Just like the State of California criminal system, the Federal criminal system comes with its own set of statutes, procedures, courts, judges and prosecutors. The difference lies, however, in that the crimes prosecuted in Federal court are those that are related to the Federal government, crimes that cross state lines, and crimes of international flavor.
Another difference between the two systems is the punishment given for the convicted offense. In a State system the judge has discretion to punish the convicted person as he sees fit, sometimes outside the guidelines set out in the violated statutes.
The Federal criminal system, on the other hand, has guideline sentences for each offense. Although these guidelines are no longer mandatory, the judge usually sticks with the guideline sentences anyway.
Let me give you an example.
About four years ago Alice, entered this country with an intent remain here permanently. She settled in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles county. Being quite wealthy she had decided to purchase a house for cash. She then reconsidered the cash payment. She decided to invest her money elsewhere and simply take out a loan for the house. The problem Alice ran into was that she had no financial history here in the US, no credit history, no income tax records.
