White Collar

  • September 06, 2024

    $111M Tax Fraud Scheme's Ringleader Sentenced To 14 Years

    The leader of a scheme to steal the identities of taxpayers and pose as their accountants to commit $111 million in tax fraud was sentenced Friday to more than 14 years in prison by a Texas federal judge, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • September 06, 2024

    CFPB's Zelle Scrutiny Leaves Banks Guessing On Next Moves

    As federal regulators turn up the heat on major banks over long-simmering complaints about fraud and scams on Zelle, the largest U.S. peer-to-peer payments platform, it remains unclear whether more banks could face scrutiny and what they can do to get ahead of it.

  • September 06, 2024

    'He Says, She Says' In Harvey Weinstein's America

    The controversial decision by New York's highest court to overturn Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault conviction has some lawmakers focusing intense new scrutiny on centuries-old legal jurisprudence barring evidence of a defendant's criminal propensity.

  • September 06, 2024

    Split 2nd Circ. OKs Jury Of 11 In Fox News Hosts Threat Case

    A split panel of the Second Circuit on Friday upheld a man's conviction for sending messages threatening two Fox News hosts and two members of Congress, despite the jury only having 11 people.

  • September 06, 2024

    Ex-Union Head's Nephew Eyes Plea Change In Extortion Case

    The nephew of convicted felon and the former business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 is scheduled for a change of plea hearing on extortion charges stemming from allegedly intimidating a contractor on the Live! Casino construction project.

  • September 06, 2024

    Off The Bench: NCAA Flops, NBA Trial, Sunday Ticket Appeal

    In this week's Off The Bench, the $2.78 billion deal to settle a vast class action targeting the NCAA's name, image and likeness compensation rules hits a snag, the NBA and Warner Bros. aim for an April trial in their media rights fight, and NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers look to reinstate their $4.7 billion antitrust victory over the league.

  • September 06, 2024

    SEC Accuses Fla. Men Of Mass Tort Litigation Financing Fraud

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday accused a father and son from Florida of running a fraudulent litigation funding scheme by promising investors returns from financing mass tort litigation they were not actually funding.

  • September 06, 2024

    Trustee Backs Tossing Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO's Ch. 11 Case

    The U.S. Trustee's Office has urged a New Jersey bankruptcy court to dismiss a Chapter 11 petition from McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP's former CFO, who is currently incarcerated for embezzling millions from the firm, because he has stonewalled the trustee's requests for information about his finances.

  • September 06, 2024

    NY Gov. Taps WilmerHale Leader For Counsel Position

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that a WilmerHale partner and leader will be the next counsel to the governor, appointing an attorney who has served as New York deputy attorney general and the attorney general's chief of staff and as senior adviser to the New York City mayor.

  • September 06, 2024

    Trump Sentencing Pushed Back Until After Election

    The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump's hush money case said Friday he will not sentence the former president before Election Day, pushing the hearing date from Sept. 18 to Nov. 26 in an effort to avoid the appearance of political considerations.

  • September 05, 2024

    Menendez Ally Admits To Bank Fraud After Bribery Conviction

    The former Mariner's Bank CEO convicted alongside former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, who prosecutors said took gold bars and other luxuries as bribes, has again pled guilty in a separate case to a bank fraud charge related to a $1.8 million loan he took out in someone else's name, prosecutors announced Thursday.

  • September 05, 2024

    TikToker Conned Followers With Real Estate Fraud, Feds Say

    A social media influencer faces criminal charges and a suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after he allegedly made false claims to investors that money put into purported real estate projects would earn them passive income.

  • September 05, 2024

    Texan Admits Plot To Scam Admitted Scammer George Santos

    Former Congressman George Santos, R-N.Y., on Thursday sat in the gallery during the plea hearing of a Texan who tried to scam the admitted fraudster by falsely claiming he could get Santos' criminal case tossed or upcoming sentence reduced in exchange for cash.

  • September 05, 2024

    CFTC Says Ex-Commish's Signature Was Forged For $1.5M Scam

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued the operator of an unlicensed commodity pool for allegedly targeting dozens of Spanish-speaking immigrants in a $1.5 million Ponzi-like scheme that used a fictitious license containing a counterfeit CFTC seal and a forged commissioner signature to falsely promise investors guaranteed monthly returns.

  • September 05, 2024

    Ex-SEC Enforcement Atty Joins Whistleblower Law Boutique

    Kohn Kohn & Colapinto announced Thursday that a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorney will join the whistleblower law firm as senior special counsel.

  • September 05, 2024

    Conn. Dentist Admits To Reaping $2.2M Through Kickbacks

    A Connecticut dentist has pled guilty to paying $360,000 in kickbacks to recruiters who corralled Medicaid patients into her practice, pocketing $2.2 million in government payments in the process, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced Thursday.

