Practice Areas
White Collar
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January 27, 2012
Conspirator In Conn. Ponzi Scheme Gets 14 Months
A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Venezuelan man to 14 months in prison after he admitted to hindering a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of a Ponzi scheme by Connecticut hedge fund adviser Francisco Illarramendi.
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January 27, 2012
Ex-McKesson Chair Asks High Court To Toss Guilty Verdict
Convicted securities fraudster Charles McCall, the former chairman of health care company McKesson Corp., this month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his 2009 jury verdict, claiming a lower court judge improperly instructed the jury to consider whether McCall "recklessly disregarded" warnings about accounting improprieties at the company.
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January 27, 2012
Gupta Defense To Hinge On Alleged Falling-Out With Raj
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta will fight charges that he fed confidential information to now-convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam by showing the two had a falling-out that made any tipping unlikely, Gupta's attorney said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
Proskauer, Chadbourne Take Stanford Fight To Fed. Court
Proskauer Rose LLP and Chadbourne & Parke LLP said Friday that a group of putative class actions accusing the firms of helping shield accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford's bank from investigators belongs in Texas federal court.
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January 27, 2012
Accused Auto Light Price Fixer Battles For Taiwan Trip
An Eagle Eyes Traffic Industrial Co. Ltd. executive indicted in a price-fixing conspiracy over aftermarket auto lights on Friday asked a California federal court to overturn an order blocking him from visiting family members in Taiwan for the Chinese New Year.
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January 27, 2012
Chevron Defends Brazil Cleanup As Spill Charges Loom
Chevron Corp. said Friday that it had fully complied with Brazilian laws after an oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, responding to reports that Chevron and its managers were facing criminal charges in addition to an $11 billion civil suit.
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January 27, 2012
Investor Admits To Real Estate Bid-Rigging Scheme
A real estate investor pled guilty Friday in California federal court to charges that he took part in a conspiracy in which a group of real estate speculators agreed not to bid against each other at real estate foreclosure auctions.
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January 27, 2012
Airline Services Co. Head Gets 2 Years For Kickback Plot
The former owner of a Florida airline services company was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for taking part in a kickback scheme to defraud charter carrier Ryan International Airlines.
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January 27, 2012
Canada Fines 7 More In Quebec Gas Cartel Probe
Seven Canadians have been sentenced to personal fines after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to fix the price of gasoline sold at stations in Thetford Mines, Quebec, competition authorities said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
Construction Co. Swiped $136M Of Small-Biz Work: Suit
An ex-employee of a construction supply company whose owners have been indicted filed an amended False Claims Act complaint Thursday, claiming the firm took part in a $136 million fraud scheme involving hundreds of transportation-related contracts set aside for small, disadvantaged businesses.
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January 27, 2012
Swiss Institution Sells Non-US Business Amid Tax Scandal
Switzerland's oldest bank, Wegelin & Co., is sending its non-U.S. clients and staff to Notenstein Private Bank Ltd. for an undisclosed sum as it struggles with U.S. authorities' charges that it lets American clients hide assets, Wegelin said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
FBI Raids PE Firm Tied To China Reverse Mergers
Federal agents have raided the Wall Street offices of corporate finance and private equity firm New York Global Group Inc., which specializes in Chinese reverse mergers on U.S. stock exchanges, and also searched the home of company President Benjamin Wey, the FBI said Friday.
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January 26, 2012
SEC Abandons Fraud Case Against Ex-Ferris Baker Watts GC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday dismissed a case against the former general counsel of financial services firm Ferris Baker Watts Inc., who was accused of failing to supervise a broker at the helm of a $50 million Ponzi scheme.
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January 26, 2012
Prosecutors Get An Earful For Adelphia Tax Evasion Case
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday dismissed a 6-year-old tax evasion case against a father-and-son pair of Adelphia Communications Corp. executives already sentenced in New York for securities fraud, questioning why federal prosecutors devoted years of resources to the case.
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January 26, 2012
Ex-CDC Official Gets 4 Years For Contract Bribes
The former head manager of the Cincinnati offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sentenced Wednesday to four years in federal prison for taking bribes in exchange for construction contracts.
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January 26, 2012
Judge Fines Ship Owner, Operator $2.4M For Illegal Dumping
A Maryland federal judge on Wednesday ordered two shipping companies to pay a total $2.4 million after they pled guilty to four felony counts associated with multiple deliberate releases, over a period of nine months, of waste oil and plastic garbage into the ocean from a cargo ship.
