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White Collar
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July 09, 2024
4th Circ. Finds No Judicial Bias In DOD Contractor's Sentence
The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a nine-year prison sentence for a North Carolina woman who fraudulently obtained military contracts valued at over $2.2 million, rejecting her argument that the district judge should've recused himself for bias and calling his admonishment during her sentencing "'ordinary,' albeit strongly worded."
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July 09, 2024
Hunter Biden Yanks New Trial Bid Feds Blasted As 'Laughable'
Hunter Biden yanked his bid for a new trial Tuesday that he argued was warranted based on the district court's purported lack of jurisdiction after a jury found him guilty of felony gun charges, retracting his motion and siding with Delaware federal prosecutors' reasoning after they slammed his arguments as "laughable."
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July 09, 2024
Veteran EDNY Federal Prosecutor Joins Covington
The former Criminal Division chief at the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office has returned to private practice as a partner in Covington & Burling LLP's New York office, the firm announced Tuesday.
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July 09, 2024
Disbarred Ohio Atty Cops To Landing Law Jobs With Fake IDs
A disbarred Ohio attorney admitted Tuesday to using false identities — including information belonging to his father, girlfriend and a dead man — to snag high-paying gigs or job offers from at least seven different law firms, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
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July 09, 2024
NY Judge In Trump Case OKs Narrow Subpoena For Atty
An attorney who told reporters he held an impromptu hallway conversation with a New York state judge in the lead-up to February's $464.6 million civil fraud judgment against Donald Trump must turn over any communications he had with the court regarding the underlying action, according to a Tuesday ruling.
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July 09, 2024
Judge Greenlights New Defamation Claims In Sabotage Suit
A couple accused of sabotaging a North Carolina software company can countersue its co-founder and his wife for defamation, a state Business Court judge ruled Tuesday, casting aside concerns that allowing new claims at this late stage will delay the upcoming trial.
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July 09, 2024
Indicted Ex-Conn. Official Drops Greece Vacation Plan
Ex-Connecticut budget official Konstantinos "Kosta" Diamantis on Tuesday dropped his request for a federal judge's permission to travel to Greece while he is under indictment, withdrawing his motion one day after prosecutors objected.
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July 09, 2024
5th Circ. Presses SEC On Whistleblower Award Calculation
The Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of shortchanging two whistleblowers who uncovered the largest fraud in Texas history, with one judge pressing the agency's attorney over how much money it was able to collect after the fraudster declared bankruptcy.
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July 09, 2024
Feds Say Pa. Headstone Seller Scammed Bereaved Of $1.5M
An Upper Merion, Pennsylvania, man already awaiting trial in state court now faces federal wire fraud charges after prosecutors said his family business selling headstones took in more than $1.5 million in up-front payments for grave markers that were never delivered to customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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July 09, 2024
NJ Jury Begins Deliberating COVID Test Kit Fraud Case
Jurors began deliberating Tuesday in the retrial of a securities fraud case that ended with a dramatic mistrial after a juror announced in open court last December that he disagreed with the guilty verdict that had just been delivered by the jury forewoman.
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July 09, 2024
Yellen Says Customer Due Diligence Proposal Planned For Fall
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told members of Congress Tuesday that her department is aiming to release a proposal this fall to revise the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's customer due diligence rule, while facing criticism over "duplicative" reporting regimes.
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July 09, 2024
Boeing, DOJ Say 737 Max Families Can't Rush Monitor Pick
Boeing has told a Texas federal judge that 737 Max crash victims' families cannot rush the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the company's safety and compliance efforts, saying its new tentative plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice adequately addresses the monitorship issue.
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July 09, 2024
Menendez Atty Accuses Feds Of 'Trickery' As Trial Nears End
The bribery case against Sen. Bob Menendez is being "fudged" to compensate for pervasive gaps in evidence, his counsel told a federal jury in Manhattan at the start of defense closing arguments Tuesday.
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July 09, 2024
Feds Seek 37 Mos. For Tippee In JPMorgan Insider Case
California federal prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence for a Los Angeles man who was found guilty of trading on privileged information supplied by a childhood friend who was an analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC, saying that his repeated lies under oath suggest he does not fully understand the consequences of his actions.
