Analysis

In Story Of Sex And Lies, Can Cohen Write Final Chapter?

By Phillip Bantz

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has told a story of scandal and scheming to the jury in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, setting the stage for the prosecution's star witness to take the stand and wrap up the narrative.

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FTX Says Full Recovery Coming Based On 2022 Crypto Price

By Yun Park

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. has claimed its proposed Chapter 11 plan would be able to pay creditors in full with a $13 billion distribution that exceeds the estimated allowable $11.2 billion in claims, but the payout is based on the value of cryptocurrency in November 2022, when the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection. 

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Ohtani's Ex-Interpreter To Plead Guilty In Betting Scam

By Alex Lawson

The former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges Wednesday in connection with a scheme to steal nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers star to pay off debts he amassed through an illegal gambling operation.

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Ga. Appeals Court Will Review Trump DQ Bid In Election Case

By Kelcey Caulder

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to review a judge's ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis to continue prosecuting the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.

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Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO Cops To $1.5M Theft From Firm

By George Woolston

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP's former chief financial officer admitted Wednesday to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the firm and failing to pay income tax, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced.

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Prison Officer Gets 2 Years For Bribes Linked To Rajaratnam

By Brian Dowling

A former federal corrections officer in Massachusetts who accepted bribes and a loan from a billionaire inmate, reportedly the convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam, was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for engaging in what a Boston federal judge called "corruption of the most dangerous sort."  

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Feds Charge Two For Killing Witness In Staged Crashes Probe

By Henrik Nilsson

Federal prosecutors in Louisiana have charged two people for murdering a witness who cooperated with the government's investigation into an alleged insurance scam involving multiple staged car crashes in the New Orleans area.

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Committing Bribery Or Fixing 'Chaos': Mogul's Retrial Begins

By Hayley Fowler

An insurance mogul and his one-time political consultant resorted to "pure and simple" bribery when they promised North Carolina's insurance commissioner up to $2 million in campaign contributions to remove an inquisitive official, federal prosecutors told a jury Wednesday, while the mogul's counsel countered that he just wanted a fair shake from a department in "chaos."

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Detroit Close To Clearing COVID-19 Criminal Case Backlog

By Carolyn Muyskens

Michigan's busiest court is years ahead of schedule in efforts to clear a large case backlog, its chief judge said in an address, crediting the court staff and judges with performing "miracles."

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Bill To Undo SEC Crypto Accounting Bulletin Passes House

By Aislinn Keely

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to overturn the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance despite protests from Democrats to take a more targeted approach to amend the directive and a White House pledge to veto the bill.

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In Final Memo, Blumenauer Eyes Path Forward For Cannabis

By Sam Reisman

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a longtime champion of cannabis reform in Congress who plans to retire this year, is calling marijuana reform a "winning issue" for policymakers and outlined numerous actions both legislators and federal agencies can take to move the issue forward.

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Colo. Justice Doubts Auto-Reversal In 'Very Rare' Atty Conflict

By Daniel Ducassi

Colorado's chief justice questioned Wednesday why a man should get to automatically reverse his sexual assault conviction because his lawyer was being simultaneously prosecuted by the same district attorney's office, a situation that the convicted man said is exceedingly rare.

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Truth Social Backer's Insider Trading Alibi In Jury's Hands

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal jury weighed charges Wednesday against a Florida investor accused of fueling a $23 million insider trading scheme that exploited confidential plans to take Truth Social public, after the defense argued it was someone else who tipped speculators.

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SEC Doubles Down On $2B Ripple Labs Sanction Bid

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is standing by its call for crypto platform Ripple Labs to pay $2 billion as punishment for selling unregistered securities, telling a New York federal judge that a lower penalty would send the wrong message to the industry at large.

