Criminal Defense Attorney
Since 2017, attorney Dan Eckhart has defended clients accused of various crimes in federal and state courts throughout the nation. Dan Eckhart is a former federal agent and federal prosecutor with extensive white-collar, forfeiture, drug, firearms, money-laundering and trial experience. After graduating from Michigan State University Dan was hired as a Special Agent with the United States Customs Service and investigated money laundering, narcotics smuggling, and fraud cases. Upon graduating from Memphis University Law School, he was hired through the United States Department of Justice’s Honors Program as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He worked on matters involving high-profile inmates including Christopher Boyce (Falcon and the Snowman), Omar Abdel-Rahman (First World Trade Center Bombing), Leonard Peltier (Murder of a FBI agent at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation), Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber), Jonathan Pollard (Israeli spy), Tim McVeigh (Oklahoma City Bombing), and John Gotti (Gambino Crime Family). Dan also investigated staff misconduct and various security threat groups including the Aryan Brotherhood and the Mexican Mafia.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dan was hired as an Assistant United States Attorney (federal prosecutor) in the Middle District of Florida. Dan worked in the civil, asset forfeiture and criminal divisions during his ten years with the office. Dan’s forfeiture knowledge helped him successfully prosecute international money-laundering cases. He traveled to Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Ireland, and the Netherlands to work with foreign prosecutors and agents on these cases. He tried complex white collar matters including bank fraud, mortgage fraud, money laundering, tax fraud, FOREX trading, healthcare fraud, bankruptcy fraud and Ponzi/investment schemes. He also prosecuted a number of drug, firearm, and child pornography cases.
Since opening his criminal defense firm “Dan Eckhart Law” Dan has won federal and state criminal trials, had cases dismissed, negotiated favorable sentences, and successfully opposed efforts by the government to seize assets through forfeiture procedures. His clients have included rap artists, lawyers, doctors, athletes, nurses, politicians, police officers, coaches, churches, preachers, pharmacists, correctional officers, federal agents, bankers, and corporations. He has defended matters before the NCAA, the Florida Department of Financial Services, the Florida Department of Health, and the Florida House of Representatives. Most notably he represented Adam Johnson (January 6th defendant known as “the podium guy”), the rap artist “Spinabenz,” and the rap artist “Glokk9ine.” He has helped his clients recover millions in cash and real property seized from clients by the government through civil asset forfeiture. The majority of these cases involved cash seizures by law enforcement at airports or during traffic stops. He is currently defending criminal cases in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Tennessee, Michigan, and D.C.
Dan has been a speaker for the Association of Certified Money Laundering Specialist (ACAMS), Offshore Alert, the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators (IAFCI), the Florida Bankers Association, the Federal Bar Association, and gave money-laundering training to IRS agents at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He was an adjunct law professor at Barry Law School from 2017-2018 teaching Trial Advocacy. He has been featured on CNN, the BBC, in the Washington Post, in Variety and several local news outlets. He has been a regular contributor on New Nations’ “Banfield” show since 2022. Dan is licensed to practice law in Florida, Missouri, and Kansas and eight U.S. District Courts. He is “of counsel” with Abood Law, established in Lansing, Michigan in 1956. Dan was one of four attorneys appointed to the Merit Selection Panel for the Middle District of Florida tasked with recommending two new federal magistrate judges in 2018 and 2019. He is an at-large director for the Orlando Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and was again selected as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers Association in 2024.
