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White Collar
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June 17, 2024
CFTC Fines Trafigura $55M In Novel Whistleblower Action
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a first-of-its-kind settlement Monday with Trafigura Trading LLC, which agreed to pay a $55 million penalty over allegations that it manipulated oil derivatives prices while discouraging employees from reporting potentially illegal activity.
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June 17, 2024
Quinn Emanuel Adds Another Ex-Federal Prosecutor In NY
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP said Friday that it has added another former federal prosecutor to its ranks — this time an of counsel who joined from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in May.
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June 17, 2024
Feds Take Hard Line On Tycoon's Pilots After He Goes Free
Manhattan federal prosecutors asked a sentencing judge to consider aggravating circumstances for two pilots who allegedly traded on stock tips from U.K. billionaire Joe Lewis, despite not seeking a prison term for the private equity honcho and former soccer club owner.
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June 17, 2024
NJ Power Broker, Firm CEO Brother Accused Of Racketeering
Powerful New Jersey businessman George E. Norcross III and his brother who is the chief executive officer of law firm Parker McCay have been criminally charged alongside others in a scheme to acquire waterfront property in the distressed city of Camden using threats of economic and reputational harm.
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June 17, 2024
Justices Will Hear Philly Bridge Project Fraud Case
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation contractor's false promise to give a certain share of its business to minority-owned subcontractors rises to the level of depriving the state agency of property, the court announced Monday.
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June 14, 2024
Ozy Trial Gets Heated, Exec Tells Of Lies, Google CEO Pops In
Courtroom tempers flared, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai dropped by and a former Ozy Media executive on Friday told the jury weighing fraud charges against the startup's charismatic founder Carlos Watson of how they nearly conned Buzzfeed into buying the company by faking its financials.
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June 14, 2024
Fed Limits Bank's Fintech Dealings Over Risk Concerns
The Federal Reserve filed a cease-and-desist order against an Arkansas bank Friday requiring it to obtain federal and state approval before partnering with any fintech companies going forward after the agency identified risk management deficiencies in recent safety and compliance exams.
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June 14, 2024
Russian Businessman's Fight To Enforce $92M Award Ends
A Russian businessman's decade-long fight to enforce a $92 million arbitral award — a dispute that spurred the U.S. Supreme Court to let him forge a new path to enforcing foreign arbitral awards — finally came to an end this week, as the parties inked a settlement on the eve of a racketeering trial.
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June 14, 2024
Ga. CPA Admits To Role In $1.3B Tax Fraud Scheme
After a federal jury convicted two of his co-conspirators in a landmark conservation easement tax shelter trial last year, a Georgia accountant who'd previously denied culpability elected to change course Friday and plead guilty to two felony charges.
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June 14, 2024
11th Circ. Shows Insurers Preference In D&O Coverage Row
The Eleventh Circuit appeared poised to affirm a Florida district court's finding that the successor of an insurance services firm is not owed coverage for underlying shareholder-related litigation under 2017 claims-made policies because the claims are connected to ones made under a 2016 policy.
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June 14, 2024
SEC Says Bahamas Firm Was Set Up To Skirt Day Trading Rules
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened its case Friday against high-frequency trading expert — and former government informant — Guy Gentile, telling jurors in Florida federal court that he set up a broker-dealer in the Bahamas specifically to evade U.S. day trading regulations designed to protect American investors.
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June 14, 2024
Ripple Cites Terraform Fine In Call To Limit SEC Penalty
Ripple Labs Inc. says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement with fellow crypto firm Terraform Labs, with the company agreeing to pay a $420 million civil penalty, is further proof of the "unreasonableness" of the agency's request that it be made to pay a much larger fine for activities that did not amount to fraud.
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June 14, 2024
NJ Officials Stiffed Transit Contractor Over Politics, AG Says
Two board members of the South Jersey Transportation Authority have been charged for their role in allegedly blocking payments to a contractor as political retribution in a feud between a Democratic Party leader and a county commissioner, the New Jersey attorney general announced Friday.
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June 14, 2024
'Bless Your Heart': The Art Of Taming A Chatty Witness
When a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official took the stand as a prosecution witness in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Robert Menendez, he took great pains to be clear and complete in his answers — so much so that prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge repeatedly asked him to talk less.
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June 14, 2024
2nd Circ. Suspects Paralegal's Video Leaks Were Valid Threats
The Second Circuit on Friday seemed skeptical of a former U.S. Department of Justice paralegal's attempt to trim a 33-month sentence for helping her gang-affiliated son expose two associates who cooperated with a law enforcement probe into a 2018 robbery, questioning why the recordings at issue couldn't be considered threats.
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June 14, 2024
Feds Lob New Charges Over $430M Dark Web Market
Two owners of an online marketplace known as Empire Market were hit Thursday with additional charges alleging that over a period of years they allowed users worldwide to buy and sell $430 million worth of illegal goods and services.
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June 14, 2024
DOJ Can't Force Retroactive FARA Registration, DC Circ. Says
The U.S. Department of Justice can't force casino magnate Steve Wynn to retroactively register as a foreign agent because his alleged lobbying efforts on behalf of China ended years ago, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday.
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June 14, 2024
Guo's Crypto Venture Raised 'Red Flags,' Investigator Says
A compliance investigator at cryptocurrency wallet provider BitGo testified in Manhattan federal court Friday that he identified multiple "financial crime red flags" in the digital asset exchange promoted by Chinese dissident Miles Guo.
