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White Collar
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August 13, 2024
Ex-GM Worker Gets 2 Years For Seeking Bribe In $100M Deal
A former General Motors Co. commodity manager was sentenced to two years behind bars Tuesday for soliciting a $5 million cash bribe from an auto parts supplier in return for ensuring it secured a $100 million contract, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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August 13, 2024
Judge Urged To Toss Novel Insider Trading Conviction
Former Ontrak CEO Terren Peizer has moved to rid himself of a first-of-its-kind insider trading conviction, arguing that the government's case "watered down" the standard it had to prove by failing to demonstrate that he believed Ontrak was about to lose its biggest customer at the time he shed $20 million in stock.
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August 13, 2024
SEC Drops Insider Trading Suit Against Ex-Mylan Exec
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday dismissed a Pennsylvania federal suit accusing the former chief information officer of Mylan NV of insider trading due to what his attorneys describe as compelling evidence showing his innocence, seven months after the Department of Justice dropped a parallel criminal case.
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August 13, 2024
Fund Manager Seeks Del. Legal Fee Rulings In Ponzi Fight
Attorneys for a former hedge fund manager now entangled in wide-ranging Ponzi scheme allegations urged a Delaware vice chancellor on Tuesday toward quick action on his legal fee indemnification claims, citing "great risk" from mounting personal liability exposure.
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August 13, 2024
Lin Wood Says Social Posts Were Defense, Not Offense
Controversial ex-attorney Lin Wood took the stand Tuesday in a defamation case brought against him by three of his former law partners over social media posts in which Wood claimed they tried to criminally extort him after his firm's dissolution, telling jurors he only took to social media to defend himself.
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August 13, 2024
Tesla Stock Buy Fraud Nets 33-Mo. Sentence For Calif. Man
A California man accused of bilking investors out of $4.7 million by falsely representing he'd use the money to buy Tesla stock before diverting it to his wholesale food distribution business was sentenced to 33 months in prison in California federal court Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.
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August 13, 2024
Girardi's Ex-Accountant Testifies He Wasn't Always 'All There'
A former in-house accountant for Tom Girardi's law firm broke down in tears on the witness stand under cross-examination in Girardi's California federal criminal trial Tuesday, first saying he always seemed "lucid" before describing him in the month before Girardi Keese filed for bankruptcy as slipping mentally.
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August 13, 2024
Hunter Biden Says Corruption Claims Don't Belong In Tax Trial
Hunter Biden has urged a California federal judge to bar a jury weighing his tax charges from hearing any allegations of corruption regarding foreign sources of income for fear it would "insinuate extraneous, politically charged matters" into the trial.
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August 13, 2024
DOD Says Missing License Is Needed To Dispute $1B Fuel Deal
The Defense Logistics Agency has urged the Court of Federal Claims to toss a protest alleging a $1 billion African fuel supply deal requires a license that can only be secured through bribery, saying not already having the license dooms the protester's case.
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August 13, 2024
DOJ Gets Crash Course In AI As Attys Brace For Crackdown
The U.S. Department of Justice is working to keep pace with the swift rise of the tools known as artificial intelligence, investigating potential fraud as its Criminal Division learns the nuances of the technology — an unsettling dynamic for some defense lawyers.
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August 13, 2024
'Delusional' Ex-Atty Gets 25 Years For Bank Embezzlement
An Illinois federal judge blasted a former attorney and real estate developer Tuesday as she handed him 25 years in prison for misappropriating a bank's embezzled money, saying he was "delusional" to assert he's a victim in the case.
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August 13, 2024
Mich. County Will Pay $7M To End Deadly Jail Beating Suit
A Michigan federal judge on Tuesday approved a $7 million settlement to end claims that Wayne County was responsible for the death of a man beaten by his cellmate on his first night in jail last year.
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August 13, 2024
Ruling On Reservation Shooting Can't Be Delayed, Feds Say
The U.S. government wants an Arizona federal court to deny a discovery bid by the family of a Tohono O'odham Nation man that seeks the names of the Border Patrol agents who discharged the weapons that killed him, saying the dispute shouldn't hold its motion to dismiss the lawsuit in abeyance.
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August 13, 2024
FirstEnergy Makes Nonprosecution Deal To End Ohio AG Probe
FirstEnergy said Tuesday that it has secured a nonprosecution agreement with Ohio's attorney general stemming from an alleged $1 billion bribery scandal involving the former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, with both parties touting the utility company's remediation and compliance improvements.
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August 13, 2024
Quantum Energy Sued For Docs In Del. After SEC Action
A director of Quantum Energy Holdings LLC who joined the company after one of its directors was indicted has sued the firm in Delaware's Court of Chancery, seeking books and records and alleging the company's other directors have "repeatedly thwarted" his efforts to understand the business and its financial condition.
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August 13, 2024
Former Sprinter Eyes Plea Deal In 2020 Olympics Doping Case
A onetime world-class sprinter from the Atlanta area is in talks to resolve charges that he illegally provided banned performance-enhancement drugs while training other athletes ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, a Manhattan federal judge heard Tuesday.
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August 13, 2024
22 AGs Urge 2nd Circ. To Keep Limits On Interstate Gun Sales
The attorneys general for 21 states and the District of Columbia urged the Second Circuit to uphold a federal law limiting interstate gun sales to licensed dealers, arguing in a brief Monday that the law lets individual states regulate dealers and prevent black-market imports.
