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White Collar
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May 17, 2013
Defendants Can't Use Perlman For Evidence Appeals: DC Circ.
Criminal defendants can't use the so-called Perlman doctrine to make interlocutory appeals of decisions governing the release of evidence obtained from them, according to a D.C. Circuit ruling released Thursday denying an appeal from an anonymous defendant.
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May 17, 2013
SAC To Scale Back Cooperation With Insider Trading Probe
SAC Capital Advisors LLC reportedly informed its investors Friday that it was reducing its cooperation with U.S. government investigators looking into allegations of insider trading at the fund.
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May 17, 2013
Ex-Jenkens Head Keeps Atty In Tax Fraud Row Despite Conflict
The former head of the Chicago office of Jenkens & Gilchrist PC said Friday he would continue to use his current attorney to fight tax fraud charges he faces, despite a possible conflict of interest.
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May 17, 2013
Criminal Probes Await Top Health Cos.: Ex-DOJ Fraud Chief
The U.S. Department of Justice’s heavy focus on health care fraud in recent years is set to move into a new phase that will increasingly target major corporations and their executives with criminal investigations, said Sam S. Sheldon, a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP partner who until recently headed up the DOJ's health care fraud unit.
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May 17, 2013
Ex-Broker Gets Probation For Muni Bond Bid-Rigging
After cooperating with a sweeping multistate investigation, the former CEO of a New York-based brokerage was sentenced to two years of probation Friday for his role in a municipal bond bid-rigging conspiracy.
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May 17, 2013
Contractors Ask 11th Circ. To Affirm Overturned Suspensions
Two U.S.-based contractors with ties to an indicted Kuwaiti food contractor on Thursday asked the Eleventh Circuit to uphold a lower court’s decision to lift a contracting suspension imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense, arguing they had never been accused of wrongdoing.
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May 17, 2013
BMO Ordered To Beef Up Anti-Money Laundering Efforts
The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday revealed that they ordered Bank of Montreal to improve methods for detecting and preventing money laundering in the Canadian bank's Chicago branch.
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May 17, 2013
'Mentally Ill' Ex-DHB Exec Wins Fraud Sentencing Delay
The founder of body-armor maker DHB Industries Inc., convicted of insider trading in 2010, won a postponement Friday of his sentencing so the judge can consider a number of issues including whether an assessment that he is “seriously mentally ill" should impact his trial competency and sentencing.
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May 17, 2013
Wal-Mart Busts Its FCPA Budget By $30M In Q1
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday it has spent $73 million in the first quarter of the fiscal year dealing with investigations and internal changes stemming from alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, around $30 million more than the retailer expected.
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May 17, 2013
Q&A With Foley & Lardner's Michael Matthews
In case after case, I see the harm that is done because whistleblowers are not required to report issues internally at their companies before seeking bounties by filing lawsuits, says Michael Matthews, vice chairman of Foley & Lardner LLP's government enforcement, compliance and white collar defense practice.
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May 16, 2013
Wal-Mart Can't Keep Leaked Docs Out Of Mexico Bribery Suit
A Delaware Chancery judge ruled Thursday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. can't stop shareholders from using documents leaked into the public domain to support their suit over alleged bribery by its Mexican affiliate, rejecting the chain's contention that the formerly private files were still privileged.
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May 16, 2013
Albany's Own 'Scandal Mania' Threatens Cuomo's Big Ideas
Gov. Andrew Cuomo doggedly pressed forward this week on women's workplace equality, a casino expansion and campaign reform, but the drumbeat of corruption arrests and malfeasance in New York's lawmaking capital has grown so loud that it threatens to crimp his policy agenda, experts say.
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May 16, 2013
US Can Mention Ex-BP Engineer's Deleted Texts In Spill Trial
The U.S. government will be allowed to reference deleted text messages that it never recovered during the trial of a BP PLC engineer accused of destroying evidence in the frantic first days of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Thursday.
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May 16, 2013
11th Circ. Won't Let Fraudsters Off Hook For $18M Scheme
The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday dismissed appeals by the owner and office manager of a fraudulent investment firm, who had spent $18 million they collected from investors on spas, cars and office expenses, ruling that trial testimony didn't amount to conjecture about their states of mind.
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May 16, 2013
Megaupload Founder's Appeal Goes To Top New Zealand Court
New Zealand's Supreme Court said Thursday it will decide if U.S. prosecutors must show Kim Dotcom, the Megaupload Ltd. founder facing criminal charges over the now-defunct file-sharing service, the evidence they've collected against him before a deportation hearing is held.
