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White Collar
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September 04, 2024
Conn. Man Charged With Threatening To Assassinate Judge
A Connecticut man has been charged with threatening to assassinate a judge during a call to the state judicial branch requesting body and vehicle camera recordings of his recent arrest in a separate matter, the Connecticut State Police said on Wednesday.
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September 04, 2024
1st Circ. Unsure If Texts In Pot Bribe Case Crossed State Lines
A First Circuit panel on Wednesday expressed skepticism that the simple sending of an iMessage through an Apple cellphone satisfies the element of wire fraud requiring interstate communication, entertaining a Massachusetts attorney's challenge to his convictions for seeking to bribe a police chief to win a local marijuana license.
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September 04, 2024
Feds Say Litigation Funding Co. Was A $10M Ponzi Scheme
A purported investment company's owner faces criminal charges and a suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after she allegedly made false claims to investors that she would lend their money to personal injury attorneys but instead used the money for a Ponzi-like scheme and personal expenses.
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September 04, 2024
Pillsbury Adds EDNY Veteran As Corporate Prosecutions Rise
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP announced Tuesday that it has hired a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York to help clients navigate the U.S. Department of Justice's increasingly aggressive pursuit of alleged corporate misconduct.
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September 04, 2024
McElroy Deutsch's Former CFO Fights Bid To Sink Ch. 11 Case
The currently incarcerated former chief financial officer for McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP denied that his Chapter 11 filing was a bad faith maneuver meant to stall ongoing civil litigation, claiming instead that the bankruptcy will allow for the liquidation of property for the benefit of creditors.
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September 04, 2024
'Rust' Armorer Takes Plea Deal In Separate Gun Case
The armorer for the Western film "Rust" who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of the film's cinematographer has agreed to plead guilty in a separate case to a felony charge alleging she sneaked a gun into a bar in New Mexico, a state courts representative announced Wednesday.
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September 04, 2024
Feds Say Ex-Judge's Misconduct Does Not Warrant New Trial
"Troubling" allegations that a former Alaska federal judge engaged in sexual misconduct should not open the door for a new trial in one of his cases where a man was convicted of cyberstalking, federal prosecutors argued in a court filing.
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September 04, 2024
Brazilian Oil Bribery Case Jury Warned Of 'Liar' Witness
Attorneys for a Connecticut trader accused of bribing Brazilian oil officials urged a jury on Wednesday not to trust an alleged co-conspirator scheduled to testify for the government, calling that man a "skilled and adept liar" who would "substantially assist" prosecutors in possible return for a favorable family immigration decision.
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September 04, 2024
Ex-Mass. Pol 'A Little Sloppy' But Not Criminal, Jurors Told
Former Massachusetts state Sen. Dean A. Tran denied charges Wednesday that he stole pandemic unemployment assistance and cheated on his taxes, with his attorney telling a jury that Tran simply made a series of paperwork "mistakes."
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September 11, 2024
Hausfeld Snaps Up Litigation Pro From Covington In London
Hausfeld LLP has hired a partner from Covington & Burling LLP in London to boost its profile in commercial disputes, after its office in the U.K. capital recently underwent changes in leadership.
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September 04, 2024
AI Musician Duped Streaming Giants To Steal $10M, Feds Say
A North Carolina man streamed thousands of artificial intelligence-generated songs to dupe streaming giants like Spotify and YouTube and generate $10 million in an elaborate scam, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind case.
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September 04, 2024
DOJ Assistant Anti-Bribery Unit Chief Joins Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown LLP announced Wednesday it is bolstering its global investigations and white collar defense practice with the addition of a U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit official who led more than 50 investigations under the anti-bribery law.
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September 03, 2024
DOJ Charges Senior Hamas Leaders Over Oct. 7 Attacks
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced criminal charges against six senior Hamas leaders the agency said had "central roles" in planning, supporting and perpetrating the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel.
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September 03, 2024
Feds Abandon $12M Somali Fraud Case Against Atty
The U.S. government has dropped its Maryland federal court case against a lawyer who was set for trial this year on charges of misappropriating over $12 million in Somali state assets, citing "pre-trial evidentiary rulings."
