§ 5.10 Referral Procedure

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2020

§ 5.10 Referral Procedure

The procedure of making a referral to the government for the theft of trade secrets is identical to that for all criminal referrals to the federal government involving white-collar crime. The first step is for the victim or its attorney to contact the United States Attorney's Office in its district or the local FBI office. If the decision is made to first contact the United States Attorney's Office, the victim should seek to discuss the matter directly with the Assistant United States Attorney who has been designated the Computer and Telecommunications Coordinator (CTC) for that office. There is at least one CTC in every United States Attorney's Office and they have received specialized training from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section in Washington in this area of law among others.

Although the CTC must follow the prosecution guidelines of their respective office there is some flexibility and discretion in the system. It is more likely that a theft of trade secret referral made directly to an Assistant United States Attorney, who...