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July 09, 2024
2 Cooperators In Bankman-Fried Case To Be Sentenced In Fall
Two former FTX executives who pled guilty and testified for the government at the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange's founder, will be sentenced this fall, a New York federal judge said Tuesday.
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July 09, 2024
No Conflict For Ballard Spahr In Ex-Union Leader's Bribe Case
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Tuesday rejected a claim by former Philadelphia union leader and convicted felon John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty that his Ballard Spahr LLP defense team marred its representation of him in a bribery prosecution because of a conflict of interest with Comcast.
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July 09, 2024
Ex-DOJ Atty Tells Guo Jury Of Illicit Extradition Campaign
Prominent Chinese Communist Party critic Miles Guo capped off his defense to $1 billion fraud charges Tuesday with testimony from a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney, who admitted to participating in a plot to lobby the U.S. government for Guo's extradition to China.
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July 09, 2024
Meet Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' Shooting Defense Team
Facing a high-profile trial this week on involuntary manslaughter charges and the possibility of prison time, Alec Baldwin has turned to an eclectic group of defense attorneys who have represented Jay-Z and Elon Musk, recovered the art of Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, and last year secured an acquittal in another shooting case.
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July 09, 2024
5th Circ. Indicates Skepticism In Brett Favre Defamation Case
The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday seemed skeptical that comments made by former NFL star Shannon Sharpe about Brett Favre's alleged involvement in a massive Mississippi welfare fraud scheme amounted to defamation, pressing Favre's attorney over why the retired NFL quarterback didn't sue over Sharpe's more emotionally charged statements.
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July 09, 2024
Young Thug Wants To DQ Prosecutors Over Secret Meeting
Atlanta rapper Young Thug has called for the removal of two Fulton County prosecutors from his racketeering trial, arguing that a transcript of a secret meeting involving those prosecutors, a Georgia state judge and a key witness has revealed they unethically persuaded the witness to reconsider and testify against the rapper.
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July 09, 2024
Weinstein May Face Nov. Retrial As DA Vets New Rape Claims
Manhattan prosecutors Tuesday said November is a "realistic" date for Harvey Weinstein's retrial on rape charges as they continue to investigate new claims that the disgraced Hollywood producer assaulted other women, saying they expect to seek a superseding indictment by late September.
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July 09, 2024
Akin Adds DOJ Atty As White Collar Defense Partner In DC
An experienced U.S. Department of Justice attorney who most recently served as an assistant chief of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit has returned to private practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
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July 09, 2024
Medical Office Manager Gets 5 Years For Tax, Mail Fraud
The former office manager of an Illinois medical practice was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution — most of it to his former employer — after admitting to filing a false tax return and stealing from the practice.
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July 09, 2024
'ComEd Four' To Renew Acquittal Bid After Bribery Ruling
An Illinois federal judge effectively pushed the next ruling in the criminal case against former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore and her three co-defendants to at least winter, as the defendants vowed to renew their acquittal bid in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling finding that federal bribery law doesn't criminalize rewards given after an official act.
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July 09, 2024
Estate Atty Settles Claims She Stole From Incarcerated Man
A previously incarcerated man has dismissed malpractice claims he filed in Michigan federal court against an attorney, alleging she skimmed money he received from his mother's estate.
Expert Analysis
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SEC Off-Channel Comms Action Hints At Future Enforcement
Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent enforcement action against Senvest does not shed light on how the agency will calibrate penalties related to off-channel communications violations, it does suggest that we may see more cases against standalone investment advisers, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Perspectives
Criminal Defendants Should Have Access To Foreign Evidence
A New Jersey federal court recently ordered prosecutors to obtain evidence from India on behalf of the former Cognizant Technology executives they’re prosecuting — a precedent that other courts should follow to make cross-border evidentiary requests more fair and efficient, say Kaylana Mueller-Hsia and Rebecca Wexler at UC Berkeley School of Law.
