Long Island Criminal Defense Lawyers

In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, so a natural person identified with the mind of a legal entity cannot conspire with the company alone. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect. For the purposes of concurrence, the offence is a continuing one and parties may join "the plot" later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted and/or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability but may reduce their sentence.

There is a great many federal statutes which criminalize certain agreements between two or more parties. The three most common are:

1. Title 18 U.S.C. § 371 - Two or more persons conspire to violate a Federal Law such as Mail Fraud, Securities Fraud, public corruption, or bank fraud;
2. Title 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) - Two or more persons conspire to launder monetary instruments or to engage in a monetary transaction derived from illegal activity;
3. Title 21 U.S.C. § 846- Two or more persons conspire to manufacture or possess with intent to deliver a controlled substance.