North Dakota Federal Criminal Lawyers.
The Bakken changed everything - oilfield fraud and man-camp trafficking joined the reservation docket and the ag economy’s crop-insurance cases in a district that used to be quiet.
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.
The district.
Boom-economy cases in a small district.
The Bakken oil boom rewrote North Dakota’s federal docket: royalty and investment fraud, oilfield-services kickbacks and theft, and the trafficking - drugs and people - that followed the man-camp economy west of Minot. Those cases still cycle through Bismarck years after the rig count fell.
The permanent docket beneath: Major Crimes Act jurisdiction on the reservations (Fort Berthold’s energy money added civil and criminal layers), methamphetamine conspiracies running I-94, crop-insurance and USDA program fraud from the ag economy, and § 922(g) firearms cases. Eighth Circuit law governs, and the district’s size means every serious matter gets the U.S. Attorney’s personal attention - which cuts both ways.
Federal defense lawyers in North Dakota, boom-economy cases.
The Bakken changed the docket.
Oil-boom money brought oil-boom cases: royalty and investment fraud, oilfield-services kickbacks, and the trafficking that followed the man camps - still cycling through Bismarck years after the rig count fell. Beneath it, the permanent calendar: Major Crimes Act jurisdiction on the reservations, meth conspiracies on I-94, crop-insurance fraud, and § 922(g) files.
What you’re actually up against.
A district small enough that the U.S. Attorney personally knows every serious case - which cuts your way exactly once, early, when a credible presentation can still shape charging. Eighth Circuit law that gives the government the benefit of most doubts. And in the energy files, forensic accounting the defense must match expert for expert.
Why Spodek Law Group.
We’re not your average federal defense firm - we get it. Over 50 years of combined experience. Thousands of federal cases since 1976, second generation. The Sorokin defense became a Netflix series. The R. Kelly witness matter made the AP wire. When federal cases break, the press calls this firm - and prosecutors know exactly which defense lawyers try cases. It changes every conversation about yours.
Bismarck and Fargo connect through Minneapolis or Denver, and we appear in the District of North Dakota with local counsel where required. Energy-fraud defense and reservation-jurisdiction fluency both travel with us.
The clock is already running.
A working-interest investor’s complaint. A BIA referral. An auditor’s letter about the royalty math. Small-district files move quietly - then all at once. The consultation is free. It’s confidential. It’s answered 24/7 - 212 300 5196. The government has a head start. Stop giving it a bigger one.
Any district is home ground.
Federal procedure is national - the same rules, the same guidelines, the same DOJ playbook in North Dakota as everywhere else. Bismarck and Fargo connect through Minneapolis or Denver; we appear in the District of North Dakota with local counsel where required. Admission is handled by pro hac vice motion with local counsel where required, the client portal keeps every document and conversation in one place across any distance, and the person standing up in court is the lawyer you hired - not a referral.
195 Montague Street, Brooklyn
1301 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown
611 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
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.
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.
Subpoenaed inboxes and a drawn timeline - we engage prosecutors at the target-letter stage, where charging is still a choice.
Suppress the overbroad seizure, contest intended loss, redraw the timeline - and when trial is the advantage, intent gets tried on the whole inbox, not the excerpts.
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