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McKesson May Change How AKS-Based FCA Claims Are Pled
The Second Circuit’s analysis in U.S. v. McKesson, an Anti-Kickback Statute-based False Claims Act case, provides guidance for both relators and defendants parsing scienter-related allegations, say Li Yu at Dicello Levitt, Ellen London at London & Stout, and Erica Hitchings at Whistleblower Law.
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Series
Being An Equestrian Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond getting experience thinking on my feet and tackling stressful situations, the skills I've gained from horseback riding have considerable overlap with the skills used to practice law, particularly in terms of team building, continuing education, and making an effort to reset and recharge, says Kerry Irwin at Moore & Van Allen.
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Teach Your Party Representative The Art Of Nonverbal Cues
As illustrated by recent reports about President Donald Trump’s nonverbal communication in court, jurors notice what’s happening at counsel table, which may color their perceptions of the case as a whole, so trial attorneys should teach party representatives to self-monitor their nonverbal behaviors, says Clint Townson at Townson Consulting.
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Georgia's Foreign Lobbying Bill Is Not A FARA Copycat
Though a recently passed bill in Georgia aims to mirror the transparency goals of the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act by imposing state-specific disclosure requirements for foreign lobbyists, the legislation’s broad language and lack of exemptions could capture a wider swath of organizations, say attorneys at Holtzman Vogel.
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4 Ways To Refresh Your Law Firm's Marketing Strategy
With many BigLaw firms relying on an increasingly obsolete marketing approach that prioritizes stiff professionalism over authentic connection, adopting a few key communications strategies to better connect with today's clients and prospects can make all the difference, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law.
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Tips For Balanced Board Oversight After A Cyberincident
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's cybersecurity disclosure rules, as well as recent regulatory enforcement actions bringing board governance under scrutiny, continue to push boards toward active engagement in relation to their cyber-oversight role, despite it being unclear what a board's level of involvement should be, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Breaking Down DOJ's Individual Self-Disclosure Pilot Program
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently announced pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to voluntarily self-disclose corporate misconduct they were personally involved in, complementing a new whistleblower pilot program for individuals not involved in misconduct as well as the government's broader corporate enforcement approach, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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Ensuring Nonpublic Info Stays Private Amid SEC Crackdown
Companies and individuals must take steps to ensure material nonpublic information remains confidential while working outside the office, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to take enforcement actions against those who trade on MNPI and don't comply with new off-channel communications rules in the remote work era, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Opinion
Seafarer Detention Under Ship Pollution Law Must Have Limits
The U.S. Coast Guard should reinstate limits on the number of days that foreign crew members may be forced to remain in the country while the U.S. Department of Justice investigates alleged violations of shipping pollution laws, in order to balance legitimate enforcement interests and seafarer welfare, say attorneys at Blank Rome.
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Perspectives
Justices' Forfeiture Ruling Resolves Nonexistent Split
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McIntosh v. U.S., holding that a trial court’s failure to enter a preliminary criminal forfeiture order prior to sentencing doesn’t bar its entry later, is unusual in that it settles an issue on which the lower courts were not divided — but it may apply in certain forfeiture disputes, says Stefan Cassella at Asset Forfeiture Law.
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Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape
The Second Circuit's recent decision in Williams v. Binance highlights the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank ruling to digital assets, and illustrates how Morrison's territorial limits on the federal securities laws have become convoluted, say Andrew Rhys Davies and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.
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IRS Sings New Tune: Whistleblower Form Update Is Welcome
In a significant reform at the Internal Revenue Service's Whistleblower Office, the recently introduced revisions to the Form 211 whistleblower award application use new technology and a more intuitive approach to streamline the process of reporting allegations of tax fraud committed by wealthy individuals and companies, says Benjamin Calitri at Kohn Kohn.
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Strategies For Challenging A Fla. Grand Jury Report's Release
A Florida grand jury’s recent report on potential wrongdoing related to COVID-19 vaccines should serve as a reminder to attorneys to review the myriad legal mechanisms available to challenge the lawfulness of a grand jury report’s publication and expunge the names of their clients, says Cary Aronovitz at Holland & Knight.