The government's foreign bribery case accusing a former Goldman Sachs banker of paying off Ghanaian officials to secure a lucrative energy deal is a lot like Milli Vanilli, his lawyer told a New York jury Tuesday, arguing that much like lipsynced songs of the fake late-1980s-era pop duo, prosecutors' version of events is not what it appears to be.
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THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Like Milli Vanilli, Goldman FCPA Case Is A Ruse, Jury Told

By Stewart Bishop

The government's foreign bribery case accusing a former Goldman Sachs banker of paying off Ghanaian officials to secure a lucrative energy deal is a lot like Milli Vanilli, his lawyer told a New York jury Tuesday, arguing that much like lipsynced songs of the fake late-1980s-era pop duo, prosecutors' version of events is not what it appears to be.

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Senate Confirms Jay Clayton As National Intelligence Chief

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, two weeks after Clayton, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to answer who he thought won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing.

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DOJ Drops Charges In $722M 'BitClub' Crypto Ponzi Case

By Matthew Santoni

The U.S. Department of Justice and federal prosecutors in New Jersey have dropped their case against Matthew Goettsche, who was formerly accused of originating a $722 million cryptocurrency fraud scheme for which several of his alleged co-conspirators have already pled guilty.

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EBay, Former Execs To Pay $55.7M Over Couple's Harassment

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts couple who were stalked and harassed by a group of eBay employees over their blog's coverage of the e-commerce giant reached a $55.7 million settlement with the company and several former executives.

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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Upend $83M Carroll Verdict

By Lauren Berg

President Donald Trump urged the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to wade in and overturn a jury's $83.3 million verdict finding he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of a decades-old sexual assault, pointing to the justices' decision giving presidents sweeping immunity for official acts.

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Queens Defenders Head Gets 3.5 Years For Looting The Nonprofit

By Pete Brush

A Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former director of the Queens Defenders to more than 3.5 years in prison after the longtime attorney admitted to a course of embezzlement that destroyed the group dedicated to legal services for the poor.

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SECURITIES

Trader In BigLaw Deal-Tipping Scheme To Plead Guilty

By Chris Villani

A Florida resident is set to plead guilty to his alleged role in a sweeping scheme to trade on insider information about impending acquisitions that was stolen from major law firms, according to a court filing Tuesday.

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LEGAL ETHICS

Winston Taylor Seeks Sanction Against Ex-Client Hunter Biden

By Rae Ann Varona

Winston Taylor urged a D.C. state court on Monday to sanction its former client Hunter Biden in its legal bills collection suit, saying the former president's son destroyed Signal communications that would have proved he understood that he owes the law firm more than $50,000.

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TAX

Watchdog Org. Asks Court For Trump-IRS Deal Docs

By Zak Kostro

A watchdog organization asked a D.C. federal court to order the government to disclose communications relating to the settlement between President Donald Trump and the Internal Revenue Service over leaks of his tax information.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Discovery Ruling Shows How Extant Rules Mesh With AI Tools

A California federal court’s recent ruling in Schulte v. LinkedIn reinforces that existing discovery rules can and should accommodate emerging artificial intelligence technologies, providing litigants with confidence that well-designed AI-enabled workflows can satisfy reasonableness and proportionality standards, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

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Opinion

Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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Simpson Thacher Hung Client Out To Dry, Jury Hears

By Madison Arnold

A legal ethics expert told a Florida jury Wednesday that he believes Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's actions when representing Patriot National Inc. constitute legal malpractice leading up to the insurance services company declaring bankruptcy.

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Senate Postpones Key Vote For AG Nominee Blanche

By Courtney Bublé

The committee vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's bid to take the permanent role, slated for Thursday, was postponed after Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., were not fully on board.

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GOP Bill To Curb Judge Shopping May Have Limited Effect

By Courtney Bublé

A Senate Republican has introduced legislation that he says will fix the judge shopping issue, but court observers don't think it will make much of a difference.

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King & Spalding Told To End 'Shenanigans' In Bid To Exit Case

By Brian Steele

The individual defendants in a $300 million fraud lawsuit have accused King & Spalding LLP of appellate "shenanigans" while it seeks to exit the case due to an alleged ethics conflict, claiming the firm has falsely denied representing corporate clients despite an attorney's appearance suggesting otherwise.

