Criminal Defense Practice

Criminal Defense & Government Investigations

Levin & Associates is a criminal defense and investigations practice built for high-stakes matters—where the first 72 hours can determine the next three years. The firm represents individuals and institutions facing federal and state investigations, grand jury subpoenas, search warrants, arrests, parallel regulatory exposure, and trials. The work is strategic, discreet, and intensely fact-driven: controlling the record early, protecting privilege, and positioning clients for declination, dismissal, or the narrowest possible resolution.

The practice is led by Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and former Chief of Asset Forfeiture in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Levin has handled complex cases from both sides of the table—building and supervising investigations in government, and now defending clients when the consequences are personal, professional, and existential. The firm is frequently engaged where the case involves financial enforcement, asset restraint risk, cross-border complications, sanctions/OFAC issues, or reputational exposure.

High-stakes defense requires more than courtroom skill

Sophisticated criminal defense is not only trial advocacy. It is early-case engineering: developing a credible factual record before the government’s theory hardens; identifying what the government can prove; anticipating the next investigative step; and managing the collateral consequences that often matter as much as the case itself—employment, licensing, immigration, banking relationships, professional discipline, and media scrutiny.

• Rapid response: subpoenas, target letters, search warrants, arrests, and emergency restraint issues
• Pre-charge advocacy: declination strategy, presentations, proffer strategy when appropriate, and negotiation designed to avoid charges or narrow exposure
• Federal and state criminal defense: SDNY/EDNY and New York state matters, from investigation through trial and sentencing
• White collar and financial crime: fraud, theft, corruption-adjacent investigations, money laundering allegations, and cases driven by third-party records
• Asset restraint and forfeiture: defending against seizure/restraint, litigating third-party ownership issues, and protecting property rights while the case is pending
• Parallel proceedings: coordinating criminal strategy alongside regulatory inquiries, civil litigation, and internal investigations
• Crisis management: disciplined communications and stakeholder strategy in matters likely to become public

Former-prosecutor insight where it matters most: evidence, leverage, and money

In modern investigations, the government’s case is often built through intermediaries: banks and custodians, devices and cloud accounts, employers, counterparties, and confidential witnesses. Mr. Levin’s background in money laundering and forfeiture translates into practical defense advantages—understanding how financial records drive charging decisions, how restraint can be used as leverage, and how to attack a theory at its evidentiary seams rather than its rhetoric.

As Chief of Asset Forfeiture in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Mr. Levin oversaw criminal and civil forfeiture and money laundering matters across a wide range of case types, including fraud, identity theft, organized crime, terrorist financing, narcotics matters, and international corruption. He also served as the Department of Justice liaison in major sanctions-related forfeiture matters, including oversight roles connected to the HSBC and Standard Chartered resolutions, and worked on significant OFAC/AML matters involving BNP Paribas and ING.

Discreet, senior-level representation

Levin & Associates is not built around handoffs. Matters are handled with senior attention, tight control of sensitive information, and judgment calibrated to how prosecutors actually evaluate credibility. The firm’s approach is to move quickly, speak with precision, and avoid unnecessary escalation—while preserving the ability to litigate aggressively when that is what the case requires.