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June 14, 2024
Defense Atty Group Backs Law Firm In Guo Trustee Clawback
The New York Council of Defense Lawyers has slammed a Chapter 11 trustee's attempt to claw back legal fees from an Empire State law firm that represented three nondebtor entities associated with bankrupt Chinese exile Miles Guo, saying it "burdens the Sixth Amendment" right to counsel.
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June 14, 2024
DOJ Declines To Prosecute AG Garland For Contempt
The U.S. Department of Justice is declining to prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after the House voted earlier this week to hold him in contempt for not turning over audio recordings of the president and his ghostwriter speaking with special counsel Robert Hur for his investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.
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June 13, 2024
Goldman Exec's 'Mind Entirely Blown' By Fake Ozy Media Call
A former Goldman Sachs executive who was looking into taking a stake in Carlos Watson's Ozy Media testified on Thursday that she was floored during a due diligence call when it became clear that someone was impersonating a YouTube executive in an apparent effort to persuade the bank to invest in Watson's startup.
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June 13, 2024
Menendez Trial Delayed After Co-Defendant Gets COVID
The bribery trial against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and associates has been halted for at least two days because co-defendant Fred Daibes has COVID-19, a judge said Thursday afternoon.
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June 13, 2024
Canadian Businessman Cops To Stealing Tesla Trade Secrets
A Canadian businessman residing in China pled guilty in New York federal court to scheming to sell secret battery manufacturing technology that belongs to Tesla, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
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June 13, 2024
Ex-Colo. DA Rips Current Prosecutor Over Conduct In Murder Case
A prominent former Colorado district attorney on Thursday roundly criticized a sitting prosecutor accused of misconduct, noting her freewheeling commentary about ongoing cases led to dismissals and suggested she refused to acknowledge the team she led had been "a bunch of disorganized, sloppy lawyers."
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June 13, 2024
Judge Orders $2.9M Chinese Dissident's Fund Share Sale
A Connecticut bankruptcy judge approved a request by the Chapter 11 trustee overseeing exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo's case to liquidate $2.9 million in investment fund shares held by Lamp Capital LLC, a shell company whose assets the judge already determined belonged to Guo's estate.
Expert Analysis
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4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best
As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.
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Defense Attys Must Prep For Imminent AI Crime Enforcement
Given recent statements by U.S. Department of Justice officials, white collar practitioners should expect to encounter artificial intelligence in federal criminal enforcement in the near term, even in pending cases, say Jarrod Schaeffer and Scott Glicksman at Abell Eskew.
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Lessons For Nursing Facilities From DOJ Fraud Settlement
The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlement with the owner of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in Florida provides a cautionary tale of potential fraud risks, and lessons on how facilities can mitigate government enforcement actions, say Callan Stein and Rebecca Younker at Troutman Pepper.
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How Purdue Pharma High Court Case May Change Bankruptcy
The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in Purdue Pharma may be the death of most third-party releases in Chapter 11 cases, and depending on the decision’s breadth, could have much more far-reaching effects on the entire bankruptcy system, say Brian Shaw and David Doyle at Cozen O'Connor.
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5 Takeaways From SAP's Foreign Bribery Resolutions
German software company SAP’s recent settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, resolving allegations of foreign bribery, provide insights into government enforcement priorities, and how corporations should structure their compliance programs to reduce liability, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Series
Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer
Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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Perspectives
Context Is Everything In Justices' Sentencing Relief Decision
In the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Pulsifer v. U.S. decision, limiting the number of drug offenders eligible for sentencing relief, the majority and dissent adopted very different contextual frames for interpreting the meaning of “and” — with the practical impact being that thousands more defendants will be subject to severe mandatory minimums, says Douglas Berman at Moritz College of Law.
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Opinion
The SEC Is Engaging In Regulation By Destruction
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent use of regulation by enforcement against digital assets indicates it's more interested in causing harm to crypto companies than providing guidance to the markets or protecting investors, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Preparing For Possible Calif. Criminal Antitrust Enforcement
Though a recent announcement that the California Attorney General's Office will resume criminal prosecutions in support of its antitrust enforcement may be mere saber-rattling, companies and their counsel should nevertheless be prepared for interactions with the California AG's Antitrust Section that are not limited to civil liability issues, say Dylan Ballard and Lillian Sun at V&E.
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What To Know About IRS' New Jet Use Audit Campaign
The Internal Revenue Service recently announced plans to open several dozen audits scrutinizing executive use of company jets, so companies should be prepared to show the business reasons for travel, and how items like imputed income and deduction disallowance were calculated, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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In Bribery Case, High Court's Past Is Probably Prologue
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Snyder v. U.S. on the issue of whether federal law criminalizes gratuities that are not tied to an explicit quid pro quo, and precedent strongly indicates the court will limit an expansive reading of the bribery statute, say attorneys Sami Azhari and Don Davidson.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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Independent Regulator Could Chip Away At FIFA Autonomy
After the U.K.'s recent proposal for an independent football regulator, FIFA's commitment to safeguarding football association autonomy remains unwavering, despite a history of complexities arising from controversies in the bidding and hosting of major tournaments, say Yasin Patel at Church Court Chambers and Caitlin Haberlin-Chambers at SLAM Global.
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New Concerns, Same Tune At This Year's SIFMA Conference
At this year's Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference on legal developments affecting the financial services industry, government regulators’ emphasis on whistleblowing and AI washing represented a new refrain in an increasingly familiar chorus calling for prompt and thorough corporate cooperation, say attorneys at Fried Frank.