White Collar

  • May 23, 2025

    Calif. Developer Duped Churchgoers In $46M Scam, Feds Say

    A Sonoma, California, real estate developer faces federal wire fraud and money laundering charges in connection with claims he duped hundreds of would-be investors — some of whom are described in court filings as elderly members of his church congregation — into giving him over $46 million as purported investments in certain real estate limited partnerships that their funds were never actually invested in.

  • May 23, 2025

    Banking Groups Want SEC To Pull Cyber Disclosure Mandates

    A group of banking trade associations has called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to rescind a Biden-era mandate requiring public companies to disclose certain cybersecurity incidents, arguing it increases companies' risk when they fall victim to cyberattacks.

  • May 23, 2025

    Alleged Forex Scammers Owe $18.5M In CFTC Default Win

    A pair of entities purporting to be commodity trading platforms and the duo that allegedly controlled them have been hit with an order saddling them with restitution and civil penalty obligations totaling nearly $18.5 million after ignoring claims brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

  • May 23, 2025

    DOJ, Boeing Reach Deal To Drop 737 Max Criminal Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it won't criminally prosecute Boeing over the deadly 737 Max crashes after reaching a deal that saves the American aerospace giant from being branded a corporate felon in exchange for approximately $1.1 billion in fines, penalties and victims compensation.

  • May 23, 2025

    Atty, Stepdaughter Face $600K Workers' Comp Fraud Charges

    The Orange County District Attorney's Office has charged a California attorney and his stepdaughter with conspiring to defraud a police department she was employed at by filing fraudulent workers' compensation payments.

  • May 23, 2025

    Ill. Justices Ice Attys Who Stacked Jobs, Flubbed Cases

    A lawyer who triple-dipped jobs against Illinois attorney general rules and another who collected excessive fees and mishandled two clients' criminal matters were included alongside several other attorneys named in the Illinois Supreme Court's latest disciplinary order.

  • May 23, 2025

    Ex-McKinsey Exec Sentenced For Obstructing Purdue Probe

    A Virginia federal judge has sentenced a disbarred attorney and former McKinsey & Co. partner to six months in prison for obstructing an investigation into the consulting giant's work with opioid manufacturer Purdue, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

  • May 23, 2025

    Biotech Insider Traded On $3.5B Novartis Deal, Feds Say

    A former board member at Chinook Therapeutics orchestrated an insider-trading scheme after learning about Novartis' plans to purchase the biotech company for $3.5 billion in 2023, according to an indictment announced Friday.

  • May 23, 2025

    Staffing Co. Owner Gets 8 Years For $60M Payroll Tax Fraud

    The owner of California staffing companies who admitted to a long-running payroll tax fraud that caused roughly $60 million in tax losses was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $38 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

  • May 23, 2025

    Judge Strikes Down Trump Order Against Jenner & Block

    Jenner & Block LLP on Friday defeated a Trump administration executive order suspending security clearances for its employees in retaliation for its pro bono work and for a former partner's work with former special counsel Robert Mueller.

  • May 23, 2025

    Split DC Circ. Affirms Ax Of Ex-Trump Aide's Surveillance Suit

    A split D.C. Circuit affirmed Friday the dismissal of claims by former Trump 2016 campaign adviser Carter Page that the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI and former top officials violated privacy statutes in surveilling him as part of a Russian election interference probe.

  • May 23, 2025

    Grassley Slams Durbin Over Holds On US Attorney Nominees

    Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, slammed his Democratic counterpart on Friday for holding up U.S. attorney nominations.

  • May 23, 2025

    Former AG Garland Returns To Arnold & Porter

    Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has returned to Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, where he worked early in his career, the firm announced Friday.

  • May 23, 2025

    Lindberg Urges NC Panel To Rebuff 'Ambush' Sanctions Bid

    A convicted billionaire seeking to unravel a receivership order against him has urged the North Carolina Court of Appeals not to scrap his case as a sanction for alleged procedural violations, saying the only gamesmanship afoot is opposing counsel's monthslong "radio silence."

