Sami Z. Azhari

Representative Federal Cases

• NOT GUILTY - USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois) Represented a foreign national on charges of assaulting a federal agent. The case went to a jury trial and resulted in a full acquittal: https://www.federalcriminallawyer.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Chicago.Law_.Bulletin-copy.pdf
• CASE DISMISSED - USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Norther District of Illinois) Defended an email marketer accused of wire fraud, allegedly using a fictitious name to access email servers to conduct snowshoe spamming. CASE UPDATE: On June 30, 2022, Judge Andrea Wood entered an Order dismissing all charges brought against our client by federal prosecutors in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Federal prosecutors alleged that the Defendant defrauded the operators of numerous computer networks and computer servers by improperly sending alleged "Spam" and other advertising across their systems. In fact, after charging the Defendant in that Indictment, the U.S. Attorneys' Office issued a press release heralding the charges by stating, "Alleged Cyber Spammer Indicted on Federal Fraud Charges," and claiming that the Defendant had allegedly sent "well over a million spam emails and damaging several computer networks." We filed two separate Motions to Dismiss the Indictment, and a Daubert Motion seeking to bar the Government's "Spam" expert witness. Ultimately, prior to trial, the Government agreed to the dismissal of all 10 Counts of the Indictment pursuant to a pre-trial diversion agreement. Accordingly, yesterday, the District Court entered an Order dismissing all 10 Counts. The extraordinary result obtained was essentially a virtually risk-free path to the dismissal of the entire case. The case can be found on the federal court docket for the Northern District of Illinois at 16 CR 793.
• USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois) Represented a Chief Financial Officer of an international corporation on wire fraud charges, where he was accused of embezzling $5.8 million dollars from the corporate account. The matter was covered by news outlets across the country and every major news network in Chicago: https://www.federalcriminallawyer.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Executive-escort-suspected-of-spending-5.8-million-on-company-credit-card-Chicago-Tribune.pdf
  
  
• USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois)  Defended a church bishop on charges of wire fraud and labor trafficking.
• USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York) Currently representing an individual charged with sex trafficking. 
  
  
• USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa) Represented an individual charged with drug trafficking. 
  
  
• USA v. XXX (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois) Represented a commodities trader on mail fraud charges, where he allegedly misappropriated $8 million dollars.

Sami is an attorney and principal of Azhari LLC, with over 14 years of experience as a trial lawyer. He has tried over 100 jury and bench trials. His practice focuses on federal and white collar criminal defense, where he has defended attorneys, traders, and corporate executives on a litany of federal crimes including wire fraud, bank fraud, racketeering (RICO), and conspiracy charges. His clients also include physicians, business owners, professional athletes, and board members.

He handles all aspects of federal criminal prosecutions, representing witnesses, targets, and defendants from the investigative phase through trial, and if necessary, sentencing and appeals. He has dealt with every investigative agency including FBI, ATF, DEA, IRS, Department of Homeland Security and the United States Secret Service.

He has been consistently recognized in numerous publications, such as Super Lawyers Magazine as being one of the most highly skilled and highly regarded criminal lawyers. He achieved the Illinois Rising Star award for 8 consecutive years, an honor given to the top 2.5% of attorneys in the state.

He also handles criminal fraud charges that revolve around the Paycheck Protection Program that was rolled out after the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. He recently received a federal jury acquittal on behalf of his client, a foreign national from Mauritania that was facing federal criminal charges in the Northern District of Illinois. The case went to a jury trial where he was found not guilty of all charges.

He has been published numerous times in publications on issues of white collar criminal defense, jury deliberations, and other matters. Recently, The Champion, the nationwide journal for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers published his article, Guilty Until Proven Guilty: The Prosecution of Public Corruption and White Collar Crime.

Sami Azhari has been recognized by "Super Lawyers" as a Rising Star every year since 2015 (top 2.5% in Illinois) and the National Trial Lawyers Association has named him to the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list as well as the Top 40 Under 40 Lawyers in Illinois. 

He currently serves as the Chair of the Federal Criminal Law Committee, which is part of the Northwest Suburban Bar Association. He is also a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 2021 he was on the faculty of the American Bar Association's White Collar Crime Conference, where he was on a panel that discussed emerging white collar crime issues in the midwest and west coast.