SEC Establishes New Accounting Fraud Unit

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that it will create a specialized unit within its enforcement division to focus on fraud and misconduct in accounting, financial reporting and auditing, tapping a former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP lawyer as head of the new unit.

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Senate Panel Presses DOJ Antitrust Pick On Independence

By Matthew Perlman

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, Adam Candeub, faced tough questions Wednesday during a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, where several Democrats challenged his independence.

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Goldman Exec Was Linchpin To Ghana Bribery Ploy, Jury Told

By Stewart Bishop

A federal prosecutor on Wednesday told jurors in Brooklyn that emails and recordings back up allegations a former Goldman Sachs banker was the central player behind a plot to secure a lucrative energy contract by bribing Ghanaian government officials, while the defense argued that a dearth of evidence about illicit payments should doom the case.

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Rozier Pal Accused Of Witness Intimidation Over Rat Emoji

By Phillip Bantz

Prosecutors have urged a New York federal court to revoke the bail of a close associate of ex-NBA player Terry Rozier, alleging he has been trying to intimidate potential witnesses in a sports betting case with threatening messages, including a social media post of a rat emoji.

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Soldier Wants To Fight DOJ, CFTC Maduro Bet Cases At Once

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Army soldier accused of reaping prediction market profits with his knowledge of the January operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wants to fight parallel actions from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Justice Department at once, and contends the government can't use his case as an "experiment" for how to police trading on platforms like Polymarket.

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NY Judge Chucks Voyager's Ch. 11 Plan Exculpations

By Emlyn Cameron

A New York federal judge threw out an exculpatory provision in former cryptocurrency exchange Voyager's Chapter 11, saying that while the language wasn't precluded by a U.S. Supreme Court case, it was nonetheless invalid.

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Crypto Platform Founder Sentenced In Wash-Trading Case

By Carolyn Muyskens

The founder of a cryptocurrency market-making platform avoided prison time as he was sentenced Wednesday in Massachusetts federal court for manipulating crypto markets through illegal wash trading.

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Canadian Man Cops To Extensive Hacking, Extortion Scheme

By Gina Kim

A Canadian man pled guilty Wednesday in Washington federal court over his involvement in a widespread fraud scheme where he and other co-conspirators hacked into computer networks belonging to more than 165 organizations before threatening to leak stolen information unless they made ransom payments.

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Ill. Feds Fight Contempt Proceedings In ICE Protest Case

By Celeste Bott

Federal prosecutors urged an Illinois federal judge Tuesday to reject further hearings and a special prosecutor over grand jury misconduct in a dismissed case against anti-ICE activists, arguing that the dismissal of the charges, the payout of their attorney fees, "substantial" internal reforms and a pending ethics probe render criminal contempt proceedings unnecessary.

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New Mexico Says Blanche, DOJ Blocked Epstein Ranch Probe

By Lauren Berg

The state of New Mexico asked a Washington, D.C., federal court Wednesday to force the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over unredacted Jeffrey Epstein investigative files, saying it needs the materials for its own investigation of alleged crimes at the late sex offender's Santa Fe County ranch.

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Chinese Fiberglass Co. Pays $5M Over PPP Loan Fraud Claim

By Sydney Price

A U.S.-based subsidiary of a Chinese fiberglass manufacturer has agreed to pay $5.1 million to resolve claims that it flouted eligibility requirements to receive a Paycheck Protection Program loan and loan forgiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic, ending a lawsuit brought under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act.

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Convicted Tax-Offender Atty Rebuffed In Bid To Have Firearm

By Michael Nunes

A Connecticut attorney who served prison time for tax offenses cannot proceed with most of a suit that seeks the restoration of his right to possess a firearm, a federal judge said in a ruling Wednesday.

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Texas Man Gets 3½ Years, Must Pay $6M For Fraud Scheme

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado federal judge sentenced a Texas man Wednesday to 3.5 years in prison for his role in the operation and promotion of a multimillion-dollar fraudulent investment fund, ordering nearly $6 million to be paid in restitution.