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SEC Says Startup Founder Siphoned $10.8M In Investor Funds

By Emilie Ruscoe

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against the CEO of a chemical coatings startup, alleging that over roughly four years, the executive "siphoned off" $10.8 million, or roughly a third of the $32.5 million his company raised from investors and spent it on extravagances including a private jet.

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Icahn, Xerox Investors Settle Nixed HP Merger Suit For $2.2M

By Elliot Weld

Carl Icahn will pay $2.2 million to Xerox under an agreement reached with a pair of the company's stockholders, who accused the billionaire investor in a consolidated shareholder derivative lawsuit of trading on non-public information regarding Xerox's now-doomed bid to acquire HP Inc. for $33 billion.

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NY AG Says $6M NRA Verdict Should Stand

By Cara Salvatore

A New York state court should not undo a jury's finding that the National Rifle Association allowed its officers to misappropriate $6.4 million of donor money, the state's attorney general has argued, saying trial evidence abundantly laid out evidence of misconduct and organizational failures.

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Boston Man Says He Was Chinese Activist, Not Gov't Spy

By Elliot Weld

A Massachusetts resident denied charges of acting as a Chinese government agent by allegedly reporting pro-democracy activity in the Boston area, arguing that he is merely a local community activist whose political beliefs happen to align with those of the People's Republic of China.

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Digitex Founder Pleads Guilty To Bank Secrecy Act Violation

By Donald Morrison

The founder of Digitex Futures Exchange has pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by refusing to implement policies designed to prevent money laundering on his cryptocurrency futures platform.

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Fla. Defense Contractor Admits To Selling Parts From Turkey

By David Minsky

A Florida defense contractor has pled guilty to federal conspiracy charges in connection to a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Defense, admitting that she violated export control laws by using a front company to supply critical military components that were manufactured in Turkey.

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Disbarred Mich. Atty Jailed For Stealing $140K From Client

By James Boyle

A Michigan attorney will spend more time in prison than planned after failing to keep up his side of a plea agreement he made with the state attorney general when he admitted to stealing more than $140,000 from an elderly client.

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Disbarred Pennsylvania Atty Gets Prison Time For Forgery

By Jack Rodgers

A disbarred Pennsylvania attorney has been sentenced to 30 days to a year in prison after pleading guilty on Friday for having presented fake court documents to clients with forged signatures, including those of judges, and misrepresenting the status of their cases.

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Quinn Emanuel Atty Says Asset Freeze Hurt Outcome Defense

By Lauraann Wood

The U.S. government's overreach in restraining millions more than it could reasonably trace back to a $1 billion fraud by Outcome Health prevented the company's former CEO from hiring Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP attorneys to defend the charges like he originally wanted, an Illinois federal judge heard Wednesday.

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Fla. Lab Owner Gets 10 Years For Unneeded Medical Tests

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida medical lab owner has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to accusations that he billed Medicare for $53 million in unnecessary genetic cancer screening tests.

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Fed. Circ. Judge Troubled By Government's Visa Fraud Sting

By Britain Eakin

A Federal Circuit judge on Wednesday said he was troubled by the federal government's argument that it has no liability to foreign students who paid thousands of dollars to attend a fake university the government set up to ensnare visa fraudsters.

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Mont. Tribe Says Feds Must Sign Law Enforcement Contract

By Joyce Hanson

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe has accused the U.S. government of failing to provide the tribe with adequate law enforcement services, urging a Montana federal judge to order it to sign a tribal self-determination contract with an annual funding amount of at least $325,829.

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DOD Trucking Contractor Owner Indicted On $1M Tax Evasion

By Anna Scott Farrell

The owner of a trucking company that hauled military supplies for the U.S. Department of Defense tried to evade more than $1 million in taxes partly by using a nominee company headed by her former dispatcher, according to an indictment by a federal grand jury in Ohio.

