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White Collar
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April 04, 2024
Ghostwriting Undercut Bar Conflict Safeguards, Report Says
The State Bar of California's former deputy executive director "violated the spirit and undermined the purpose of the Rule 2201 Program," according to a report the state bar commissioned investigating the former director's "ghostwriting" of reports connected to attorney discipline cases where conflicts arise, including one concerning embattled ex-attorney Tom Girardi.
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April 04, 2024
UK Billionaire Lewis Avoids Prison For Insider Trading
A New York federal judge on Thursday sentenced British billionaire Joe Lewis to three years of probation for feeding his girlfriend and private-jet pilots nonpublic stock tips about his private equity firm's portfolio companies, saying a prison term would put the 87-year-old at "serious risk" of death.
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April 04, 2024
Trump Can't Duck Secret Doc Charges On Immunity Grounds
The Florida federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against Donald Trump rejected his bid Thursday to dismiss the criminal indictment against him, saying the charges don't make any reference to the Presidential Records Act that the former president said grants him immunity.
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April 04, 2024
Feds Take $5.7M Worth Of Ore. Properties Used To Grow Pot
Federal prosecutors in Oregon say they have finalized asset forfeiture proceedings against 14 properties, together worth $5.7 million, used to cultivate marijuana that was transported and sold in states where the drug remains illegal.
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April 04, 2024
Jeffrey Clark Violated Ethics Rules, Panel Says
Former U.S. Department of Justice Attorney Jeffrey Clark violated professional conduct rules, a D.C. attorney ethics panel preliminarily found Thursday following a disciplinary hearing centered on Clark's alleged efforts to throw the Justice Department behind former President Donald Trump's election fraud narrative.
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April 04, 2024
CNN Sues DOJ For Biden's Special Counsel Interview Tapes
CNN has hit the U.S. Department of Justice with an open-records suit seeking all audio and video recordings of President Joe Biden's five-hour interview with special counsel Robert Hur last October, saying in D.C. federal court Thursday that they "will help the public evaluate Hur's decision not to charge Biden and to close the investigation into classified documents found at Biden's former office and private residence."
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April 04, 2024
Chief In-House Counsel Indicted Over Fake Law Firm Invoices
A former chief counsel and compliance officer was charged in Manhattan Wednesday with stealing more than $200,000 by submitting fake law firm invoices to his then-employer, human resources consulting firm Segal Co.
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April 04, 2024
Ex-IRS Agent Caused $42.5M In Tax Loss As Preparer, US Says
A tax preparer who once worked for the Internal Revenue Service should be permanently barred from preparing federal returns because he caused an estimated $42.5 million in tax losses by scheming to underestimate his clients' liabilities, the government told a Washington federal court.
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April 04, 2024
Trump's Free Speech Challenge Rejected In Ga. Election Case
A state court judge on Thursday refused to dismiss the indictment charging former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case on First Amendment grounds, saying the charges did not violate their constitutional right to free speech.
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April 03, 2024
2nd Circ. Told FIFA Bribery Convictions Rightly Nixed
A former 21st Century Fox television executive and an Argentine sports marketing company told the Second Circuit that a lower court was right to toss their convictions related to the FIFA corruption scandal, contending that U.S. law does not reach foreign commercial bribery.
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April 03, 2024
Accused 'Shadow Trader' Takes Stand To Slam SEC's Case
A former Medivation executive accused of "shadow trading" when he purchased stock in rival Incyte testified in his California federal civil trial Wednesday that he didn't base that decision on confidential information, and he didn't think even "for one second" that he was violating securities laws.
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April 03, 2024
Police Had It Wrong In Reports On Migrant's Death, Jury Told
An Arizona jury weighing charges that a rancher killed a migrant who was found dead on his property heard Wednesday from the rancher's wife, who was pressed on a discrepancy between officers' reports of how many people she had seen outside that day and her own memory.
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April 03, 2024
NJ Tax Preparer Accused Of $150M COVID Relief Fraud
A New Jersey tax preparer has been indicted over what prosecutors are calling a yearslong scheme in which he filed more than 1,600 bogus tax forms seeking over $150 million in COVID-19-related employment tax credits for his clients and his own businesses that they weren't eligible for, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
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April 03, 2024
OneCoin Atty Gets 4 Years For Role In $4B Crypto Fraud
The former head of legal and compliance at OneCoin on Wednesday was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the $4 billion cryptocurrency scheme that defrauded millions of investors around the world.
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April 03, 2024
UK Billionaire Lewis Agrees To $1.64M Insider Trading Penalty
British billionaire Joseph Lewis has agreed to pay $1.64 million to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's civil claims he fed confidential tips to his personal pilots and then-girlfriend after pleading guilty to related criminal charges earlier this year.
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April 03, 2024
Netflix Libel Trial To Feature Full Central Park 5 Series
Jurors will watch Netflix's entire four-part dramatization of the Central Park Five rape case and exoneration before deciding whether the series defamed a longtime top prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, a New York federal judge ruled Wednesday ahead of the trial.
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April 03, 2024
Trump's Late Immunity Motion Fails To Halt Hush Money Trial
A New York judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's effort to delay his hush money trial based on his claimed presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, keeping the historic case on track for jury selection later this month.
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April 03, 2024
Ga. Man Gets 3 Years In Prison For COVID-19 Fraud Scheme
A metro Atlanta man was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $279,000 in restitution for laundering money procured from fraudulent unemployment claims filed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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April 03, 2024
Chubby Checker Boyhood Home To Sell In Ponzi Receivership
The childhood home of acclaimed '60s rock-and-roller Chubby Checker will get a new owner after a Texas federal court found that a sale is in the best interest of a receivership in a $185 million alleged Ponzi scheme involving two precious metals dealers who swindled senior citizens.
