White Collar

  • August 14, 2024

    Disbarred Atty Admits To Tax Evasion Over Mass Tort Fees

    A disbarred attorney pled guilty to a single count of tax evasion Wednesday in Pennsylvania federal court stemming from allegations he didn't pay taxes on more than $100 million in legal fees he earned from representing 4,300 plaintiffs in a mass tort case, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

  • August 14, 2024

    DOJ Defends Boeing Plea Deal Over Families' Objections

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday that Boeing's plea agreement is the best possible criminal resolution that holds the company accountable for defrauding regulators about the 737 Max 8's development, rejecting claims from crash victims' families that the "morally reprehensible" deal lets Boeing skirt culpability.

  • August 14, 2024

    Grassley Asks HHS For Clarity On Cannabis Position

    Sen. Chuck Grassley has asked federal health officials to clarify their position on marijuana, arguing that a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report is at odds with its recommendation to loosen restrictions on the drug.

  • August 14, 2024

    Nursing Co. Exec Can't Split Up Fraud, Wage-Fixing Charges

    A Nevada federal magistrate judge has struck two blows against a home healthcare staffing executive facing criminal charges of fixing nurses' wages and hiding that probe when selling the business for $12.5 million, as the judge refused to break up the allegations and recommended against dismissing the fraud counts.

  • August 14, 2024

    Ex-Allied Wallet Execs Plead Guilty In $150M Fraud Scheme

    Two former executives of payment processing company Allied Wallet have admitted to their roles in a $150 million bank fraud conspiracy that tricked financial institutions into allowing otherwise restricted merchants to access the card payment networks of Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. 

  • August 14, 2024

    Feds Say Madigan, Former Ally Should Face Jurors Together

    Prosecutors told an Illinois federal judge on Tuesday that former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and confidant Michael McClain should be tried together this fall, saying a joint proceeding is proper for alleged co-conspirators in a criminal enterprise and they should not be allowed to shift blame to one another at individual trials.

  • August 14, 2024

    Sen. Durbin Slams DOD's Revocation Of 9/11 Plea Deal

    Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate majority whip, told U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday he is "troubled" by the secretary's decision to revoke a plea deal for the accused masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

  • August 14, 2024

    Army Analyst Cops To Selling Military Secrets To China

    A U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst has pled guilty to charges that he sold classified American military secrets to China for $42,000.

  • August 14, 2024

    SC Justices Agree To Hear Murdaugh's Jury Tampering Claim

    South Carolina's Supreme Court has agreed to hear disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh's appeal claiming a clerk of court tampered with the jury that convicted him of murder, invoking a rule that bypasses intermediate appeals when "significant public interest or a legal principle of major importance" hangs in the balance.

  • August 14, 2024

    Feds Nab US-Iran Citizen On Aircraft Parts Charges

    A dual U.S.-Iranian citizen was charged in D.C. federal court with procuring American aircraft parts and attempting to send them to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.

  • August 14, 2024

    Rapper Gets Probation In Stolen Payment Card Scheme

    A Chicago-area rap artist was sentenced to probation for his role in a nationwide wire fraud conspiracy that used payment card information stolen from the dark web to make purchases, including private jet flights and hotel stays.

  • August 14, 2024

    SEC Says Ga. Firm's Ponzi Scheme Fueled 'Lavish' Lifestyle

    An Atlanta-area firm that promised investors lucrative returns on real estate deals was in reality running a "classic Ponzi scheme" by funneling portions of the $300 million it received into buying a yacht and a luxury condo for its founder, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.

  • August 14, 2024

    NY Judge Rejects Trump's 'Stale' Recusal Bid A 3rd Time

    The New York judge who presided over Donald Trump's hush money trial denied the former president's third attempt to remove him from the case ahead of sentencing, ruling that the motion was "nothing more than an attempt to air grievances."

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.  

  • 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. 

Expert Analysis

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

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    In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.

  • Opinion

    A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week in Trump v. U.S., holding that former President Donald Trump has broad immunity from prosecution, undercuts the rule of law, while the former president’s New York hush money conviction vindicates it in eight key ways, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

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    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • Justices' Bribery Ruling: A Corrupt Act Isn't Necessarily Illegal

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    In its Snyder v. U.S. decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a bribery law does not criminalize gratuities, continuing a trend of narrowing federal anti-corruption laws and scrutinizing public corruption prosecutions that go beyond obvious quid pro quo schemes, say Carrie Cohen and Christine Wong at MoFo.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Roundup

    After Chevron

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    In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 26 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Key Takeaways From High Court's Substitute Expert Decision

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Smith v. Arizona decision, holding that the confrontation clause generally bars prosecutors’ use of a substitute expert witness at trial, will have the most impact in narcotics and violent crime cases, but creative defense lawyers may find it useful in white collar cases, too, say Joshua Naftalis and Melissa Kelley at Pallas Partners.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Proposed Customer ID Rule Could Cost Investment Advisers

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    A rule recently proposed by FinCEN and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make financial advisers collect more customer information parallels an anti-money laundering and counterterrorism rule proposed this spring, but firms may face new compliance costs when implementing these screening programs, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Perspectives

    High Court Ruling Leaves Chance For Civil Forfeiture Reform

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    Though advocates for civil forfeiture reform did not prevail in Culley v. Marshall last month, concerns voiced by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices potentially leave the door open to consider stricter limits in future cases, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • How Cannabis Rescheduling May Affect Current Operators

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    The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's proposal to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III provides relief in the form of federal policy from the stigma and burdens of Schedule I, but commercial cannabis operations will remain unchanged until the federal-state cannabis policy gap is remedied by Congress, say Meital Manzuri and Alexis Lazzeri at Manzuri Law.

  • Series

    Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.

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