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9th Circ. Vacates Orrick Win In Stock Transfer Deal Dispute

By Hailey Konnath

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday reversed a lower court's finding that Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP can't be held liable in a battle over a stock transfer agreement gone awry, ruling that California law does allow a party to the transfer to pursue equitable indemnity in the case.

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DOJ Wants To Let Immigration Judges Fine For Contempt

By Britain Eakin

The Executive Office for Immigration Review proposed a rule Wednesday that would allow immigration judges to impose civil monetary penalties for contempt on attorneys, their noncitizen clients and witnesses, operationalizing a power that has lain dormant since 1996.

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Legal Aid Union Alleges Unlawful Incentives To Break Strike

By Andrea Keckley

The Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem union announced on the third workday of its strike Tuesday that it has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing its management of offering unlawful incentives to cross the picket line.

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Former Trump Lawyer Officially Takes The Helm At SDNY

By Hailey Konnath

James McDonald, a former Sullivan & Cromwell LLP partner who represented President Donald Trump in his appeal of his criminal conviction, was sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday after McDonald's predecessor Jay Clayton departed to serve as director of national intelligence.

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2nd Circ. Backs Ex-Shkreli Atty's 401(k) Restitution Deal

By Lauren Berg

A New York trial judge erred in rejecting a retirement-fund garnishment deal that would have protected Martin Shkreli's convicted former lawyer from tax penalties, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

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DOJ Wants New Judge In Fired Court-Appointed US Atty's Suit

By Jack Karp

A lawsuit from the Seattle U.S. attorney who was swiftly fired from his post by President Donald Trump shortly after being appointed to it by a federal court should be reassigned to a different judge, the administration has told a Washington federal court.

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Segal McCambridge Settles Fired Secretary's Age Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

Law firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney Ltd. has struck a deal to end a New York federal court suit from a former secretary who said her colleagues mistreated her because of her age, according to a Wednesday court filing.

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Comey Rips '86 47' Case, Says Warrants 'Misstated Facts'

By Lauren Berg

James Comey is taking another angle in his effort to dismiss an indictment stemming from a picture of seashells he posted on Instagram, telling a North Carolina federal judge that the government is pursuing the "vindictive" case because of President Donald Trump's "deep-seated animosity" toward the former FBI director.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Anderson & Kreiger

Burns Charest

Clark Smith Villazor

Cohen & Wolf

Conrad & Scherer

Cooley LLP

Cowdery Murphy

Crystal Pettiford Law

Diller Law

Finkelstein & Partners

Finkelstein Blankinship

Gibson Dunn

Goodwin Procter

HGT Law

HKM Employment Attorneys

Healy LLC

Holtzman Vogel

Jones Walker LLP

Katten Muchin

King & Spalding

L'Abbate Balkan

Latham & Watkins

Lennon Murphy

Lowell & Associates

Markun Zusman

Martin G. Weinberg PC

Morrison & Foerster

Munger Tolles

Orrick Herrington

Rivkin Radler

Ropes & Gray

Scalli Murphy Law

Segal McCambridge

Sidley Austin

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Stearns Weaver

Sullivan & Cromwell

V. James DeSimone Law

Wiggin & Dana

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Wilson Sonsini

Winston Taylor

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Air Force One

Brooklyn Defender Services

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington

Citrix Systems Inc.

Enstar Group Ltd.

George Washington University

Gerald Holdings LLC

Getty Images Holdings Inc.

HDR Global Trading Ltd.

Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd.

Instagram Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

LinkedIn Corp.

McDonald's Corp.

Microsoft Corp.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Patriot National Inc.

Poshmark Inc.

Retrophin Inc.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Travere Therapeutics Inc.

Trump Organization Inc.

University of Miami

YouTube Inc.

eBay Inc.

iRobot Corporation

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Supreme Court

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Housing Finance Agency

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

National Labor Relations Board

New York State Assembly

Office of the Director of National Intelligence

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Nevada