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White Collar
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April 30, 2013
Former Real Estate Exec Gets 10 Years For $18M Fraud
A former real estate investment businessman was sentenced in Illinois federal court Tuesday to 10 years in prison for taking part in a fraud scheme that the government said cost hundreds of investors a total of $18 million in losses.
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April 30, 2013
Mayor Can't Dodge Embezzlement Rap Over Katrina Grant
A federal judge Tuesday declined to toss the conviction of an Alabama mayor convicted of embezzling money from a $15.7 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant meant for Hurricane Katrina victims.
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April 30, 2013
Feds Wrap Up Donor Case Against NYC Comptroller's Cohorts
Two people linked to the campaign of New York City mayoral candidate John Liu were part of a corrupt scheme to use straw donors, a federal prosecutor told a jury Tuesday as he wrapped up a criminal fraud case against them.
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April 30, 2013
BP Attys' Docs On Deepwater Privileged, Judge Rules
A Louisiana federal judge on Tuesday largely rejected attempts by the federal government to force BP PLC’s lawyers to turn over documents related to fraudulent statements about the rate at which oil was escaping into the Gulf during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, saying most of the documents weren’t linked to criminal fraud.
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April 30, 2013
No Shrinkage Of $459M Fine For Male Enhancement Maker
An Ohio federal judge on Tuesday rebuffed Enzyte male enhancement supplement tycoon Steve Warshak’s bid to discard a judgment ordering him to pay $459 million related to his conviction for fraud and money laundering, finding no basis for Warshak’s claim that his counsel was ineffective.
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April 30, 2013
Ex-Goldman Coder Loses Double Jeopardy Bid In Theft Case
A New York state court has denied double jeopardy claims by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. programmer Sergey Aleynikov, who beat federal charges of stealing the bank’s computer trading code, only to be indicted by state authorities, according to a ruling made public Tuesday.
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April 30, 2013
Ex-SAC Trader Says Feds' $276M Insider Case Lacks Facts
Former SAC Capital Advisors LLP portfolio manager Mathew Martoma on Monday accused prosecutors of relying on “inferences and innuendo” to charge him with running a $276 million insider trading scheme — the largest sum ever alleged in such a case — saying an indictment lacked basic information about the alleged tips.
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April 30, 2013
Q&A With Arent Fox's Stephen Larson
Often, state prosecutors and their internal investigators work hand in glove, and I am concerned that, in some instances, the appropriate and important checks and balances of “law and order” are entirely lacking and justice suffers, says Stephen Larson, leader of Arent Fox LLP's complex litigation group and a former federal judge.
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April 29, 2013
4th Circ. Upholds Forfeitures In Health Fraud Case
The Fourth Circuit on Friday upheld the forfeitures of a house and money that were linked to an alleged insurance fraud scheme run by a Virginia doctor who has fled the country, ruling against the doctor’s parents, who claimed to be the innocent owners of the property.
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April 29, 2013
4th Circ. Remands A&O Fraudster's 60-Year Sentence
The Fourth Circuit on Monday reversed A&O Resource Management Ltd. co-owner Adley H. Abdulwahab’s money-laundering convictions and remanded his 60-year prison sentence stemming from his role in a $100 million life settlement investment scheme, ordering a lower court to resentence him.
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April 29, 2013
Browns Owner Gets OK To Seek Fuel Fraud Settlements
Pilot Flying J Travel Centers LLC, the truck stop operator run by Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, may contact customers as it seeks to settle claims over an alleged fuel rebate scam that sparked an FBI raid, a Tennessee state court ruled Monday.
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April 29, 2013
Diamondback Wants $39M In Restitution From Insider Trader
Defunct hedge fund Diamondback Capital Management LLC on Monday told a New York federal judge it is entitled to $39 million in restitution from convicted former fund manager Todd Newman, saying it was a victim of his insider trading scheme.
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April 29, 2013
Ex-Peanut Corp. CEO Can't Leave Country As He Awaits Trial
A federal judge in Georgia refused Friday to allow the indicted former CEO of defunct Peanut Corp. of America to have his passport back while he waits to face fraud charges connected to a massive salmonella outbreak in 2008 and 2009 that federal authorities say may have killed nine people and sickened hundreds more.
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April 29, 2013
Water Official Convicted Of Lying About Well
An Illinois federal jury on Monday convicted a former water department employee for a Chicago suburb on charges that she lied to environmental regulators about supplementing the village's water supply from Lake Michigan with water from a well, allowing the village to skirt testing requirements.
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April 29, 2013
Total Expecting To Pay $398M To Settle FCPA Bribery Claims
French oil and gas giant Total SA on Monday said it had set aside $398 million to pay for an expected settlement with U.S. regulators over possible bribes made to Iranian officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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April 29, 2013
Ceglia Asks Judge To Halt Facebook Forgery Charges
Alleged Facebook Inc. fraudster Paul Ceglia asked a New York federal judge on Friday to halt his criminal case until the conclusion of his civil contract case against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, saying the criminal indictment is unlikely to result in a conviction.
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April 29, 2013
Level Global To Pay $21.5M To Exit SEC Insider Trading Suit
Level Global Investors LP, the now-defunct hedge fund led by convicted insider trader Anthony R. Chiasson, reached a $21.5 million settlement Monday in New York to end a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suit over a tipping scheme that allegedly involved the securities of Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp.
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April 29, 2013
Oil Exec Gets Sentence Pared In $485M Ponzi Scheme
A Texas federal judge on Friday knocked eight years off the 20-year prison sentence of Provident Royalties LLC co-founder Joseph Blimline, who was convicted of running a pair of oil and gas investment Ponzi schemes that yielded more than $485 million.
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April 29, 2013
AUO Exec Sentenced To 2 Years For LCD Price-Fixing
A California federal judge on Monday sentenced AU Optronics Corp. executive Steven Leung to two years in prison and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine for conspiring with other liquid-crystal display makers to drive up prices on panels used in flat-panel monitors, laptops and televisions.
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April 29, 2013
Q&A With Hughes Hubbard's Marc Weinstein
If law enforcement believes that perp walks are so critical to their goals, then at best they should stage them only after someone is proven guilty, rather than while a person is still presumed innocent, says Marc Weinstein, a partner in Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP's criminal and regulatory defense and investigations group, and former chief of the Major Crimes Unit in the Southern District of New York.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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EMR Adoption May Be Riskier Than Expected
As has always been the case, with technology comes risk. And for the medical providers who adopt electronic medical records, that risk may include not only a lack of utility or benefit, but also heightened scrutiny, more frequent investigation and even the specter of prosecution by the very government that promoted the switch to EMRs in the first place, says Robert Radick of Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC.
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A Gambling Case Software Developers Should Watch Closely
The Supreme Court of New York recently conducted a hearing in a criminal case in which a software developer is accused of aiding and abetting illegal gambling. The strength of the district attorney's case remains to be seen, but prosecution of a software developer for crimes committed by its users sets a dangerous precedent and starts the country down a slippery slope of prosecuting people for others' acts, say attorneys with Perkins Coie LLP.