Practice Areas
White Collar
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February 22, 2012
Mining Co. Indicted Over Coal Mine Roof Collapse
A federal grand jury in Kentucky on Wednesday indicted Manalapan Mining Co. for allegedly failing to maintain safety standards in a coal mine whose roof collapsed and killed a miner last year.
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February 22, 2012
Stanford Receiver Targets 2 Law Firms Over $1.8B
Robert Allen Stanford receiver Ralph S. Janvey hit two Louisiana law firms with a lawsuit last week alleging they helped the Ponzi schemer fraudulently obtain state approval for one of his companies, referred clients in exchange for benefits and misappropriated more than $1.8 billion.
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February 22, 2012
Feds Say Foreign Auto Co. Fails To Grasp Sherman Act
Prosecutors on Tuesday scoffed at a bid by Taiwanese company Eagle Eyes Traffic Industrial Co. Ltd. and others to nix allegations they had conspired to fix prices for replacement vehicle lights, saying the auto part makers fundamentally misunderstood the Sherman Act.
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February 22, 2012
Ex-Army Major's Wife Sentenced For Role In Bribe Plot
An Illinois federal judge sentenced the wife of a former U.S. Army National Guard major to probation and home detention Wednesday for concealing cash that her husband, previously sentenced to five years in prison, received through a government contracts bribery scheme in Afghanistan.
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February 22, 2012
Kuwaiti Co. Claims Feds Cooked Evidence In Contract Row
The Public Warehousing Co. asked a Georgia federal court Tuesday to dismiss criminal charges that it overbilled the U.S. on a multibillion-dollar defense contract, accusing prosecutors of misconduct including pressuring officials to change their positive evaluations of the Kuwaiti contractor.
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February 22, 2012
Gupta Tries To Get Insider Trading Charge Wiped Out
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta sought to dismiss one of the six securities fraud counts against him Tuesday, arguing prosecutors had neglected to identify the specific trades he allegedly influenced by sharing inside information with imprisoned Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.
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February 22, 2012
Ex-KBR Exec Gets Probation, Fine For Nigerian Bribes
A former executive for one-time Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR Inc. was sentenced Wednesday in Texas federal court to one year of unsupervised probation and a $20,000 fine for his part in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials for natural gas contracts.
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February 22, 2012
Megaupload Founder Wins Bail In New Zealand
Kim Dotcom, the infamous founder of file-sharing and alleged piracy site Megaupload.com, was granted bail Wednesday by a New Zealand district court, as he continues to await extradition proceedings that could land him in a U.S. courtroom.
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February 22, 2012
Ex-Mets Clubhouse Manager Cops To $2M Memorabilia Theft
A former New York Mets clubhouse manager has pled guilty to criminal possession of nearly $2.3 million worth of memorabilia, including autographed jerseys, bats and baseballs, belonging to the team and to tax evasion, prosecutors said Tuesday.
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February 22, 2012
McKinsey Consultant Could Be Retried Over Iran Embargo
The Second Circuit on Wednesday amended its partial dismissal of a McKinsey & Co. consultant's conviction for violating the U.S. embargo of Iran, saying it should have sent the counts it dismissed back to the trial court rather than toss them outright.
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February 22, 2012
Charity's Suit Over $10M Bloom Fraud Trimmed
A New York state judge on Wednesday threw out fraud claims brought by a charity accusing an accounting firm and a hedge fund director of helping convicted North Hills Management LLC hedge fund boss Mark Bloom work a $9.75 million criminal tax shelter scheme.
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February 22, 2012
2nd Massey Boss Charged In Fatal Mine Explosion
Federal prosecutors charged a second Massey Energy Co. mine boss Wednesday with obstructing an investigation into poor safety conditions at the infamous Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners.
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February 21, 2012
Fund Objects To $70M Bank Settlement In Rothstein Case
CBM Capital LLC on Tuesday opposed a $70 million settlement between Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust and bankruptcy trustees over Gibraltar's alleged involvement in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by former attorney Scott Rothstein.
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February 21, 2012
Picard's $59B Racketeering Claims Against UniCredit Axed
A New York federal judge on Tuesday tossed racketeering claims against UniCredit SpA and an affiliate in a $59 billion suit lodged by Bernard L. Madoff's bankruptcy trustee, ruling that they had been insufficiently pled.
