White Collar

  • April 25, 2024

    Indictment Says 'Car Wreck Clyde' Skimmed From Client Deals

    A federal grand jury has indicted a Houston attorney and his former office manager over claims they defrauded clients by skimming nearly $2.4 million from settlement proceeds and using the funds for personal expenses, including private school and Ferraris.

  • April 25, 2024

    Justices Skeptical Of Trump's Absolute Immunity Bid

    A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared open Thursday to the idea of limited immunity for former presidents related to the office's core constitutional powers, but divisions emerged among the justices over how to determine when acts outside of that narrow category are potentially subject to criminal prosecution.

  • April 25, 2024

    Ga. Fund Manager Stole Millions And Fled Country, SEC Says

    An Atlanta financier was hit with a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil suit Wednesday alleging he ripped off investors in his nearly $10 million hedge fund, stealing millions to enrich himself while falsifying records of the fund's purported success.

  • April 25, 2024

    Weinstein May Be Retried After NY Court Overturns Conviction

    Harvey Weinstein seems poised to go to trial again in New York and testify in his own defense after the state's highest court overturned the movie mogul's rape conviction Thursday in a contentious, split opinion that found his first jury proceeding was unfair.

  • April 24, 2024

    Giuliani Among 18 Trump Allies Charged In Ariz. Election Case

    An Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 allies of former President Donald Trump over their alleged efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, the Arizona Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday, including former state lawmakers and several unnamed individuals who appear to be former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and disgraced attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

  • April 24, 2024

    Ex-Autonomy GC Tells Jurors He Wanted To Be 'Helpful' To HP

    Autonomy's former U.S. general counsel conceded Wednesday in the criminal trial of former CEO Michael Lynch that he told an HP lawyer he wanted to be as "helpful" as possible to the company as it was investigating Autonomy-related issues that popped up after the Silicon Valley giant purchased the British company, and that he was told he could face liability for his work at Autonomy.

  • April 24, 2024

    Bid To Sanction DOJ Denied In Novel Insider Trading Case

    A California federal judge on Tuesday refused to grant an indicted former healthcare CEO's bid to sanction the government in a case accusing him of a novel form of insider trading, saying the CEO failed to show that he was prejudiced by the government interviewing a potential witness without counsel present. 

  • April 24, 2024

    Kwok Jurors To Be Anonymous Amid Harassment Concerns

    Jurors who will decide the criminal fraud and racketeering case against exiled Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kwok will be anonymous and partially sequestered, a New York federal judge said on Wednesday, ruing that if their identities are revealed they could face the same harassment that befell Kwok's bankruptcy trustee.

  • April 24, 2024

    Tax Fraud Case Skewed By Prosecutors' Spin, NC Jury Told

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys in a tax fraud trial against two lawyers and an insurance agent traded final barbs Wednesday in a North Carolina courtroom before sending the jury to deliberate, with the defendants again defending the tax plan at the center of the government's case and accusing prosecutors of making up facts.

  • April 24, 2024

    Crypto Mixer Execs Arrested Over $2B In Illicit Transactions

    New York federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that they have arrested the co-founders of crypto mixing service Samourai Wallet over their operation of a crypto service that authorities say executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions.

  • April 24, 2024

    DEA's Upcoming Decision On Cannabis Likely To Be Litigated

    The potential loosening of federal restrictions on marijuana is likely to be litigated for years, and the pro-legalization camp would do well to pool resources to build the most persuasive evidentiary record it can, a leading cannabis advocate said Wednesday.

  • April 24, 2024

    Backpage Execs Win Partial Acquittal In Prostitution Ad Retrial

    An Arizona federal judge has partially overturned jury retrial convictions against two former Backpage.com executives and the now-defunct classifieds website's co-founder, but she refused to acquit the trio of all charges or grant a second retrial in a sprawling criminal case alleging they facilitated Backpage's $500 million prostitution scheme.

  • April 24, 2024

    Instagram Star Gets 7 Years For Multiple Fraud Schemes

    A Brooklyn federal judge on Wednesday imposed a seven-year prison term on a former Instagram influencer who admitted to defrauding members of his Muslim community and others out of over $8 million via a bogus investment fund and Bitcoin theft, saying the crime probably should be featured on the television show "American Greed."