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August 13, 2024
Ex-Prosecutors Back Willis In Trump's Appeal Of DQ Ruling
Former federal prosecutors and others have thrown their support behind the State of Georgia, arguing that a trial court was right to let Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis continue prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others after a former outside counsel with whom she had a relationship resigned.
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August 13, 2024
Federal Judge Can't Shake Discipline For Handcuffing Girl
A review panel on Tuesday agreed with a unanimous Ninth Circuit Judicial Council finding that a federal judge in California engaged in misconduct when he ordered that a tearful 13-year-old girl be handcuffed during a criminal hearing for her father, upholding a public reprimand and three-year pause on criminal case assignments for the jurist.
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August 13, 2024
Ex-Rep. Santos Warned Not To Hide Evidence As Trial Nears
A New York federal judge cautioned former U.S. Rep. George Santos on Tuesday that failing to turn over discovery could box in his defense to allegations of campaign finance fraud and other criminal charges at a trial set to begin next month.
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August 12, 2024
Chase Bank Sued Over Alleged Ties To $119M Ponzi Scheme
Chase Bank "actively accommodated" a purported Ponzi scheme worth more than a hundred million dollars by real estate developer SiliconSage Builders LLC, according to a court-appointed receiver who alleged in a new suit that the bank "went well beyond providing ordinary banking services" to the developer.
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August 12, 2024
Suspect In Smuggling For 'Putin's War Machine' Extradited To US
A Russian-German national has been extradited to the U.S. from Cyprus and now faces criminal charges in New York federal court for allegedly smuggling American-sourced microelectronics to supply foreign manufacturers with parts to help arm Russia in its war against Ukraine.
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August 12, 2024
Girardi Wasn't Confused But Tried 'To Confuse Me,' Atty Says
An attorney who sued Tom Girardi on behalf of a woman seeking withheld settlement funds testified Monday in the disbarred lawyer's criminal fraud trial, telling a Los Angeles jury he didn't think Girardi was in cognitive decline but rather was deliberately trying to confuse him with strange excuses.
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August 12, 2024
SEC Fines OTC Link For Suspicious Activity Reports Failures
Broker-dealer OTC Link LLC on Monday agreed to pay nearly $1.2 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the New York-based alternative trading system failed to monitor financial transactions for potential red flags over a three-year period.
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August 12, 2024
Accused Accounting Prof Is No Tax Expert, NJ Jury Told
New Jersey federal jurors were urged Monday to keep one word at the front of their minds as they listen to the government present its case against an accounting professor accused of failing to report $3.3 million in income from a pharmacy he co-owned with his wife: willful.
Expert Analysis
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3 Policyholder Tips After Calif. Ruling Denying D&O Coverage
A California decision from June, Practice Fusion v. Freedom Specialty Insurance, denying a company's claim seeking reimbursement under a directors and officers insurance policy for its settlement with the Justice Department, highlights the importance of coordinating coverage for all operational risks and the danger of broad exclusionary policy language, says Geoffrey Fehling at Hunton.
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Playing The Odds: Probing Sports Betting Allegations
With gambling-related controversies becoming a mainstay of the athletics landscape, it's essential for in-house and outside counsel to stay abreast of best practices for conducting sports betting investigations, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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What FTX Case Taught Us About Digital Asset Recoverability
FTX's Chapter 11 plan has drawn lots of attention, but the focus should be on the anticipated outcome for investors, which counters several myths about digital currencies, innovation and recoverability, says Kyla Curley at StoneTurn.
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Opinion
Post-Chevron, Good Riddance To The Sentencing Guidelines
The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron doctrine may signal the end of the U.S. sentencing guidelines, which is good news given that they have accomplished the opposite of Congress’ original intent to bring certainty, proportionality and uniformity to sentencing, say attorneys Mark Allenbaugh, Doug Passon and Alan Ellis.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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A Timeline Of Antisemitism Legislation And What It Means
What began as hearings in the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce has expanded to a House-wide effort to combat antisemitism and related issues, with wide-ranging implications for education, finance and nonprofit entities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Criminal Enforcement Considerations For Gov't Contractors
Government contractors increasingly exposed to criminal liability risks should establish programs that enable detection and remediation of employee misconduct, consider voluntary disclosure, and be aware of the potentially disastrous consequences of failing to make a mandatory disclosure where the government concludes it was required, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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FBI Raid Signals Growing Criminal Enforcement Of Algorithms
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's increased willingness to pursue the use of algorithmic pricing as a potential criminal violation means that companies need to understand the software solutions they employ and stay abreast of antitrust best practices when contracting with providers, say attorneys at Rule Garza.
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How Attorneys Can Reduce Bad Behavior At Deposition
To minimize unprofessional behavior by opposing counsel and witnesses, and take charge of the room at deposition, attorneys should lay out some key ground rules at the outset — and be sure to model good behavior themselves, says John Farrell at Fish & Richardson.
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Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal
Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.
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Tricky Venue Issues Persist In Fortenberry Prosecution Redo
Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was recently indicted for a second time after the Ninth Circuit tossed his previous conviction for improper venue, but the case, now pending in the District of Columbia, continues to illustrate the complexities of proper venue in "false statement scheme" prosecutions, says Kevin Coleman at Covington.