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White Collar
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May 7, 2013
CFPB's 1st Criminal Referral Targets $2M Debt Relief Scam
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a New York debt settlement firm with defrauding over 1,200 customers hobbled by credit card debt in a $2.2 million scheme that also marked the first criminal referral from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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May 7, 2013
Q&A With Faegre Baker's David Stark
The Second Circuit in U.S. v. Agrawal is about to consider a question not decided in Aleynikov — can a defendant can be convicted of violating the National Stolen Property Act by taking intangible property. This seems to be an arbitrary distinction that Congress should consider, says David Stark, a partner in Faegre Baker Daniels LLP's white collar practice.
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May 6, 2013
Lionsgate Vendor Pleads Guilty To $2M Kickback Scheme
A vendor accused of conspiring with a Lionsgate Entertainment Inc. media buyer to defraud the studio of more than $2 million by submitting inflated purchase orders for DVD and Blu-ray displays entered a guilty plea in California federal court Monday, according to a prosecutor.
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May 6, 2013
Sky Bell Funds Sued Over Ponzi Investments
Seven limited partnership units operated by Sky Bell Asset Management LLC were hit with a proposed class action in Delaware federal court Monday by the limited partnerships’ owners, who say they lost millions when the funds’ money went into the Madoff and Petters Ponzi schemes.
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May 6, 2013
Lauryn Hill Gets 3 Months For Ducking $1M In Taxes
A New Jersey federal judge on Monday sentenced Grammy-winning R&B singer Lauryn Hill to three months in prison for failing to file tax returns and report more than $2.3 million in income, rejecting the prosecution's call for a longer jail term.
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May 6, 2013
Ex-KPMG Partner's Friend To Admit To Insider Trading
A California jeweler accused of receiving illicit stock tips from the former head of KPMG LLP’s Los Angeles office agreed to plead guilty Monday to insider trading and forfeit approximately $1.27 million in illegal profits.
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May 6, 2013
Prominent NY Democrat Held For Foreclosure Embezzlement
Brooklyn Democratic Sen. John L. Sampson, a lawyer and former top party leader in Albany who was placed at the heart of a casino bid-rigging scandal three years ago, was arrested Monday and charged with embezzling $440,000 in proceeds from property foreclosure sales to fund his political ambitions.
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May 6, 2013
Ex-BP Engineer Must Hand Over Atty Emails In Deepwater Case
The former BP PLC engineer accused of intentionally destroying evidence related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill must provide the U.S. Department of Justice with emails he sent to his lawyer and attorney notes from a meeting with BP officials, a Louisiana federal judge said Friday.
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May 6, 2013
Q&A With Day Pitney's Jim DeVita
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Booker struck a significant blow to judicial independence and has started to restore some measure of sanity to the sentencing system in federal courts, says James DeVita, a partner with Day Pitney LLP and former federal prosecutor.
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May 6, 2013
DOJ Veteran Joins Steptoe's White Collar Team
Steptoe & Johnson LLP has added muscle to its white collar and privacy and data security practices by adding a former deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, it said Monday.
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May 3, 2013
Programmer Arrested For Cyberattack On Ex-Employer
A disgruntled software programmer who allegedly sabotaged his former employer for failing to promote him was arrested Thursday in New York for the cyberattack, which cost his company more than $90,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
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May 3, 2013
Feds' FCPA Probe Of Okada Puts Halt On Wynn's Suit
Wynn Resorts Ltd. on Friday said its Nevada lawsuit against former Wynn Macau Ltd. director Kazuo Okada over purported bribes to Philippine officials has been put on hold while federal prosecutors investigate Okada for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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May 3, 2013
SAC Manager Can’t Switch Judges In Insider Trading Case
A New York federal judge who has taken a hard line on insider trading law said Friday he would not allow a criminally charged SAC Capital Advisors LP portfolio manager to go before another judge, denying the defendant’s transfer request.
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May 3, 2013
Chum Of Ex-Orioles Player Dodges Insider Trading Charges
California federal prosecutors have dropped their federal insider trading indictment against a man accused with three others, including former Baltimore Orioles third baseman Doug DeCinces, of insider trading on information about Abbott Laboratories' takeover of a medical device company.
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May 3, 2013
Ex-Cowboys Player's PE Partner Gets 10 Years For $40M Fraud
A Texas federal judge on Friday sentenced the former owner of private equity firm Gemstar Capital Group Inc. to 10 years in jail and nearly $17 million in restitution for securities fraud stemming from an alleged $40 million Ponzi scheme he operated with a former Dallas Cowboys player.
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May 3, 2013
Ex-Frontier Chemist Dodges Prison For Disclosing Recipes
A Utah federal judge has decided that a former Frontier Scientific Inc. chemist won't face any prison time for sending chemical recipes to India without company authorization, significantly paring a possible five-year prison sentence and more than $160,000 in fines.