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February 21, 2012
Stanford Investors Protest Proskauer's Bid To Pause Suit
Plaintiffs in one of six lawsuits claiming Proskauer Rose LLP protected accused Ponzi schemer Robert Allen Stanford's bank protested a motion to stay the suit Monday, calling it a ploy to prevent the court from remanding the suit before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation reaches a decision.
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February 21, 2012
US Chamber, Others Seek Clarity On FCPA Enforcement
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 33 other business organizations on Tuesday sent a letter to the federal government seeking explanations of various provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, saying a lack of clarity is bad for business.
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February 21, 2012
Prosecutor In Skowron Case Jumps To Reed Smith
Reed Smith LLP has lured to its New York office a former federal prosecutor with experience in high-profile insider trading cases like that of ex-FrontPoint Partners LLC portfolio manager Joseph “Chip” Skowron III, the firm said Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Supreme Court Remands GPS Surveillance Rulings
The U.S. Supreme Court told the Seventh and Ninth circuits on Tuesday to reconsider findings that authorities acted constitutionally when they tracked a suspected criminal's vehicle using GPS technology, considering the high court's recent decision to the contrary in a similar case.
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February 21, 2012
Feds Give Up On Massive Gabon FCPA Case
The federal government on Tuesday dropped its vast Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case accusing more than 20 military equipment industry executives of bribing Gabonese officials to win business, ending years of unsuccessful prosecution and dealing a major setback to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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February 21, 2012
Former Fiesta Bowl CEO Cops To Campaign Fraud Plot
The Fiesta Bowl's former chief executive pled guilty Tuesday afternoon to illegally reimbursing ex-employees for campaign donations he directed to several top Arizona politicians, including Gov. Jan Brewer, R, and Sen. John McCain, R, his attorney said.
Expert Analysis
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The Aftermath Of Assured Guaranty V. JP Morgan
With its elimination of the Martin Act preemption defense to common-law claims, the New York Court of Appeals decision in Assured Guaranty (UK) Ltd. v. J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. presents a new opportunity for plaintiffs in New York securities litigation, and ushers in new burdens for defendants, say attorneys with Jones Day.
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Case Study: Cedeno V. Castillo
After the Second Circuit's decisions in Eligio Cedeno v. Castillo and Norex Petrol. Ltd. v. Access Indus. Inc., it seems clear there are no circumstances under which the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act will apply to conduct occurring almost entirely outside of the United States, regardless of its U.S. effects, say attorneys with Mayer Brown LLP.
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Marubeni — Extending FCPA's Jurisdictional Reach
In its case against Marubeni Corp., it is possible that the U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to expand the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's jurisdictional reach through the use of aiding and abetting charges, say Daniel Levison and Jarod Taylor of Morrison & Foerster LLP.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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Guesstimating Loss For Sentencing
The four methods proposed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for determination of loss in securities fraud cases can result in either a severe underestimation or overestimation of losses. At a minimum, the method used should adjust the inflation over time and account for the volume of shares involved, says David Tabak of NERA Economic Consulting.
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10 Lessons From 2011 Enforcement Activity
The cases brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2011 solidify the SEC's and the DOJ's well-settled positions on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement. There are 10 lessons from these actions that are likely to influence how 2012 will unfold, say Claudius Sokenu and Arthur Luk of Arnold & Porter LLP.
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'Independent Practice,' Collective Enforcement
In North Texas Specialty Physicians v. Federal Trade Commission, the Fifth Circuit has affirmed the FTC's decision that collective rate negotiation within an independent practice association is illegal under an "inherently suspect" analysis, providing fertile ground for payers to receive meaningful relief from the FTC if they suspect collective negotiation, says Ryan Marth of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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Fewer Corporate Prosecutions: A More Effective Approach?
While both empirical and anecdotal evidence suggest a decrease in corporate prosecutions in favor of alternative resolutions, there is ample reason to believe that this approach may be more effective in investigating and deterring corporate crime than charging corporations, say John Nathanson and Casey O’Neill of Shearman & Sterling LLP.
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Failure Of Proof: US V. O'Shea
In U.S. v. O’Shea, the acquittal of a former ABB Ltd. manager of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations appears to serve as a reminder of the difference between information that may be a powerful lever in bringing about a guilty plea and evidence that is required to prevail at trial, say attorneys with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
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Revised Removal Statutes — Possibilities, Pitfalls: Part 2
The Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 has brought about substantial clarification in the federal removal, jurisdiction and venue statutes. But the act still leaves substantial ambiguity in place when it comes to the scope of these statutes, say Colin Wrabley and Douglas Allen of Reed Smith LLP.