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January 26, 2012
Petroplus Disputes Bankruptcy Fraud Allegations
Swiss oil refiner Petroplus Holdings AG on Thursday denied fraud concerns raised by French prosecutors related to the company's recently announced plans to declare bankruptcy.
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January 26, 2012
Ex-SEC Lawyer, 5 Others Sold Unregistered Stocks: Judge
A Texas federal judge on Thursday ruled on summary judgment that six individuals, including a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorney already in prison for securities fraud, traded unregistered penny stocks in six companies.
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January 26, 2012
Megaupload Execs Free On Bail But Extradition Looms
Two of the Megaupload Ltd. executives indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for their role in the accused pirate site’s alleged crimes were reportedly granted bail Thursday by a New Zealand judge in advance of possible extradition to the U.S.
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January 26, 2012
Founder Of French Silicon Implant Co. Arrested Amid Scandal
The founder of France's Poly Implant Prothese and a former director were reportedly arrested Thursday morning, after concerns over the now-defunct company's use of industrial-grade silicon raised health alarms around the world.
Expert Analysis
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Don't Expect Much From DOJ’s New FCPA Guidance
The announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice would be releasing “detailed new guidance” on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement created an initial buzz of excitement. But what the DOJ meant by “guidance” is almost certainly different from the extraordinary U.K. Bribery Act guidance, and the DOJ is unlikely to modify its aggressive FCPA stance, says Mike Emmick of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Year In Review: Significant Developments Under EEA
Last year was the most active and productive one since the enactment of the Economic Espionage Act more than 15 years ago. The convictions obtained and significant sentences imposed in 2011 send a strong message of general and specific deterrence, say Mark Krotoski and Richard Scott of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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US V. Jones: Unanimous Ruling, Disagreeing Justices
Despite the unanimous result in U.S. v. Antoine Jones, the U.S. Supreme Court justices were not in agreement on why GPS installation and tracking constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment. The respective opinions will provide plenty of fodder for discussion over the justices’ views of the Fourth Amendment in criminal cases, says Jeffrey Neuburger of Proskauer Rose LLP.
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A Change To SEC's 'No Admit, No Deny' Policy
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's limited modification to its longstanding "neither admit nor deny" settlement policy is noteworthy because it is a sign that, despite the growing criticism, the SEC is standing behind its policy of allowing companies and individuals in the vast majority of SEC matters to continue settling without having to admit or deny the SEC’s allegations, say Mark Stein and Nicholas Goldin of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
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Permitting Private FCPA Suits: Inside HR 3531
A bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives appears to be an attempt to level the playing field of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement by giving U.S. companies the opportunity to bring suit against foreign concerns. Despite its limited scope, the bill could potentially lead to a substantial increase in private litigation, say attorneys with Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.
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IP Counsel's 'Cheat Sheet' To FCPA And Travel Act
The tactics used to register, challenge or enforce intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions must be carefully viewed through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act/Travel Act lens. We have created the IP FCPA/Travel Act decision tree, which uniquely traces out the key questions to be answered in any potential corruption case, say Douglas Sawyer and Markus Funk of Perkins Coie LLP.
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Case Study: Assured Guaranty V. JP Morgan
Although the New York Court of Appeals decision in Assured Guaranty (UK) Ltd. v. J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. makes clear that any common law claims brought by investors in a private securities action are not precluded by the Martin Act, the case does nothing to curb the effects of the Securities Litigation Uniform Standard Act, say attorneys with Hogan Lovells LLP.
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Taking Steps Toward Trade Secret Reform
Practitioners and academics have spent much of the last two decades calling for a federal civil trade secret statute. But last year's effort in the U.S. Senate to amend the Economic Espionage Act ultimately ended in defeat, and a federal civil claim remains out of reach, say John Hornick and Griffith Price of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP.
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Patterns In Parallel Proceedings: SEC Actions, DOJ Tools
The federal government’s civil and criminal actions against securities fraud are hardly a new phenomenon. But something new is afoot: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's handling of civil proceedings increasingly resembles the U.S. Department of Justice's handling of criminal cases. Apparent reasons for, and examples of, this trend are easily identified, says Eli Richardson of Bass Berry & Sims PLC.
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Fighting The Scourge Of Corruption
During the 26th National Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledged significant improvements in corporate compliance over the last several years but emphasized that vigorous enforcement of the FCPA would continue as part of an ever-increasing global effort to combat corruption, say Paul Berger, Sean Hecker and David Fuhr of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.