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May 3, 2013
Ex-Head Of DocX Sentenced To As Much As 20 Years In Prison
The former head of mortgage document processor DocX LLC received a sentence of up to 20 years in prison by a Michigan state judge Thursday, after pleading guilty to racketeering for her role in a robosigning scheme involving forged mortgage documents.
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May 3, 2013
Former Securities Bar Titan Mel Weiss Dodges Probation
A California federal judge on Friday released former securities class action bar king Melvyn I. Weiss from probation on his convictions for funneling kickbacks to plaintiffs after prosecutors agreed that further punishing Weiss, on probation for a Florida DUI, would duplicate government resources.
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May 3, 2013
Feds Say Atty Billed Seminole Tribe $1M In Bogus Legal Fees
A former attorney for the Seminole Tribe of Florida was indicted Friday on charges of fraudulently billing $1 million in legal fees for helping the tribe open radio stations.
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May 3, 2013
Feds Hint Convicted Lawmaker's Cooperation May Snag 3 More
Three more lawmakers could be ensnared in a federal corruption probe, federal prosecutors suggested in a Friday sentencing memorandum for former New York Sen. Shirley Huntley of Queens, who they say has been wearing a wire after admitting to taking bribes, embezzling from her nonprofit and tampering with evidence.
Expert Analysis
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A Broad Reading Of FCPA's Jurisdiction Over Foreign Cos.
In a recent and rare court ruling regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Southern District of New York rejected several defenses commonly used by foreign nationals to lawsuits brought in the United States. If followed by other courts, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Elek Straub decision clears the way for increased prosecutions of foreign nationals under the FCPA, say attorneys with Nixon Peabody LLP.
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5 Trade Secret Trends That Could Shape 2013
Litigators should consider the trade secret trends from 2012 that promise to shape developments this year, including the increasing federal power being brought to bear on trade secret law, a deepening circuit split over the interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, increasing litigation involving social media, and the necessity of written confidentiality agreements for sophisticated businesses to protect trade secrets, say attorneys with Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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Enviro Cos., Beware Of More EPA Criminal Enforcement
The recent release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's results of enforcement and compliance statistics for fiscal year 2012 confirms that criminal prosecution remains an important component of the EPA’s enforcement program. Though continued budget constraints and limited resources may put pressure on the agency, companies should still anticipate 2013 to be another steady year for EPA criminal enforcement actions, say attorneys with Alston & Bird LLP.
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The Devil Is In 'Where To Disclose' Supply Chain Details
While most compliance and supply chain professionals by now generally appreciate the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act’s objective and basic mechanics, a visit to the homepage of your favorite manufacturer or retailer is likely to reveal that there continues to be a surprising level of confusion over something exceptionally basic: namely, where the disclosure must be announced, say attorneys with Perkins Coie LLP.
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UK Bribery Act Enforcement Is On The Horizon
The 18 months since the U.K.'s Bribery Act came into force have not been filled with the enforcement activity some expected or hoped for. But we anticipate the first cases may be just around the corner. The Bribery Act enforcement actions to date can be seen as the Serious Fraud Office clearing its books and readying itself to tackle future case load, say Lisa Navarro and Kara Bombach of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
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Get Ready For More Private Equity Regulation
Recent regulatory inquiries, coupled with the ongoing trend of investors shifting more of their assets to private equity funds, suggest that we will see increased scrutiny of the PE industry in the coming years. As such, PE firms will begin to feel pressure to develop or refine compliance plans for their own firms as well as any acquired companies, and will need to provide assurance that the requirements of anti-bribery, privacy and other applicable laws are being heeded, says Kenneth Yormark of Navigant.Consulting Inc.
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A Plain Language Reading Of Section 106(a)(1)
The decision by the Northern District of Illinois in United States v. Equipment Acquisition Resources Inc. is of interest to any party prosecuting or defending suits brought under the Bankruptcy Code — particularly under section 544(b) — against the IRS or another governmental unit. The court’s plain-language reading of section 106(a)(1) places a high hurdle in the path of challenges to the anti-sovereign-immunity protections based on other, arguably conflicting provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, says Ferve Ozturk of Baker & Hostetler LLP.
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Grand Jury Subpoenas And The Crime-Fraud Exception
In its recent decision in In re: Grand Jury: John Doe 1, John Doe 2, ABC Corp., the Third Circuit highlighted the many complications facing a subject wishing to assert an attorney-client privilege or work-product objection to a subpoena seeking records from its counsel, says Gary Shockley of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.
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Preparing Your Witness To Be A Performer
How do we prepare a witness, a layperson having no training in the art of litigation, to give an effective and memorable performance? A number of tips, when incorporated into your practice of law, will surely strengthen your witness's presentation at deposition and trial and the overall merits of your case, says Erika Ronquillo of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin PC.
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What You Should Know About The New Trade Secrets Laws
Although two new trade secret laws — the Trade Secret Clarification Act and the Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act — significantly increase the risks faced by an employee or other person who takes an organization’s trade secrets, neither the government nor the organization will succeed in protecting those secrets unless the organization takes appropriate measures to protect them before they are stolen, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.