  • September 05, 2024

    Unconstitutionality Of Transparency Act Clear, 11th Circ. Told

    A small business group and one of its members have told the Eleventh Circuit that an Alabama federal judge correctly ruled that the Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional, so there was no need for them to demonstrate that the law fails to pass constitutional muster.

  • September 05, 2024

    KC Chiefs 'Superfan' Gets 17.5 Years For Robberies

    A man widely known as a Kansas City Chiefs superfan nicknamed "ChiefsAholic" was sentenced Thursday to 17 and a half years in prison over charges that he robbed several Midwestern banks and laundered the money through nearby casinos.

  • September 05, 2024

    Circor Dodges SEC Fine As Ex-Exec Faces Falsified Docs Suit

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said industrial valve manufacturer Circor International Inc. has avoided a penalty after it self-reported and remediated an alleged accounting scheme, while the agency sued a former executive accused of falsifying the financial results for one of the company's business units.

  • September 05, 2024

    DA Pans Trump Maneuvering On Hush Money Case Removal

    Attorneys in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told the Second Circuit in a letter Thursday that Donald Trump is mischaracterizing a federal judge's recent order to further his baseless bid to move his hush money case to U.S. district court.

  • September 05, 2024

    Ga. Investment Adviser To Pay $335K To End SEC Suit

    Atlanta-based West Mountain LLC and its director, Paul Alar, will pay $335,000 and take other steps to resolve a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint alleging they fraudulently overvalued assets and collected inflated fees.

  • September 05, 2024

    7th Circ. Doubts JPMorgan Traders' Spoofing Appeal

    The Seventh Circuit seemed skeptical Thursday about three former JPMorgan traders' assertion that evidentiary issues surrounding their underlying spoofing trials warrant unwinding their convictions for manipulating the market with fake orders for precious metals.

  • September 05, 2024

    Colo. Cannabis Co. Manager Stole $150K, Suit Claims

    The two marijuana entrepreneurs behind the Euflora chain are once again back in court, with one of them accusing the other of stealing at least $150,000 from their enterprise, possibly to cover unpaid loans and taxes, according to a lawsuit filed in Colorado state court, which claimed the alleged theft comes after a string of erratic behavior.

  • September 05, 2024

    Russian TV Host, Wife Charged With Dodging Sanctions

    The host of a television show on Russian state-owned network Channel One Russia and his wife were charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and money laundering in a pair of indictments unsealed Thursday.

  • September 05, 2024

    Russia 'History Nerd' Avoids Jail In Probe Of Oligarch Ties

    A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday allowed a Soviet Union-born Russia history buff to avoid time behind bars for lying the FBI about his affiliation with an anti-Ukraine group controlled by indicted Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev.

Expert Analysis

  • Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal

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    Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.

  • Tricky Venue Issues Persist In Fortenberry Prosecution Redo

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    Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was recently indicted for a second time after the Ninth Circuit tossed his previous conviction for improper venue, but the case, now pending in the District of Columbia, continues to illustrate the complexities of proper venue in "false statement scheme" prosecutions, says Kevin Coleman at Covington.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • 6 Lessons From DOJ's 1st Controlled Drug Case In Telehealth

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    Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s first-ever criminal prosecution over telehealth-prescribed controlled substances in U.S. v. Ruthia He, healthcare providers should be mindful of the risks associated with restricting the physician-patient relationship when crafting new business models, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Opinion

    Justices' Malicious-Prosecution Ruling Shows Rare Restraint

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Chiaverini v. City of Napoleon, Ohio, declining to limit malicious-prosecution suits, is a model of judicial modesty and incrementalism, in sharp contrast to the court’s dramatic swings on other rights, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Illinois Chicago Law School.

  • Opinion

    Trump Immunity Ruling Upends Our Constitutional Scheme

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. U.S. decision elevates the president to imperial status and paves the way for nearly absolute presidential immunity from potential criminal prosecutions — with no constitutional textual support, says Paul Berman at the George Washington University Law School.

  • High Court Paves Middle Ground For Proceedings Obstruction

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Fischer sensibly leaves the door open for prosecutors to make more nuanced assessments as to whether defendants' actions directly or tangentially impair the availability or integrity of anything used in an official proceeding, without criminalizing acts such as peaceful demonstrations, say attorneys at Perry Law.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

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    In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.

  • Opinion

    A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week in Trump v. U.S., holding that former President Donald Trump has broad immunity from prosecution, undercuts the rule of law, while the former president’s New York hush money conviction vindicates it in eight key ways, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

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    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

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