The heaviest charges in the code demand the most disciplined defense.
Section 1591 carries fifteen to life on force, fraud, or coercion theories - and reaches businesses, platforms, and bystanders through “benefiting” language. Precision is the defense.
Netflix told the story. The defense was ours.
When Shonda Rhimes built Inventing Anna, the defense at its center was Todd Spodek’s - argued for the so-called fake heiress in a Manhattan courtroom long before Arian Moayed of Succession played him on screen. What 320 million hours of viewers watched is the method every client of this firm gets, in every federal district.
The record, dated and sourced.
Trafficking prosecutions are tried twice: once in the press, once in the courtroom. Section 1591 requires knowledge - or reckless disregard - of force, fraud, coercion, or age, plus a commercial sex act and an interstate nexus. Every element is contestable, and the difference between a conviction and an acquittal is a defense team that refuses to try the headline instead of the statute.
Knowledge and reckless disregard.
The government must put you inside the coercion - knowing it or consciously avoiding it. Presence is not participation; proximity is not knowledge. Where the evidence is a cooperator’s narrative, the cross-examination is the case, and we build it witness by witness.
The benefiting theory.
Section 1591(a)(2) reaches anyone who “benefits” from participation in a venture - the theory used against hotels, drivers, and platforms. But participation in a venture means something: a continuous business relationship with knowledge of the specific violation, not rent collected or rides given. We hold the government to that showing.
The collateral fight.
Registration, forfeiture, restitution, and supervised release terms can outlast any sentence. These are litigated, not conceded - at sentencing, in the forfeiture proceeding, and on appeal. A disciplined defense fights the entire judgment, not just the counts.
§1591’s floors and §1595’s shadow.
Sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion carries a fifteen-year minimum - ten where the victim is 14 to 17 and no force is proved - with life maximums and mandatory restitution under §1593. The civil companion, §1595, brings parallel lawsuits on a lower burden, and their depositions feed the criminal file. “Reckless disregard” of age and the venture-liability theories reach further than most defendants believe until counsel maps it.
Building the counter-record.
Preserve the full message threads, not excerpts - context defeats cherry-picked coercion narratives. Financial records showing independent earnings and freedom of movement undermine force theories. Witness accounts age badly in these cases: statements change between task-force interviews, and every version is discoverable. We demand them all, early, and cross-examine the drift.
Know who is on the other side.
The first 72 hours decide the next 72 weeks.
No interviews, no consents, no explaining, no deleting. The words said in hour zero are the exhibits at trial. Write down what was asked and by whom - then stop.
Privilege attaches, facts get mapped while memory is fresh, documents get preserved the right way, and nobody in your orbit talks to agents unrepresented again.
We contact the government as your counsel: target, subject, or witness gets confirmed, deadlines get calendared, and the defense - not the investigation - sets the tempo.
How your case unfolds.
THE FULL PROCESS →Risk-free, in person or by phone. Ask anything, for as long as it takes. Strategy starts the same day.
Task-force interviews and a §1595 suit in parallel - counsel engages before accounts harden into a single narrative.
Demand every witness statement, cross-examine the drift, try force and coercion as the elements they are - floors this high get fought at proof.
Todd A. Spodek is a second-generation trial lawyer whose defense of Anna Delvey became Netflix's Inventing Anna. He appears on Fox News and CNN as a legal analyst, authored "My Advice to Diddy" in The Spectator, and is quoted by the Associated Press when the biggest federal cases break. The record behind the profile: a complete acquittal in a $26M money-laundering trial, RICO charges carrying a 10-year minimum dismissed, and 6 months on a $12M Ponzi case.
See who fights for you before you ever call.
Who we are, how we work, and why clients nationwide trust us with their future - in under a minute.
Why this firm.
Five decades of federal courtrooms. Whatever the government has charged, this firm has defended it before.
No allegiance to U.S. Attorneys, agents, or agencies. The client is the only constituency.
Every district in the country, one client portal - documents, invoices, counsel, in real time.
We decline more federal matters than we accept - and every accepted case gets the whole bench.
On the record, on the wire.
Get ahead of the case.
Answered within 24 hours, guaranteed. Some stories are better told out loud -
212 300 5196