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White Collar
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August 06, 2024
NYC Prof Found Guilty Of Acting As A Secret Chinese Spy
A Brooklyn federal jury on Tuesday unanimously convicted an academic and author of secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government by feeding information about Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists to China's intel service, following a weeklong jury trial, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
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August 06, 2024
7th Circ. Upholds Bitcoin Fraudster's 8-Year Sentence
The Seventh Circuit on Monday rejected the resentencing bid of a Nigerian man serving eight years in prison for carrying out an $8 million bitcoin fraud scheme, saying a lower court properly considered that he tried but failed to steal more than $51 million in crafting the appropriate sentencing range for his type of crime.
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August 06, 2024
Powell, Trump Attys Seek To Halt Mich. Bar Discipline Cases
Sidney Powell and other attorneys behind a legal challenge to Michigan's 2020 presidential election results want bar discipline proceedings paused while they ask the Michigan Supreme Court to step in and dismiss the professional misconduct complaints.
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August 06, 2024
Ex-Pfizer Worker Who Traded On Paxlovid Secrets Gets 9 Mos.
A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a former Pfizer Inc. statistician from New Jersey to nine months in prison Tuesday after a jury convicted him of insider trading on secrets about his former company's COVID-19 therapy trials for an illegal $272,000 profit.
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August 06, 2024
39 Law Firms Call On 6th Circ. To Reverse FirstEnergy Ruling
Dozens of law firms have signed on to an amicus curiae brief urging the Sixth Circuit to reverse a decision in a FirstEnergy shareholder litigation, the latest voices in the legal, insurance and business communities to call on the appellate court to reverse an Ohio federal judge's ruling they warn will threaten attorney-client privilege.
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August 06, 2024
'Rust' Prosecutor Says Confused Judge Tossed Baldwin Case
A New Mexico prosecutor has denied hiding exculpatory evidence or lying under oath during Alec Baldwin's botched trial in the "Rust" shooting, contending in a court filing that a confused judge wrongly threw out involuntary manslaughter charges against the actor.
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August 06, 2024
Feds Say Marathon Bomber Can't Oust Judge Amid Retrial Bid
Federal prosecutors said lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev misconstrued a local rule in seeking a different judge to consider his bid for a new sentencing trial.
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August 06, 2024
NC Software Execs Can't Unravel Payroll Tax Fraud Conviction
Two former software executives found guilty of failing to pay over $600,000 in employment taxes failed to clear a steep hurdle in trying to reverse their convictions, a North Carolina federal judge said in rejecting their bid for acquittal or a new trial.
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August 06, 2024
Rising Star: Williams & Connolly's Eden Schiffmann
Eden Schiffmann of Williams & Connolly LLP has successfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari several times, including most recently in 2023, when he helped bring before the justices the first contested criminal case against a foreign sovereign instrumentality in U.S. history. His work before the high court, and other high-profile matters involving a broad range of legal issues, have earned him a spot among the white collar law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 06, 2024
Ex-Army Contract Officer Gets 1 Year For GF's No-Show Job
A former U.S. Department of Defense contracting officer has been sentenced to a year in prison for getting his girlfriend a high-paying, no-show job at a defense contractor, then taking multiple trips to Disney World and other vacation spots with her on taxpayers' dime.
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August 06, 2024
Judge Says Suit Over NJ Cops' Pot Use Belongs In State Court
A New Jersey federal judge has decided against getting involved in a dispute between Jersey City and police officers it terminated after they tested positive for marijuana use, ruling that any conflict between federal gun control law and the state's cannabis legalization statute should be dealt with on the state level first.
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August 05, 2024
Epstein's Advisers Must Face Victims' Proposed Class Action
A New York federal judge on Monday refused to throw out a putative class action against associates of Jeffrey Epstein, yet also held that one of the victims couldn't pursue her claims in a 2021 liability release that is "about as broad and categorical as it gets."
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August 05, 2024
Ex-Trump Atty Ellis To Cooperate In Ariz. Fake Electors Case
Jenna Ellis, former legal adviser to Donald Trump, has agreed to cooperate with Arizona prosecutors' case alleging allies of the former president made efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, the Arizona Attorney General's Office announced Monday.
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August 05, 2024
Coinbase Broke Campaign Finance Laws, Crypto Critics Say
Crypto exchange Coinbase violated campaign finance laws when it donated $25.5 million to political action committees while negotiating a federal contract, prominent crypto critics told a federal election watchdog — a claim the firm's legal chief has staunchly denied.
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August 05, 2024
Justices Reject Missouri's Bid To Block Trump's NY Gag Order
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an effort by Missouri's Republican attorney general to lift convicted former President Donald Trump's gag order on First Amendment grounds and delay sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case until after the general election.
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August 05, 2024
EBay Resists Calif. Damages In Mass. Stalking Case
Married Massachusetts bloggers who were stalked and terrorized by eBay Inc. employees shouldn't be able to seek punitive damages available under California law while having Massachusetts law otherwise govern liability for their myriad civil claims, the e-commerce giant is arguing.
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August 05, 2024
Ex-Virgin Islands Premier Gets 11 Years For Drug Conspiracy
A Florida federal judge on Monday sentenced the former premier of the British Virgin Islands to more than 11 years in prison after a jury convicted him of charges related to a conspiracy to smuggle cocaine from South America to the U.S. following a trial earlier this year.