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Fuel Truck Exec Cops To Rigging Firefighting Contract Bids

By Gina Kim

An Idaho fuel truck company executive accused of conspiring with others to manipulate bids for U.S. Forest Service firefighting contracts to suppress other competitors in the market over an eight-year period pled guilty Wednesday in federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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A Foley Hoag Co-Chair Joins Litigation Firm As Name Partner

By Andrea Keckley

Litigation and dispute resolution firm Elliott Kwok Levine & Jaroslaw LLP will operate under a new name after welcoming as its newest name partner a former federal prosecutor who most recently co-chaired Foley Hoag LLP's white-collar crime and government investigations practice.

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PE In The Crosshairs Of Public And Private Antitrust Enforcers

A series of decisions from a California federal court in the recently settled Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, as well as heightened scrutiny from federal agencies, serve as a reminder that private equity firms may be exposed to liability for alleged anti-competitive conduct by their portfolio companies, say attorneys at Axinn.

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'Fat Leonard' Case Shows High Bar For Rescinding Guilty Plea

Prosecutors’ recent move in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, supporting several defendants’ motions to withdraw their guilty pleas, is extremely unusual – and its contrast with other prosecutions demonstrates that the procedural safeguards at plea hearings are far from enough, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.

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Series

Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

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Lewis Brisbois Atty Fatally Shot In McDonald's Altercation

By Ryan Boysen

A Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP attorney was fatally shot at a McDonald's in Houston after reportedly stepping in as a good Samaritan and attempting to calm down an irate customer who'd been arguing with staff at the fast food restaurant.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Lieff Cabraser's Kelly Dermody

By Irene Spezzamonte

A semester off from Harvard University in the late 1980s meant for reflection instead turned into a pivotal moment in Kelly Dermody's life, settling the roots for her successful career during which she has become a lighthouse for employment and discrimination cases.

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ABA Will Study Rape Questions' Necessity For Bar Applicants

By Cara Bayles

An American Bar Association commission will issue a report and recommendations by August on the practice of requiring would-be lawyers to disclose and discuss their experiences of sexual violence during the attorney licensure process.

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ABA Directs Attys To Avoid Sharing Client Info On Listservs

By Emily Sawicki

It is in the best interest of clients for their legal counsel to avoid sharing information related to representation while seeking advice in an online listserv forum, if the comments or questions could be connected to a client's identity, according to American Bar Association guidance published Wednesday.

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Fani Willis Is Outraising Primary Challenger More Than 5 To 1

By Chart Riggall

Less than two weeks from the first hurdle in her bid for reelection, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis is boasting a​​ campaign war chest more than five times heftier than her Democratic challenger's, according to campaign finance disclosures filed this week.

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Biden Picks US Magistrate Judge In Fla. For 11th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday his intent to nominate U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry J. Kidd to the Eleventh Circuit.

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Robins Kaplan File Flub Bad Look For Both Sides, Panel Says

By Rachel Scharf

A Manhattan appeals panel expressed concern Wednesday that Robins Kaplan LLP had poked through an opposing party's Dropbox database that was accidentally shared in investor litigation, while also criticizing the other side for failing to catch the error.

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NJ Justices Approve Measures For Helping Atty Well-Being

By Emily Johnson

The New Jersey Supreme Court has accepted several recommendations from its committee focused on attorney well-being, paving the way for the committee to examine how attorneys can briefly postpone court dates or possibly receive an extension to meet deadlines so they can handle pressing wellness needs.

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Legal Access Program Being Set Up For Separated Families

By Alyssa Aquino

The Biden administration has tapped the Acacia Center for Justice to manage a court-ordered legal access program to help migrant families stay in the U.S. after they were separated under a Trump-era policy to prosecute anybody caught entering the country unlawfully.

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Colo. Judges Urge Attys To Take On More Pro Se Cases

By Thy Vo

A group of Colorado federal judges tried Wednesday to recruit more lawyers to help pro se litigants, who file about a third of the district's cases each year, with the judges recounting tactical mistakes and case delays that attorneys could have prevented.

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