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April 03, 2024
Judge Wary Of Atty's Bid To Cut Sentence For Hiding Assets
A Seventh Circuit judge appeared skeptical Wednesday of an Illinois lawyer's contention that she should not have received an abuse-of-trust sentencing enhancement for helping her brother conceal more than $350,000 in bankruptcy assets, noting she deposited them in her attorney trust account and attempted to assert attorney-client privilege to hide her conduct from the trustee.
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April 03, 2024
Joonko Tells Chancery Ex-CEO Shouldn't Get Legal Fees
Defunct job board startup Joonko, which closed last year after its CEO resigned amid fraud allegations, told Delaware's Court of Chancery on Wednesday that it has no obligation to advance her defense costs in federal government investigations because she is no longer a director or officer of the company.
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April 03, 2024
SEC Investigators Say Attys Harm Clients By 'Behaving Badly'
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff warned attorneys at a Washington, D.C., conference Wednesday that delaying regulatory investigations destroys their credibility and could potentially harm their clients' chances of striking a favorable deal as the agency's Enforcement Division pushes for more cooperation from targeted businesses and individuals.
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April 03, 2024
Amazon Book Scammer Can't Trim Prison Time
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a 16-year prison sentence Tuesday for a man who scammed Amazon by renting textbooks from the e-commerce giant and then selling them at a profit, ultimately costing Amazon approximately $3.2 million.
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April 03, 2024
Trump Ally Brings Ethics Query Over Judge's CNN Interview
An ally of Donald Trump has raised ethics concerns about a senior D.C. federal judge, complaining that the judge's statements on CNN about the former president's statements about the judiciary was "highly prejudicial" toward Trump's four pending criminal cases.
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April 03, 2024
Pharma Exec, Cousin Cop To Insider Trading On Kodak Loan
A pharmaceutical company's executive and his cousin on Wednesday pled guilty to trading on information they acquired through the company's partnership with Eastman Kodak Co. about a government loan the photography giant was set to receive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expert Analysis
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5 Securities Litigation Issues To Watch In 2024
There is yet another exciting year ahead for securities litigation, starting with the U.S. Supreme Court hearing argument next week in a case presenting a key securities class action question that has eluded review for the last eight years, say attorneys at Willkie.
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Expect National Security Scrutiny Of Higher Ed To Continue
In 2023, the federal government significantly elevated the national security responsibilities of academic communities, so universities and research laboratories should take a more rigorous approach to research partnerships, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Must Put Officers On Alert
Recent government actions against FTX and other crypto companies have put a laser focus on corporate compliance failures, with added pressure on compliance officers — making the need for personal risk assessment particularly acute given today's novel anti-money laundering issues, say Poppy Alexander at Constantine Cannon and Caleb Hayes-Deats at MoloLamken.
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What To Know About FCA Cybersecurity Enforcement
Now is a good time for practitioners, government contractors and potential relators to review recent developments in cybersecurity-related False Claims Act enforcement, and consider best practices for navigating this space in the new year, say Ellen London at London & Stout, and Li Yu and Molly Knobler at DiCello Levitt.
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Opinion
Stronger Attorney Rules Are Needed To Avoid A Jan. 6 Repeat
Given the key role lawyers played in the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, the legal profession must shore up its rules before this year’s presidential election to make clear that lawyers who undermine the rule of law will face severe penalties, including disbarment, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.
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What One Litigator Learned Serving On A Jury
Kilpatrick attorney April Isaacson shares insights for trial lawyers from her recent experience serving on a jury for the first time, including lessons about the impact of frequent sidebars, considerations for using demonstratives, the importance of clear jury instructions, and the unconscious habits that can drive jurors mad.
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4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year
As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.
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Bribery Settlement Gives Insight On DOJ Policies
Chemical company Albemarle’s recent $218 million settlement with the government to resolve foreign bribery claims provides valuable data points for companies on the U.S. Department of Justice’s voluntary self-disclosure policy and its clawback pilot program, say Michael DeBernardis and Tiauna Mathieu at Hughes Hubbard.
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SEC Case May Expand Scope Of Insider Trading Liability
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first-of-its-kind enforcement action against an individual in a case involving "shadow trading" demarcates an expansion of insider trading liability to circumstances in which there is a market connection between the source of information and the issuer of the securities traded, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Securities Question Stands After Contradicting Crypto Rulings
The debate about the regulation of crypto-assets came to a head in 2023 when two New York federal judges came to opposite conclusions about whether crypto-assets were securities by using the Howey test, highlighting the uncertainty facing the crypto industry as it seeks to resolve definitional questions, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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What Last Year's Trends Mean For Compliance In 2024
In 2023, compliance teams grappled with questions related to artificial intelligence, data analytics and corporate culture — trends that are likely to become even more prominent in the year to come, says Hui Chen at Ropes & Gray.
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What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like
As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News
Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.
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SDNY Ruling Highlights Fed's Broad Master Account Power
In denying a Puerto Rican bank’s recent motion for injunction against the New York Fed, a New York federal court went beyond the specifics of the case in holding that financial institutions have no statutory right to a master account with a Federal Reserve bank, emphasizing the Fed’s unilateral discretion in these matters, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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4 Ways The DOJ Is Changing Its Approach To Insider Trading
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent increased focus on insider trading cases and the manner in which the DOJ is pursuing prosecutions reflect a break from historical practices and signal that the DOJ is branching into new areas to pursue perceived illicit trading activities, say attorneys at Davis Wright.