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September 03, 2024
2nd Circ. Backs Toss Of Ericsson Investors' ISIS Bribes Suit
The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a New York federal judge's decision to toss an investor class action against telecom giant Ericsson and several members of its top brass over claims that they hid knowledge of possible bribes to the Islamic State from U.S. investors and committed other violations of federal securities laws.
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September 03, 2024
Alphabet Beats Investor Suit Over Antitrust Issues, For Now
A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed a proposed securities fraud class action against Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc., saying investors failed to adequately allege that Google intended to deceive them when responding to a congressional query on concerns of anti-competitive ad tech practices.
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September 03, 2024
Maduro's Private Jet Seized In Fla. Over Sanctions Violation
Federal officials have seized a private jet used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his affiliates, alleging that it was purchased illegally using a shell company and smuggled out of Florida in violation of sanctions and export control laws, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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September 03, 2024
SEC Fines Adviser That Lost Clients' Crypto In FTX Collapse
An investment adviser that lost client funds in the collapse of FTX found itself on the receiving end of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action on Tuesday, with Galois Capital Management LLC settling allegations that it failed to find a proper custodian for those crypto assets.
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September 03, 2024
Judge Axes DoD Engineer's Release In 'Top Secret' Docs Case
A Virginia federal judge revoked a release order for a U.S. Department of Defense civilian employee accused of taking top secret and other classified documents from his workplace, saying instead that he should remain detained "pending disposition of this case."
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September 03, 2024
Manhattan DA's Art Seizure Unit Hit With New Calif. Challenge
A private art collector has filed a California federal lawsuit fighting the Manhattan district attorney's investigation into his ancient Roman statue, joining a small but growing number of legal challenges to the New York prosecution unit that seizes and returns allegedly stolen antiquities.
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September 03, 2024
Trustee, Trader Culled From Jury In $1M Brazilian Bribery Trial
A bankruptcy trustee and a commodities trader were among the potential jurors weeded out Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's opening statements in the criminal trial of a Connecticut oil trader accused of bribing officials with Brazil's state-owned oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA and its U.S. subsidiaries.
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September 03, 2024
Ex-Defense Contractor Arrested In $350M Tax Evasion Case
A former defense contractor who, with his wife, is facing a 30-count indictment alleging they were involved in a decades-long scheme to defraud the U.S. government and avoid taxes on more than $350 million in income was arrested Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
Adviser Lied About Wall Street Skyscraper Digs, SEC Says
A purported $10 million private fund investment adviser faces U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it lied about being a public company with an office on Manhattan's Wall Street as part of a filing in which it claimed registration exemption.
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September 03, 2024
Criminal Lawyers Group Backs YSL Atty In Contempt Appeal
The American Board of Criminal Lawyers told the Georgia Supreme Court that one of its fellows, an attorney defending rapper Young Thug in a racketeering trial, shouldn't have been held in contempt for refusing to divulge to a state judge how he learned about the judge's improper meeting with prosecutors and a key witness.
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September 03, 2024
Ch. 11 Bankruptcy Trustee Says Firm Charged Excessive Fees
The Chapter 11 trustee overseeing collapsed debt relief law firm Litigation Practice Group has accused a New York law firm of charging excessive fees while defending the California firm from lawsuits from merchant cash advance companies.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice
The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.
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6 Lessons From DOJ's 1st Controlled Drug Case In Telehealth
Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s first-ever criminal prosecution over telehealth-prescribed controlled substances in U.S. v. Ruthia He, healthcare providers should be mindful of the risks associated with restricting the physician-patient relationship when crafting new business models, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State
On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.
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Opinion
Justices' Malicious-Prosecution Ruling Shows Rare Restraint
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Chiaverini v. City of Napoleon, Ohio, declining to limit malicious-prosecution suits, is a model of judicial modesty and incrementalism, in sharp contrast to the court’s dramatic swings on other rights, says Steven Schwinn at the University of Illinois Chicago Law School.
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Opinion
Trump Immunity Ruling Upends Our Constitutional Scheme
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. U.S. decision elevates the president to imperial status and paves the way for nearly absolute presidential immunity from potential criminal prosecutions — with no constitutional textual support, says Paul Berman at the George Washington University Law School.