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Deposit Contracts Do Heavy Lifting As Fraud Moves Upstream

As courts increasingly find that upstream parties are best positioned to detect red flags in fraud disputes, most recently in Yangtze v. Ohio Valley Trackwork, companies should tighten treasury and deposit agreement verification protocols, indemnity terms, and insurance coordination to reduce exposure, says Nadine Dorsht at Stinson.

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Inside SEC Crypto Vault Statement's Securities Law Warning

Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's posture toward crypto products and activities has been more favorable under the current administration, Commissioner Hester Peirce's recent statement on crypto vaults highlights why that posture does not eliminate the need for careful securities law analysis, say attorneys at Skadden.

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DOJ's FCA Push Creates Risks For Construction Contractors

The construction industry may be uniquely vulnerable to a new generation of False Claims Act enforcement driven by the U.S. Department of Justice's increasing usage of the FCA to target a much broader category of conduct than it has in decades past, specifically compliance certifications and regulatory representations, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

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Brown Rudnick Adds 34 Attys, Will Open Silicon Valley Office

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Brown Rudnick LLP announced on Wednesday that it had lured a 34-attorney intellectual property litigation group from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP and would be opening a Silicon Valley office with many of those lawyers.

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Law Grad Employment Remains High As BigLaw Drives Hires

By Aebra Coe

Class of 2025 law school graduates posted near-record high employment rates, with large law firms hiring more graduates than any other industry category as federal government hiring experienced a significant decline, according to new data released Wednesday.

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Analysis

These Firms Are Picking Up The Most PTAB Work

By Theresa Schliep

Intellectual property heavyweight Fish & Richardson PC remains the busiest firm in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, as it again secured the top spot on a list of firms with the most PTAB trials over the past three years.

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Murdaugh Loses Jury Tampering Suit Against Ex-Court Clerk

By Jake Maher

A South Carolina federal judge on Wednesday dismissed disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh's jury tampering suit against a former court clerk who was found to have interfered in his murder trial, ruling there was no connection between his alleged damages and the ex-clerk's misconduct.

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New Mexico Joins States With Alternative Atty License Paths

By Jack Karp

Law school graduates will soon be able to earn their license to practice in New Mexico by working under an attorney's supervision and demonstrating their legal skills rather than by taking the bar exam, the state's Supreme Court chief justice told Law360 Pulse on Wednesday.

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Texas Firm Lands $150M HHS Services Deal For Migrant Kids

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it has entered into a $150 million contract with a small Texas law firm to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children, raising concerns from former subcontractors about the firm's experience with immigration matters.

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Simpson Thacher Witness Takes Aim At PIPE Stocks Claim

By Madison Arnold

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP wrapped up its defense Wednesday to a Florida state malpractice suit from the founder of Patriot National Inc. over the firm's handling of a private investment in public equity transaction, with a stock market expert testifying that short selling stock allowed under the deal didn't lead to the insurance services company's downfall.

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Conn. Atty To Fork Over $3,500 For AI Errors In Taco TM Beef

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge imposed a $3,500 fine on a defense attorney who submitted two motions riddled with AI-generated mistakes in a taco restaurant's trademark battle, finding that although the lawyer expressed remorse and promised to make changes to his verification process, he still showed "subjective bad faith."

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Sierra Leone Isn't Responding To Its Own Attys, Judge Told

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A second law firm now says it is being iced out by the government of Sierra Leone in a yearslong legal battle that began over the country's dispute with a U.K.-based mining company.

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NY Legal Aid Union Averts Strike After 4 Months Of Talks

By Andrea Keckley

Another New York legal aid union has reached a deal with its organization's management, averting the possibility of a strike after its contract and those of four other unions expired at the end of June.

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CREXi Wants 9th Circ. To Undo Quinn Emanuel CoStar Row DQ

By Bryan Koenig

Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. doesn't want to replace Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP after a California federal judge disqualified the firm from defending a copyright infringement suit by CoStar, seeking Ninth Circuit intervention and a pause on the district court case.

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