FinCEN Cautions On Benefits Fraud, Floats Tipster Award Plan

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's illicit finance watchdog called Monday for banks to step up monitoring for Medicare and Medicaid fraud, issuing new guidance on flagging suspicious activity, which came as officials also moved to incentivize financial crime reporting with new draft rules to offer tipster rewards.

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Dems Press CFTC To Curb Gov't Employees' Event Trading

By Aislinn Keely

Democrats across both chambers of Congress are demanding that the agencies overseeing prediction markets and the ethics of government workers tell federal employees they can't trade on events if their jobs give them an edge.

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Justices Doubt Gov't Venue Theory In Twitter Employee Case

By Marco Poggio

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared sharply skeptical that a former Twitter employee convicted of emailing a falsified document to FBI agents from his Seattle home could be prosecuted in San Francisco, with several justices questioning the federal government's justification for bringing the case where none of the charged conduct occurred.

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Blumenthal Questions SEC Over Crypto Cases, Ryan Exit

By Katryna Perera

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is demanding answers from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins about the sudden resignation of the regulator's enforcement director and whether her departure was related to cryptocurrency cases, including one touching on the Trump family's ventures.

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FINRA Sanctions Upheld At 6th Circ. Against Unregistered CEO

By Emilie Ruscoe

The Sixth Circuit won't reverse Financial Industry Regulatory Authority sanctions against the owner of a consulting company who argued he'd been unfairly ruled against by a self-regulatory organization he never joined, though the judges stopped short of weighing the petitioner's constitutional challenges to the FINRA findings.

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Justices Turn Away Case Over SEC Receivership Powers

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea by a Dallas real estate developer to hear a challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ability to seize the assets of alleged fraudsters before a trial can take place.

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Full 11th Circ. Asked To Review SEC's $1M Penny Stock Award

By Katryna Perera

Spartan Securities and other defendants sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over an alleged penny stock fraud petitioned the Eleventh Circuit Monday for a full court rehearing of a panel decision affirming a $1 million judgment in favor of the SEC.

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Investment Firm Fined For Ads Pitching Copycat Portfolios

By Julie Manganis

An online investment advisory firm that offered clients the chance to copy the trading activity of well-known business and political figures will pay a $500,000 administrative fine and restitution to resolve a complaint that Massachusetts securities regulators brought alleging misleading social media ads.

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Crypto Hacker Stole $53M For Pokemon Cards, DOJ Says

By Gina Kim

A Maryland man was charged with hacking cryptocurrency exchange Uranium Finance and taking $53 million, and using the money to buy rare Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering trading cards, as well as a piece of the Wright brothers' original plane that Neil Armstrong took to the moon.

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Ex-City Council Member's Daughter Admits To COVID Fraud

By Hayley Fowler

The daughter of a former city council member in Charlotte, North Carolina, has copped to filing bogus small-business loan applications for COVID-19 relief funds with her mother and sister, making her the second in the family to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

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AIG Unit Owes Law Firm For Defending CEO, Fla. Jury Told

By David Minsky

A lawyer told Florida jurors in a federal trial Monday that an AIG unit owes him more than $1 million in costs for defending a sports memorabilia company's former CEO against securities violations, saying the insurer broke a contract to pay his firm for legal services. 

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Justices Pass On FCA Suit Alleging Quest Diagnostics Fraud

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday a former Quest Diagnostics Inc. compliance officer's bid for review of the dismissal of a long-running False Claims Act suit against the medical testing company.

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'Orgasmic Meditation' Co. Founder Gets 9 Years In Prison

By Hailey Konnath

A New York federal judge Monday sentenced the founder of "orgasmic meditation" company OneTaste to nine years in prison for her role in a forced labor conspiracy, according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Mother And Son Tax Preparers Accused Of Fraud

By Anna Scott Farrell

A Texas mother and son were indicted for filing fraudulent tax returns through their tax preparation businesses, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which said the pair tried to get unwarranted refunds by fabricating deductions.

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Charlotte, NC, Prosecutor Fires Paralegal After Deadly Crash

By Parker Quinlan

A paralegal with the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office in Charlotte has been fired over criminal charges including felony death by vehicle following a Saturday collision, according to the office.

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'A-C-T' Agenda Signals New Regulatory Era At SEC Speaks

At this year's SEC Speaks, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins unveiled his ambitious A-C-T agenda — advance, clarify and transform — to align the federal securities regulatory regime with modern markets, illustrating that the conference was not merely a status update but an action plan, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

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Opinion

AI Presents A Make-Or-Break Moment For Outside Counsel

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence by corporate legal departments is forcing a long-overdue reset of the relationship between inside and outside counsel, and introducing a significant opportunity to shed frustrating inefficiencies and strengthen collaboration for firms willing to embrace the shift, says Intel Chief Legal Officer April Miller Boise.

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Getting The Most Out Of Learning And Development Programs

Junior associates can better develop the legal, business and interpersonal skills they need for long-term success by approaching their firms’ learning and development programs armed with five tips for getting the most out of these resources, says Lauren Hakala at Reed Smith.

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Lack Of Harm Dooms Ex-Estate Firm Partner's Bid For Notices

By Abigail Harrison

The founding partner of a trusts and estates law firm lost his bid to have the North Carolina Business Court order the firm to notify thousands of clients of his departure and hand over their contact information, with the judge ruling the lawyer failed to show he suffered irreparable harm.

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NC Attys Oppose DOJ Interference In State Ethics Complaints

By Hayley Fowler

A group of North Carolina lawyers is opposing the U.S. Department of Justice's proposed rule allowing the attorney general to review state-level ethics complaints against the department's attorneys, saying such a change would undercut the Tar Heel State's ability to regulate government lawyers.

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Nixon Peabody Hires Hometown Litigator In Rhode Island

By Tracey Read

Nixon Peabody LLP has added a civil and criminal business litigation and trial attorney from Godfrey & Kahn SC to its complex disputes practice as a partner in Providence, Rhode Island.

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70+ Republicans Ask Justices To Review NY Gun Liability Law

By Courtney Bublé

More than 70 Republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision that upheld New York state's public nuisance statute, which allows lawsuits against gun manufacturers that cause public harm.

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