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May 16, 2013
Wells Fargo Dodges Claim In $13M RE Investor Suit
A Nevada federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a claim of unauthorized mortgage banker activity in a suit filed against Wells Fargo Bank NA by a group of real estate investors that put $13.4 million into properties owned by a convicted Ponzi schemer, ruling that the claim was preempted by federal law.
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May 16, 2013
J&J's S. Korean Unit Faces Charges After Tylenol Recall
South Korea’s food and drug regulator on Thursday ordered a halt in production of five products manufactured by Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Korea Ltd. and announced it will seek criminal charges following a recall sparked by the discovery of unusually high levels of the active ingredient in children’s Tylenol syrup.
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May 16, 2013
Q&A With Goodwin Procter's Rich Strassberg
It is bizarre that discovery in federal criminal cases — where a defendant’s liberty is at stake — is very limited, but discovery in civil cases is very broad, says Richard Strassberg, chairman of Goodwin Procter LLP's white collar practice and former chief of the Major Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
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May 15, 2013
Holder Bashes Lawmakers For Harsh Questioning Of DOJ
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday admonished House lawmakers including Rep. Darrel Issa, R-Calif., for disrespecting him in their questioning over the government's seizure of Associated Press reporters' telephone records, its decision to not intervene in False Claims Act litigation and other issues.
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May 15, 2013
Businessman Denies Blocking FCPA Probe Into Mining Co.
A French businessman linked to BSG Resources Ltd. pled not guilty Wednesday to charges that he obstructed a U.S. investigation into bribes the mining company allegedly paid to secure mining rights in Guinea.
Expert Analysis
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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Unprecedented FCPA Wake-Up Call For US Broker-Dealers
The extraordinary criminal bribery charges against two registered representatives of a U.S. broker-dealer and a high-level Venezuelan government official highlight that a broker-dealer’s anti-money laundering procedures, as well as oversight of their registered people, should have a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act component if the firm is doing international business, say attorneys with Duane Morris LLP.
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Libor Litigation Must Overcome Significant Obstacles
When U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed a consolidated, multidistrict batch of antitrust and racketeering suits in Manhattan earlier this spring, she suggested plaintiffs seeking to recover from banking giants at the heart of the interest rate-fixing scandal might have better luck with securities fraud claims. But those plaintiffs will need to be lucky indeed. Two recent developments show that obstacles are inherent and, perhaps, insurmountable, say attorneys with Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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More DOJ Use Of Cooperating Witnesses In Corruption Cases
The emergence of a cooperating witness begins to complete the puzzle of the scheme to defraud and catapults the investigation to new heights. A recent arrest by the FBI in an ongoing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation appears to follow this same modus operandi, says Douglas Small of Berkeley Research Group LLC.
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Tips For Your Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan Policy
Now that investigations have been initiated by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the SEC into possible abuses by corporate executives of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, the private securities bar inevitably will follow suit and file litigation. Nevertheless, these plans continue to be an effective defense against allegations of insider trading, say attorneys with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
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4 Takeaways From 2nd Highest FCPA Penalty
A New York federal court recently entered a final judgment against a former Siemens AG executive for his alleged role in a purported $100 million bribery scheme for Siemens to obtain a $1 billion contract from Argentina. Third-party sham contracts continue to be a prevalent theme in the alleged facts contained in corruption enforcement filings and resolutions, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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10 Steps To Effective Anti-Corruption Compliance
In order to implement the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resource guide's critical instructions for corporate boards, senior executives and compliance professionals for designing an “effective” anti-corruption compliance program, companies must tackle 10 essential tasks, says Michael Volkov of The Volkov Law Group LLC.
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In FCPA Compliance, Don't Forget About The Travel Act
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act guide highlighted the Travel Act and its applicability to FCPA cases. But the Travel Act, which can apply to bribery of foreign officials as well as private individuals, is often misunderstood and underappreciated by companies attempting to maintain robust compliance programs, say HL Rogers and Ellen Crisham of Sidley Austin LLP.
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Get Ready For A 'Substituted Compliance' Regime
In a complete 180-degree reversal of its previous position, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is on the verge of accepting an international financial regulatory regime of mutual recognition. "Substituted compliance" will help inform foreign market participants about which rules they must follow when their swap activities cross U.S. borders, says Bradley Dizik of Tiberian Regulatory Advisers LLC.
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Lessons From Philips FCPA Settlement Over Polish Bribes
While Poland has not received particular Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement focus over the years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent order against Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV over Polish bribes underscores the fact that, in given circumstances, any country can present high corruption risk, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.