White Collar

  • May 29, 2025

    Lindberg Can't Skirt $122M Contempt Order, NC Panel Told

    Insurance companies that convicted billionaire Greg Lindberg allegedly bled dry told the North Carolina Court of Appeals not to let him duck a $122 million contempt order, saying he didn't even show up for the hearing and has done nothing since to purge his contempt.

  • May 29, 2025

    Javice Request To Sink Guilty Verdict Turned Aside By Judge

    A Manhattan federal judge declined on Thursday to toss a verdict convicting Frank founder Charlie Javice of tricking JPMorgan Chase into buying the student aid startup for $175 million, saying he properly declined to sever her trial from that of her co-defendant.

  • May 29, 2025

    Ex-Goldman Partner, Star Witness In 1MDB Trial, Gets 2 Years

    Former Goldman Sachs partner and star 1MDB prosecution witness Tim Leissner was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for his role in a global conspiracy to siphon more than $2.7 billion for bribes and kickbacks from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund in order to facilitate Goldman-backed bond deals.

  • May 28, 2025

    FBI Misled Court In Russia Sanctions Probe, Judge Rules

    Federal prosecutors cannot use certain evidence to prove charges that a Russian bank executive dodged sanctions because an FBI agent "recklessly omitted material facts" from the related warrant application, a New York federal judge ruled.

  • May 28, 2025

    Flooring Co. Faces Trafficking, Forced Labor Suit In Ga.

    An Oregon-based flooring manufacturer has been sued in Georgia federal court by a group of Chinese nationals who allege they were brought to the U.S. to work at a flooring manufacturing facility in Cartersville, Georgia, then exploited, underpaid and subjected to forced labor.

  • May 28, 2025

    Law Firm's Suit Against AIG Unit Cut Down To Contract Claims

    A Florida federal judge on Wednesday trimmed a law firm's suit claiming an AIG unit allegedly misled it into representing a sports memorabilia collector in underlying civil and criminal fraud cases without payment.

  • May 28, 2025

    1st Circ. Revives Hedge Fund Priest's SEC Fee Bid

    A Greek Orthodox priest and hedge fund founder who partially defeated an SEC suit at trial will have his request the agency pay his attorney fees reconsidered following a First Circuit ruling that a lower court should consider the gap between the SEC's requested relief and the relief it obtained.

  • May 28, 2025

    SEC Says Florida Adviser Targeted Catholics In $17.3M Fraud

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused a former investment adviser and his two Florida companies of misappropriating $17.3 million from dozens of clients, including elderly individuals and Catholic dioceses in Venezuela.

  • May 28, 2025

    Regeneron Urges Judge In FCA Kickback Suit To Set Trial Date

    Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday pressed a Massachusetts federal judge to ready a long-running False Claims Act suit for a jury and reject the government's second bid for a pretrial win under a different legal theory following a First Circuit setback.

  • May 28, 2025

    Stay Won't Be Lifted On Claims Over $93M Real Estate Fraud

    Victims of a $93 million Miami real estate development scheme won't be able to pursue their claims — at least for now — against the company's former CEO after a Florida federal judge on Wednesday denied their request to lift a stay on litigation during a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission receivership.

  • May 28, 2025

    Execs Smuggled Billions In Goods To Skirt Duties, Feds Say

    Two California shipping company executives have been charged with smuggling billions of dollars' worth of goods from the United States into Mexico — avoiding millions of dollars in duties to Mexico — using bogus documents, shell companies, bribes to public officials and kickbacks to drug cartels.

  • May 28, 2025

    French Duo Can't Escape SEC's $40M Real Estate Fraud Suit

    Two French half-brothers whom the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused of misappropriating $40 million from investors in a real estate investment fraud scheme lost their bid to get the suit tossed, with a Florida federal judge ruling Wednesday that the investment contracts at issue in the suit qualify as securities.

  • May 28, 2025

    Cannabis Cos. Eye High Court Review After 1st Circ. Decision

    The First Circuit's decision upholding the dismissal of a splashy federal case challenging the national ban on marijuana was all but inevitable given the controlling case law on the issue, which can only be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts and cannabis attorneys told Law360.

  • May 28, 2025

    Amtrak Worker Admits To Part In $11M Benefits Fraud Scheme

    A New Jersey-based Amtrak employee has pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the passenger railroad's health plan for an estimated $11 million in benefits, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced Wednesday.

  • May 28, 2025

    'ComEd Four' Denied New Trial After High Court Ruling

    An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion by Commonwealth Edison Co.'s former CEO and lobbyists to throw out their corruption convictions in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court false-statement ruling, saying the jury made a "reasonable call" that they falsified internal records to hide the steering of benefits to ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

  • May 28, 2025

    Sens. Urge Treasury To Rescind Ownership Reporting Rule

    A bipartisan duo from the Senate Finance Committee has urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to fully implement the Corporate Transparency Act, criticizing an interim final rule that exempts domestic businesses from contested reporting regulations.