  • April 24, 2024

    Seagram's Heiress Can't Cut NXIVM Prison Sentence

    An heir to the Seagram's liquor fortune has been denied a reduction in her nearly seven-year prison term for her role in the alleged sex cult NXIVM.

  • April 24, 2024

    Ill. Woman Gets 18 Months For Role In $16M COVID Aid Theft

    An Illinois federal judge sentenced a woman to 18 months in prison on Wednesday for her "supporting role" in a scheme to fraudulently obtain at least $16 million in federal coronavirus-relief small business loans, saying that while she wasn't the ringleader of the fraud, she still committed a "crime of greed."

  • April 24, 2024

    Meet The Attorneys Arguing Trump's Immunity At High Court

    A Missouri solicitor general-turned-law firm founder will square off Thursday against a U.S. solicitor general's office veteran who is a member of an elite group of U.S. Supreme Court bar attorneys in a special oral argument session over former President Donald Trump's bid for immunity from federal criminal charges alleging he interfered in the 2020 presidential election.

  • April 24, 2024

    Feds File Conspiracy Charges In $1M La. 'Romance' Fraud

    U.S. prosecutors in Louisiana have charged three Atlanta-area individuals of running "romance scams" to defraud victims of more than $1 million, according to a recently unsealed indictment in Pelican State federal court.

  • April 24, 2024

    Mass. Golf Course Manager Gets 13 Months For Tax Fraud

    A Massachusetts golf course manager was sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to tax charges, following prosecutors' accusations that he manipulated contracts with a home developer to deflate their value.

  • April 24, 2024

    Forex Trader Must Pay $11.8M For Ponzi-Like Scheme

    A Michigan federal judge on Tuesday said a purported forex commodity pool operator and its agent must pay more than $11.8 million in penalties and restitution for bilking participants in a Ponzi-like scheme, after the defendants ignored a Commodity Futures Trading Commission suit.

  • April 24, 2024

    Metals Firm To Pay $66M Over Retirement Coin Scam

    A California federal judge has ordered a metals trading firm to pay $66 million and each of its owners to pay between $1 million and $3 million to settle claims that they defrauded hundreds of investors by convincing them to sell their retirement securities to buy gold and silver coins at inflated prices.

  • April 24, 2024

    Binance Founder Should Get 3 Years, Not Probation, Feds Say

    Federal prosecutors asked a Washington federal judge to sentence Binance founder Changpeng Zhao to three years over his failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering program at his crypto exchange, but the founder said jail time isn't necessary since he's already paid "massive" fines and comparable cases haven't resulted in prison sentences.

  • April 24, 2024

    Bill To Repeal 'Zombie' 1864 Abortion Ban Clears Ariz. House

    Legislation that would repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions in Arizona narrowly cleared the state House on Wednesday after a handful of Republican lawmakers crossed party lines to help Democrats muscle the measure through following a bruising debate.

  • April 24, 2024

    Chicago Museum Accuses New York DA Of Art Seizure Overreach

    The Art Institute of Chicago has urged a New York criminal court to give back an Egon Schiele drawing seized by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, saying the artwork was never looted by Nazis and prosecutors have no business litigating a civil ownership dispute.

  • April 24, 2024

    Trump Considered 'Co-Conspirator' In Mich. Elector Probe

    Donald Trump and his former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis are considered unindicted co-conspirators in an alleged plot to cast Michigan's electoral votes for the former president following the 2020 election, a witness revealed Wednesday in criminal proceedings against the so-called false electors.

  • April 24, 2024

    DEA Agent Who Sold Info To Private Detective Gets 4 Years

    A Manhattan federal judge hit a suspended U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent with a four-year prison sentence Wednesday after a jury convicted him of taking bribes from a Florida private investigator in exchange for spilling secrets about criminal investigations of narcotics dealers.

Expert Analysis

  • 7 Enforcement Predictions For US Export Controls, Sanctions

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    Federal agencies' assertions of coming increases in export-control and sanctions-violations enforcement are not new, but recent improvements in resources and inter-agency cooperation allow for certain predictions about how the administration’s latest approach to enforcement may be applied going forward, say attorneys at Akin.