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August 05, 2024
Petrobras Manipulating US Law For $2B, 5th Circ. Hints
A Fifth Circuit judge accused a Brazilian state-owned oil company subsidiary of "hiding behind the corporate structure," saying during oral arguments on Monday that subsidiary Petrobras America Inc. was seemingly manipulating American law for treble damages totaling nearly $2 billion stemming from allegations of bribery.
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August 05, 2024
Ex-Credit Union VP Sues Over Pot Compliance Firing
A former vice president of a Missouri credit union has hit the institution with a federal lawsuit claiming her former employer violated state whistleblower and federal money laundering laws after she refused to open accounts for her boss's friends in marijuana-related businesses despite pressure from the boss.
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August 05, 2024
Fla. Man Gets 44 Months For $5M MilliporeSigma Export Scam
A Florida federal judge sentenced a Taiwanese citizen who lives in the Sunshine State to three years and eight months in prison for his role in a $5 million scheme to defraud life sciences company MilliporeSigma and the U.S. government by illegally exporting MilliporeSigma products to China.
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August 05, 2024
Deficient Defense Warrants New Trial, Mich. Panel Says
A split Michigan appellate panel has given a second chance at trial to a man accused of evading and resisting arrest, with judges finding his defense counsel was deficient in his first trial — failing to object to prosecutors' presentation of an unredacted warrant and assertion he is "a criminal."
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August 05, 2024
Girardi's Defense May Stand On His Deteriorating Mind
Although a federal judge ruled disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi mentally competent to stand trial this month for wire fraud, the 85-year-old's defense team may use his dementia diagnosis to attack prosecutors' allegations he knowingly and intentionally stole millions of dollars from his clients, experts said.
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August 05, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Sunken treasure, rock band discord, a wrestling competition, and more news about Elon Musk — all in all, a colorful week in Delaware's Court of Chancery. The First State's famous court of equity also pushed forward on disputes involving a famous social media app, Delaware's largest hospital system, an artificial intelligence company and a budding commodity futures exchange.
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August 05, 2024
5th NYC Housing Worker Gets Prison In Anti-Corruption Bust
A Manhattan federal judge hit a retired public housing worker with 20 months in prison on Monday for taking over $83,000 of bribes, showing that prison is the most likely outcome for those convicted of felonies in the anti-bribery sweep.
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August 05, 2024
Atlanta, County Say Cops' Firing Claims 'Rife With Conjecture'
Fulton County, Georgia, and the city of Atlanta are urging the Eleventh Circuit to reject the "unadorned conspiracy theories" of two police officers who allege they were wrongly fired and arrested over their widely publicized shooting of a Black man in the city in the summer of 2020.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
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A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System
As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.
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Opinion
State-Regulated Cannabis Can Thrive Without Section 280E
Marijauna's reclassification as a Schedule III-controlled substance comes at a critical juncture, as removing marijuana from being subjected to Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code is the only path forward for the state-regulated cannabis industry to survive and thrive, say Andrew Kline at Perkins Coie and Sammy Markland at FTI Consulting.
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Asset Manager Exemption Shifts May Prove Too Burdensome
The U.S. Department of Labor’s recent change to a prohibited transaction exemption used by retirement plan asset managers introduces a host of new costs, burdens and risks to investment firms, from registration requirements to new transition periods, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data
Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
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CFPB Reality Check: Video Game Cash Is Still Money
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent report examining payments within online video games indicates that financial services offered within the game marketplace are quickly evolving to the point where they are indistinguishable from traditional financial services subject to regulation, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Keeping Up With Class Actions: A New Era Of Higher Stakes
Corporate defendants saw unprecedented settlement numbers across all areas of class action litigation in 2022 and 2023, and this year has kept pace so far, with three settlements that stand out for the nature of the claims and for their high dollar amounts, says Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris.
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'Fat Leonard' Case Shows High Bar For Rescinding Guilty Plea
Prosecutors’ recent move in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, supporting several defendants’ motions to withdraw their guilty pleas, is extremely unusual – and its contrast with other prosecutions demonstrates that the procedural safeguards at plea hearings are far from enough, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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PE In The Crosshairs Of Public And Private Antitrust Enforcers
A series of decisions from a California federal court in the recently settled Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, as well as heightened scrutiny from federal agencies, serve as a reminder that private equity firms may be exposed to liability for alleged anti-competitive conduct by their portfolio companies, say attorneys at Axinn.
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Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
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Mid-2024 FCA Enforcement And Litigation Trends To Watch
Reviewing notable False Claims Act trends and enforcement efforts in the last year and a half reveals that healthcare is a key enforcement priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, and the road ahead may bring clarification on Anti-Kickback Statute causation and willfulness standards, along with increased focus on private equity, cybersecurity and self-disclosure, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.
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End Of Acquitted Conduct Sentencing Can Spark More Reform
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent end to factoring acquitted conduct into federal sentences could signal the start of a more constitutionally sound advisory scheme, but Congress and the Supreme Court must first authorize the commission to resolve two constitutional errors baked into its guidelines, say Mark Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Alan Ellis at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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Setting Goals For Kicking Corruption Off FIFA World Cup Field
The unprecedented tri-country nature of the 2026 men's World Cup will add to the complexity of an already complicated event, but best practices can help businesses stay on the right side of anti-corruption rules during this historic competition, say Sandra Moser and Emily Ahdieh at Morgan Lewis.
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Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert
As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.
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Don't Fall On That Hill: Keys To Testifying Before Congress
Because congressional testimony often comes with political, reputational and financial risks in addition to legal pitfalls, witnesses and their attorneys should take a multifaceted approach to preparation, walking a fine line between legal and business considerations, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.