme. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1341, mail fraud requires the use of the mails or a private carrier instead. Health care fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1347 requires a scheme to defraud a health care benefit program.

The intent element is where a real defense often lives. The statutes reach a scheme to defraud, not a business venture that failed, a billing practice that was mistaken, or an aggressive judgment call that lost money for someone. The government has to prove the accused person acted with intent to defraud, and the line between intent and a bad outcome is frequently the whole case. A federal fraud charge in the Fort Myers Division is proven or defeated on that distinction more often than on whether a wire crossed a state line.

How Do Federal Fraud Investigations Begin in Southwest Florida?

These cases rarely start with an arrest. A federal fraud investigation usually begins quietly, with a whistleblower, an audit, a suspicious activity report from a bank, or a data analysis flagging a billing pattern. From there it proceeds through grand jury subpoenas for records, interviews of employees and associates, and often a target letter to the person the government is focused on.

A target letter is a signal that the United States Attorney’s Office considers you a target of a grand jury investigation, and it usually arrives before any charge or arrest. The stretch between a target letter and an indictment is the stage where the defense can do the most, because the charging decision has not been made yet, and it is also the stage where a person is most likely to hand the government its best evidence in an interview. Understanding a federal target letter and what to do with it is the first real decision in many of these cases.

What Penalties Does a Federal Fraud Conviction Carry?

The statutory ceilings are only half of the sentencing picture, and often not the operative half. Wire fraud and mail fraud each carry up to 20 years, and that ceiling rises to 30 years and a fine of up to $1 million where the violation affects a financial institution or relates to a declared major disaster or emergency. Health care fraud carries up to 10 years, rising to 20 years if serious bodily injury results and to any term of years or life if death results.

The number a judge actually starts from comes from the sentencing guidelines, and in a fraud case the loss amount is the engine. Under USSG § 2B1.1, the dollar figure the court attributes to the scheme adds offense levels on a sliding table, so a case measured in the hundreds of thousands and a case measured in the millions are graded very differently even under the same statute. The government’s loss number is an estimate built on assumptions, about what was fraudulent, what would have happened without the scheme, and what should be credited back, and each of those assumptions is contestable. That is why in federal fraud the fight over how loss is calculated is frequently the most valuable work in the case.

What Evidence Decides a Federal Fraud Case?

Federal fraud is a documentary crime, and the record is where it is won or lost. The government’s case is built from wire transfer records, emails and messages, bank statements, invoices and contracts, billing data, and the testimony of cooperating witnesses who were inside the events. Each of those has to be examined for what it actually shows about intent, not merely about what happened, because a transaction that looks bad in isolation often has an ordinary explanation once the surrounding records are read alongside it.

The loss calculation carries its own evidentiary fight. The government builds a loss figure from spreadsheets and summary charts, and those summaries are only as sound as the assumptions underneath them and the underlying documents they claim to represent. A summary exhibit that overstates loss, double counts transactions, or treats legitimate business as fraud can move a sentence by years, so the underlying data behind every chart is worth going through line by line. Records that are not preserved early can be lost, because email is purged on a retention schedule, financial data ages out, and devices are wiped, so preservation matters from the first day a person learns of an investigation.

How I Defend Federal Fraud Charges in Lee County

I start by finding out where the case is in its life. A pre-indictment investigation and a filed indictment in Fort Myers call for very different work, and the earlier I am involved, the more room there is to affect the outcome. Where a case is still an investigation, the useful work is often engaging with the Assistant United States Attorney before a charging decision hardens, responding to subpoenas carefully, and making sure my client is not the source of the government’s intent evidence.

The Mayberry Law Firm is a solo practice, so the person who reads the financial records is the person who argues the loss calculation and stands next to you at the courthouse on First Street. I go through the government’s documents and its loss summaries in detail, because a fraud case is frequently found in the gap between what a chart asserts and what the underlying records support. As a former prosecutor, I know how these files get assembled, and I look for the places where the proof of intent, the piece the statute actually requires, is thinner than the volume of paper makes it look.

What to Do Now If You Are Under Federal Investigation

Do not speak to a federal agent without a lawyer present, and understand that declining an interview is not evidence of guilt. Agents are trained interviewers, and a voluntary statement given without counsel is one of the most common ways a fraud investigation turns into a conviction. Do not delete emails, messages, financial records, or files, and do not tell anyone else to. Deletion is recoverable, and it creates an obstruction charge that can be easier for the government to prove than the underlying fraud.

Preserve what may help. Keep the records that show the ordinary business reasons behind the transactions the government is questioning, gather the contracts, correspondence, and accounting that put a challenged decision in context, and write down the sequence of events while it is fresh. If you received a target letter or a grand jury subpoena, keep it and note the date, because both define what the government is looking at. Do not discuss the investigation with employees, associates, or anyone who may become a witness, and get a lawyer involved before you respond to any request from the government.

Questions About Federal Fraud Charges in Lee County

What Must the Government Prove in a Federal Fraud Case?

For wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, the government must prove a scheme to defraud, an intent to defraud, and the use of an interstate wire communication in furtherance of the scheme. Mail fraud under § 1341 substitutes the use of the mails or a private carrier. The intent element is where many of these cases are actually contested, because a failed business decision is not the same thing as a scheme to defraud.

Will a Fort Myers Fraud Case Be Filed in State or Federal Court?

Fraud can be charged in either system, and the same conduct sometimes draws both. A federal case from Lee County is prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Fort Myers Division of the Middle District of Florida, at the courthouse on First Street. Which system takes a case is usually decided during the investigation, before any charge is filed, and the federal exposure is ordinarily the more serious of the two.

How Does the Loss Amount Affect a Federal Fraud Sentence?

Heavily. Under the fraud guideline, USSG § 2B1.1, the dollar loss the court attributes to the scheme adds levels to the base offense level on a sliding table, and it is often the single largest driver of the guideline range. The government’s loss figure is an estimate, not a fixed number, so the defense contests how loss is calculated as hard as it contests guilt.

What Does a Federal Target Letter From the Middle District Mean?

A target letter means the United States Attorney’s Office considers you a target of a grand jury investigation and that a charge may follow. It is not itself a charge, and it usually arrives before any arrest. The period after a target letter is when defense work can matter most, because there is still a chance to affect the charging decision, and it is also when a person is most likely to say something that becomes evidence.

Do You Need Local Fort Myers Counsel for a Federal Fraud Case?

No. Jason Mayberry practices from his Tampa office and already appears in the Middle District of Florida, which includes the Fort Myers Division. A Lee County federal fraud case requires no separate admission and no handoff to another lawyer, and he handles the matter personally from the investigation through sentencing.

Related Practice Areas

• Mail fraud is the § 1341 charge, carrying the same 20-year ceiling as wire fraud and often charged alongside it.
• Health care fraud is the § 1347 charge, common in Southwest Florida given the region’s health care and Medicare footprint.
• Aggravated identity theft frequently accompanies a fraud indictment and carries its own consecutive mandatory term.