  • May 23, 2025

    Alarms Sound As DOJ Anti-Corruption Unit Withers

    Created in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal as a guardrail against government corruption and politically motivated criminal prosecutions, the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section has been stripped down under the Trump administration to a skeleton crew with severely limited responsibilities, potentially opening the door for improper prosecutions and eliminating a knowledge base built up over decades.

  • May 22, 2025

    SEC Drops Dealer Suits In 'Astonishing' Move, Crenshaw Says

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday dropped several suits targeting businesses for failing to register as securities "dealers" with the agency as required by law, a move that the SEC's sole Democratic commissioner called "astonishing."

  • May 22, 2025

    Lottery.com Execs Cop To Securities Fraud In SPAC Case

    Two former Lottery.com executives pled guilty Thursday to their role in a scheme to fraudulently inflate reported revenues in a 2021 take-public deal involving the mobile and online lottery gaming platform company.

  • May 22, 2025

    California City Cleared In Employment Discrimination Trial

    A Los Angeles jury cleared the city of Baldwin Park, California, of liability on Thursday in a wrongful-termination suit by a former longtime employee who claimed that she was forced to resign after complaining about race and gender bias and misuse of federal housing funds.

  • May 22, 2025

    What's Next As DOJ Mulls Dropping Boeing Criminal Case

    Boeing might be on the verge of closing a chapter in its 737 Max legal saga as the U.S. Department of Justice contemplates dropping its criminal conspiracy case against the company in what experts described as an unprecedented move just a year after Boeing was preparing to be branded a corporate felon.

  • May 22, 2025

    Ex-CEO Says Arrow Exec Joined Fraud After Pay Frustrations

    The former CEO of a Colorado database company who pleaded guilty to a scheme to steal almost $2 million from Arrow Electronics testified on Thursday that his alleged co-conspirator at the company became a mutual collaborator in the fraud because he was unhappy with his pay and long hours.

  • May 22, 2025

    Ex-Harvard Morgue Manager Cops To Trafficking Body Parts

    A former manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue pled guilty on Wednesday to trafficking human remains donated for research, including brains and skin, that he stole from the morgue as part of a nationwide scheme that prosecutors said had many body parts resold.

  • May 22, 2025

    7th Circ. Wary Of Crypto Fund Owner's Appeal Of $231M Fine

    A Seventh Circuit panel on Thursday pressed counsel for a cryptocurrency fund operator challenging a $231 million judgment for running a Ponzi scheme to address whether he'd waived his argument that the digital tokens his funds invested in aren't "commodities" subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by not raising it in the lower court.

  • May 22, 2025

    Sen. Durbin Holds Up Florida US Attorney Nominee

    Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Thursday he will be holding up President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney nominee for the Southern District of Florida, blaming precedent set by Vice President JD Vance when he was in the Senate.

  • May 22, 2025

    Asphalt Exec Gets 6 Months For $22M Bid-Rigging Scheme

    A Michigan federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former asphalt paving company president to six months in prison, saying the roughly $22 million in contracts that his involvement in a bid-rigging scheme earned his company warrants prison time to deter white-collar crime.

  • May 22, 2025

    At NY Show, The Trial Is Fake But The Entertainment Is Real

    Playing at Irondale in Brooklyn, production company Fever's "The Jury Experience" seeks to capitalize on the trend of immersive, interactive entertainment by giving members of the public a chance to take part in something conventional wisdom says they'd normally try to avoid — jury duty.

Expert Analysis

  • Considerations As Trump Admin Continues To Curtail CFPB

    Author Photo

    Recent sweeping moves from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new leadership have signaled a major shift in the agency's trajectory, and regulated entities should prepare for broader implications in both the near and long term, say attorneys at Pryor Cashman.

  • How Foreign Cos. Should Prep For New UK Fraud Law

    Author Photo

    As the U.K. prepares to hold companies criminally liable for failing to prevent fraudulent acts of their associates, U.S. and global companies should review their compliance measures against the broad language of this new offense, which could permit prosecution of acts committed entirely abroad, say attorneys at Latham & Watkins.

