Stringer

I. Introduction

The United States appeals from a final order of the district court dismissing criminal indictments against three individual defendants charging counts of criminal securities violations. The dismissal was premised on the district court’s conclusion that the government had engaged in deceitful conduct, in violation of defendants’ due process rights, by simultaneously pursuing civil and criminal investigations of defendants’ alleged falsification of the financial records of their high-tech camera sales company. Foreseeing the possibility of an appeal, the district court held that the indictments must be dismissed, but ruled in the alternative that, should there be a criminal trial, all evidence provided by the individual defendants in response to Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) subpoenas should be suppressed. See United States v. Stringer, 408 F.Supp.2d 1083 (D.Or.2006).

The court also suppressed evidence relating to the “Swedish Drop Shipment,” an allegedly fraudulent accounting entry. The district court reasoned that the government had improperly interfered with, or intruded into, the attorney-client relationship of one of the defendants by accepting…