  • May 28, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Pot Smell Needs Link To Suspect For Search

    A Third Circuit panel on Wednesday found that the smell of cannabis alone is not enough to establish probable cause to arrest or search a person unless it can be linked by the arresting officer to the suspect.

  • May 28, 2025

    Security Exec Gets $20K Fine For Rigging DOD Contracts

    A former executive with a Belgian security company pled guilty to antitrust violations Wednesday in D.C. federal court, receiving a sentence of probation and a $20,000 fine for conspiring with rivals to rig bids for U.S. Department of Defense contracts in Belgium.

  • May 28, 2025

    DOJ Says Justices' Ruling Backs Nursing Exec's Conviction

    The U.S. Department of Justice is pointing to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to bolster its fight against a new trial being sought by a convicted Nevada nursing home executive, saying that the new high court decision establishes that economic loss isn't needed to prove wire fraud.

  • May 28, 2025

    Ohio Exec Pleads Guilty In Ponzi Scheme Investigation

    A Toledo, Ohio, investment firm executive has copped to a role in a purported Ponzi scheme that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said bilked investors out of $72 million.

  • May 28, 2025

    Vt. Judge To Order Release Of Harvard Researcher

    A Vermont federal judge on Wednesday said a Harvard Medical School researcher and Russian national accused of smuggling frog embryos into the United States is entitled to release from immigration custody while she challenges her detention.

  • May 28, 2025

    IUOE Ex-Leader Pardoned In DOL Disclosure Case, Attys Say

    President Donald Trump has pardoned a former International Union of Operating Engineers president who was facing the prospect of six months in prison for accepting free sports tickets without disclosing their value to the U.S. Department of Labor, his attorneys told a Washington, D.C., federal judge Wednesday.

  • May 28, 2025

    4th Circ. Backs 5-Year Sentence In $9.3M Ponzi Scheme

    The Fourth Circuit stood by a lower court's decision to imprison a North Carolina man for 63 months after he pled guilty to wire fraud and "use of manipulative and deceptive devices," concluding that the sentence is not unreasonable and was ordered after proper consideration of the public interest.

  • May 28, 2025

    One Convicted For Role In €195M VAT Fraud Scheme

    A Munich court convicted a man for his role in a value-added tax fraud scheme that spanned 17 countries and caused an estimated €195 million ($220 million) in damages, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.

  • May 28, 2025

    DC Circ. Denies Steve Bannon's Bid For En Banc Rehearing

    Right-wing media figure Steve Bannon, who was a chief strategist during the first Trump administration, has been rebuffed in his bid for an en banc rehearing at the D.C. Circuit on his contempt of Congress conviction, a move his legal team deemed "overriding politicalization."

Expert Analysis

  • UK Refusal Of US Extradition Request May Set New Standard

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    The recent U.K. Supreme Court ruling in El-Khouri v. U.S., denying a U.S. extradition request, overturns a long-held precedent and narrows how U.K. courts must decide such requests, potentially signaling a broader reevaluation of U.K. extradition law, say lawyers at Dechert and Kingsley Napley.

  • Why A Rare SEC Dismissal May Not Reflect A New Approach

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's pending dismissal of its case against Silver Point is remarkable to the extent that it reflects a novel repudiation of a decision made during the prior commission, a deeper look suggests it may not represent a shift in policy approach, say attorneys at Weil.

  • Deficiency Trends In National Futures Association Exams

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    A recent notice from the National Futures Association outlining the most common deficiencies uncovered during exams gives member firms an opportunity to review prior guidance, particularly regarding the hot topic of implementing procedures governing the use of outsourced service providers, say attorneys at Akin.

  • A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing

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    U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.

  • A Closer Look At Money Laundering Sentencing Issues

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    Federal money laundering cases are on the rise, often involving lengthy prison sentences for defendants who have little to no criminal history, but a closer look at the statistics and case law reveal some potentially valuable arguments that defense attorneys should keep in their arsenal, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • How To Create A Unique Jury Profile For Every Case

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    Instead of striking potential jurors based on broad stereotypes or gut feelings, trial attorneys should create case-specific risk profiles that address the political climate, the specific facts of the case and the venue in order to more precisely identify higher-risk jurors, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Why NY May Want To Reconsider Its LLC Transparency Law

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    Against the backdrop of the myriad challenges to the federal Corporate Transparency Act, it may be prudent for New York to reconsider its adoption of the LLC Transparency Act, since it's unclear whether the Empire State's "baby-CTA" statute is still necessary or was passed prematurely, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Considerations As Trump Admin Continues To Curtail CFPB

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.

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