  • What's Potentially In Store For CFTC Under New Leadership

    Author Photo

    Under the leadership of acting U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Caroline Pham, and with the nomination of former commissioner Brian Quintenz to serve as permanent chair, the commission is set to widely embrace digital assets and event contracts, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Recent Cases Clarify FCA Kickback Pleading Standards

    Author Photo

    Two recently resolved cases involving pharmaceutical manufacturers may make it more difficult for False Claims Act defendants facing kickback scheme allegations to get claims dismissed for lack of evidence, say Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz, Ellen London at London & Noar, and Gregg Shapiro at Gregg Shapiro Law.

  • 2 Practical Ways For Banks To Battle Elder Financial Abuse

    Author Photo

    Federal regulators' recent statement raising awareness of elder financial exploitation provides a useful catalog of techniques that banks can employ to fight fraud, particularly encouraging older account holders to establish trusted contacts and sharing timely warnings about the latest scams with customers, say attorneys at Nutter.

  • 3 Ways Civil Plaintiffs Could Fill An FCPA Enforcement Gap

    Author Photo

    While the Department of Justice recently announced it would deprioritize Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations into U.S. businesses without obvious ties to international crime, companies should stay alert to private plaintiffs, who could fill this enforcement void — and win significant civil damages — through several legal channels, says Eric Nitz at MoloLamken.

  • Examining Trump Meme Coin And SEC's Crypto Changes

    Author Photo

    While the previous U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tended to view most crypto-assets as securities, the tide is rapidly changing, and hopefully the long-needed reevaluation of this regulatory framework is not tarnished by an arguable conflict of interest due to President Donald Trump's affiliation with the $Trump meme coin, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • Opinion

    State FCAs Should Cover Local Fund Misuse, State Tax Fraud

    Author Photo

    New Jersey and other states with similar False Claims Acts should amend them to cover misappropriated municipal funding, and state and local tax fraud, which would encourage more whistleblowers to come forward and increase their recoveries, says Kenneth Levine at Stone & Magnanini.

  • New Fla. Financial Abuse Law May See Limited Buy-In

    Author Photo

    Florida's newly effective financial protection law comes with compliance burdens and uncertainties that could discourage financial institutions from participating, even though the law aims to shield them from liability for delaying transactions when they suspect exploitation of elderly and vulnerable account holders, say attorneys at Shutts & Bowen.

  • 7 Tips For Associates To Thrive In Hybrid Work Environments

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
    Author Photo

    As the vast majority of law firms have embraced some type of hybrid work policy, associates should consider a few strategies to get the most out of both their in-person and remote workdays, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.

  • White Collar Archetypes: Wrangling The Shape-Shifter

    Author Photo

    In white collar criminal trials, certain pieces of evidence can shape-shift in the jury’s eyes, presenting both challenges and opportunities for defense counsel, says Jack Sharman at Lightfoot Franklin.

  • Series

    Playing Beach Volleyball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    My commitment to beach volleyball has become integral to my performance as an attorney, with the sport continually reminding me that teamwork, perseverance, professionalism and stress management are essential to both undertakings, says Amy Drushal at Trenam.

  • How GSA Lease Clauses May Affect DOGE Terminations

    Author Photo

    The Department of Government Efficiency has begun to cut the U.S. General Services Administration's enormous real estate portfolio, but some standard lease clauses include limits helpful to landlords that may slow progress toward the administration's cost-cutting goals, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Managing Anti-Corporate Juror Views Revealed By CEO Killing

    Author Photo

    After the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson laid bare deep-seated anti-corporate sentiments among the public, companies in numerous industries will have to navigate the influence of related juror biases on litigation dynamics, say Jorge Monroy and Keith Pounds at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Terraform Case May Be Bellwether For Crypto Enforcement

    Author Photo

    The prosecution of crypto company Terraform Labs and its CEO, Do Kwon, offers a unique test of the line between lawful and unlawful conduct in digital transactions, and the Trump administration’s posture toward the case will provide clues about its cryptocurrency enforcement agenda in the years to come, say attorneys at Brooks Pierce.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the White Collar archive.