  • SDNY Ruling Warns Parties To Heed Amended Disclosure Rule

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    A Manhattan federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Mrabet forewarns both prosecutors and defense counsel that amended expert witness disclosure obligations will be rigorously enforced by judges, and gives some insight into how courts may deal with related constitutional challenges, say John Siffert and Brandon Davis at Lankler Siffert.

  • 8 Ways To Negotiate Improved Disgorgement Outcomes

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's nearly $3.4 billion collected in disgorgements in 2023 shows that substantial disgorgement claims from regulators and law enforcement are the new norm, but corporations may be able to dramatically reduce what they owe by using eight strategies to argue for reduced net profit calculations, say experts at AlixPartners.

  • How The NY AG Leads Investigations In Civil Securities Fraud

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    Although investigating white collar fraud can put significant strain on state and local resources, the New York Attorney General's Office has continued to use its expansive statutory authority to take a leading role in bringing civil enforcement actions in highly complex financial matters, say Carrie Cohen and Nathan Reilly at MoFo.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape

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    The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.

  • Navigating Asset Tracing Challenges In Bankruptcy

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    A Virginia court’s recent ruling in Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc.'s bankruptcy highlights the heightened demand for asset tracing and the strategic use of the lowest intermediate balance rule in recovering funds from commingled accounts, says Daniel Lowenthal at Patterson Belknap.

  • Series

    Performing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The discipline of performing live music has directly and positively influenced my effectiveness as a litigator — serving as a reminder that practice, intuition and team building are all important elements of a successful law practice, says Jeff Wakolbinger at Bryan Cave.

  • Reverse Proffers In Federal Criminal Cases Can Be A Win-Win

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    The increasingly popular reverse proffer — in which prosecutors disclose evidence to targets of a criminal investigation — can help the government test its case and persuade witnesses to cooperate, and can help defendants sharpen their strategies and obtain favorable deals by choosing to cooperate, say Jeffrey Martino and Byron Tuyay at Baker McKenzie.

  • Aviation Watch: Pilots Face Mental Health Catch-22

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    The recent case of an Alaska Airlines pilot who attempted to crash an airliner in flight highlights the dilemma facing federally licensed cockpit personnel who need psychological help, yet could lose their jobs if they seek it — but a long-running program may provide a solution, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Breaking Down High Court's New Code Of Conduct

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently adopted its first-ever code of conduct, and counsel will need to work closely with clients in navigating its provisions, from gift-giving to recusal bids, say Phillip Gordon and Mateo Forero at Holtzman Vogel.

  • Trump NY Fraud Trial Shows Civil, Criminal Case Differences

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    Former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial currently unfolding in New York provides a reminder that civil bench trials can be just as damaging, if not more so, than criminal prosecutions, due to several key elements of civil litigation procedure, says retired attorney David Moskowitz.

  • How Purdue High Court Case Will Shape Ch. 11 Mass Injury

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent arguments in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma, addressing the authority of bankruptcy courts to approve nonconsensual third-party releases in Chapter 11 settlement plans, highlight the case's wide-ranging implications for how mass injury cases get resolved in bankruptcy proceedings, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.

  • How New Expert Rules Are Already Changing Court Decisions

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    Though not formally effective until last week, some courts have been relying for several years on amended federal rules clarifying judges’ gatekeeping role, so counsel should be prepared to justify their expert witnesses’ methodologies and expect additional motion practice on expert testimony admissibility, say Colleen Kenney and Daniel Kelly at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    Legal Profession Gender Parity Requires Equal Parental Leave

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    To truly foster equity in the legal profession and to promote attorney retention, workplaces need to better support all parents, regardless of gender — starting by offering equal and robust parental leave to both birthing and non-birthing parents, says Ali Spindler at Irwin Fritchie.

  • 1 Year In, Money Laundering Law Tweak May Have Big Impact

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    Despite receiving little attention, Congress' quiet extension of the statute of limitations for money laundering offenses involving foreign bribery offenses is a powerful prosecutorial tool that defense counsel can nevertheless counter by using certain pretrial challenges, says attorney Andrew Feldman.

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