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White Collar
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August 23, 2024
Young Thug Atty Says Contempt Charge Must Be Overturned
An attorney representing Atlanta rapper Young Thug urged the Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse the 20-day jail sentence and contempt of court conviction he received after refusing to divulge how he learned about a closed-door meeting between prosecutors, a witness and the original judge presiding over the rapper's racketeering trial.
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August 23, 2024
Intended Financial Harm Counts In Sentencing, 4th Circ. Says
A split Fourth Circuit panel on Friday upheld a South Carolina woman's 30-month sentence for filing false tax returns and making false statements on applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans, finding that a sentencing range can be calculated using the total amount of intended financial harm.
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August 23, 2024
Latino Group Seeks Inquiry Into AG Paxton's Voter Fraud Raids
The Texas arm of the League of United Latin American Citizens is calling for a federal investigation into reports of "police state tactics" used by the Texas attorney general's office during its investigation of voter fraud.
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August 23, 2024
Mich. Atty Guilty Of Murdering Client Faces Disbarment
The Michigan Supreme Court's prosecutorial arm on Friday urged the state's attorney watchdog to disbar a lawyer who was sentenced to spend life in prison for conspiring to kill his wealthy client to gain access to the client's trust, saying the attorney's conduct was "heinous and reprehensible."
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August 23, 2024
Former NY Atty Gets Prison For Theft Of $800K From Clients
A disbarred New York real estate attorney has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution for stealing over $800,000 from three former clients by taking their money from his escrow account.
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August 23, 2024
Georgia Cases To Watch In The Last Half Of 2024
The prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and his election interference case codefendants, along with Atlanta rapper Young Thug's bid to have the judge overseeing his racketeering trial removed from the case, will take center stage in Georgia's courts as we enter the second half of 2024.
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August 23, 2024
On Final Night Of DNC, Prosecutors Ruled The Stage
Vice President Kamala Harris invoked her experience as a prosecutor and an attorney general in her speech Thursday night in Chicago accepting the Democratic nomination for president.
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August 23, 2024
Cape Cod Bookkeeper To Cop To $1.3M Embezzlement
The longtime bookkeeper of a Cape Cod flooring business has agreed to plead guilty to embezzling more than $1.3 million from the company, Massachusetts federal prosecutors announced.
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August 22, 2024
Panel Backs Sex Misconduct Findings About Ex-Alaska Judge
A judicial conference review panel affirmed Thursday the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council's finding that former U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred of the District of Alaska had an "inappropriately sexualized relationship" with a law clerk and created a hostile work environment.
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August 22, 2024
5th Circ. Says No Tolling For COVID, Trims Atty's Conviction
The Fifth Circuit on Thursday knocked a false statement charge off Houston attorney Richard Plezia's conviction for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar ambulance-chasing kickback scheme but upheld the rest of his conviction, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by helping another lawyer evade federal income taxes.
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August 22, 2024
3rd Circ. Denies Liberian Bank Whistleblower's Asylum Bid
The Third Circuit ruled Thursday that a Liberian man can't claim asylum despite having "suffered horrors" after unearthing a fraud scheme involving Liberian government officials' relatives and refusing a politician's bribe, saying he did not show evidence that his alleged perpetrators targeted him for having an anti-corruption political opinion.
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August 22, 2024
Philly Contractor Gets Probation For Taking Union Money
A Philadelphia contractor who accepted union money embezzled by John Dougherty, former business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, to renovate the labor leader's personal properties was sentenced to three years of probation Thursday.
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August 22, 2024
Debtors Claim $3M Award Is Tainted By Fraud In China
Two Chinese debtors said to owe nearly $3 million under an arbitral award issued to an investment company in the People's Republic of China have asked a California federal court to vacate an order enforcing the award earlier this year, saying the company participated in criminal fraud.
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August 22, 2024
Feds Seize $5M In Crypto 'Pig Butchering' Scams
Federal prosecutors in North Carolina snagged nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency that they said on Thursday came from crooks masquerading as lovers, luring starry-eyed paramores into phony investments, in what's known as a "pig butchering" scam.
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August 22, 2024
Ex-MiMedx Sales Rep Says Fraud Schemes Pushed Her Out
A former employee of controversial biotech firm MiMedx who was sued for joining a competitor earlier this year hit the company back with a counterclaim Tuesday charging that she was forced out for refusing to go along with the company's alleged flouting of U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations and rampant overbilling schemes.
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August 22, 2024
Ex-Morgan Stanley Representative Concedes SEC Suit
A former Morgan Stanley representative who was criminally convicted in a $4.8 million Ponzi scheme has conceded in a suit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying he agrees with the agency that judgment should be issued against him.
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August 22, 2024
Smuggling Suspect Arrested Over '22 Migrant Deaths In Texas
A Guatemalan national was arrested Wednesday in his home country at U.S. officials' request for his alleged role in a human smuggling operation blamed for the deaths of 53 migrants who were found in a tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
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August 22, 2024
Feds Ask For $395M Forfeiture In Bitcoin Fog Case
A D.C. federal judge said he was inclined to side with prosecutors seeking a $395 million forfeiture order for convicted Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, at least as a preliminary step ahead of the 35-year-old's sentencing for money laundering.
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August 22, 2024
Feds, Ex-Detroit Mayor Spar Over Restitution, Residency
Federal prosecutors and former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick are clashing over restitution, with the feds seeking to collect some $6,700 the Michigan Department of Treasury uncovered and Kilpatrick claiming the money is off limits, challenging how much he owes and pushing to have the case sent to Georgia.
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August 22, 2024
Nadine Menendez's Bribery Trial Delayed Until 2025
The bribery trial of former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's wife is delayed until at least January because she is being treated for cancer, a New York federal judge ruled Thursday.
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August 22, 2024
NY AG Tells Appeals Court To Uphold $465M Trump Judgment
Donald Trump has barely challenged the extensive proof of financial statement lies undergirding a $465 million civil fraud judgment against him and his co-defendants, New York's attorney general said in an appeals brief looking to preserve the bench verdict.
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August 22, 2024
Feds Accuse NYC Man Of Acting As Chinese Agent
Manhattan federal prosecutors have accused a naturalized U.S. citizen of acting as an agent of the People's Republic of China and relaying intelligence to the Chinese government.
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August 22, 2024
Tom Girardi Takes The Stand In His Criminal Fraud Trial
Disbarred attorney Tom Girardi took the stand Thursday in his California federal fraud trial and denied stealing from any of his clients, while also showing a strong grasp of past events and people but claiming to have no memory of the trial's witnesses and key moments, or to even know his own lawyer's name.
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August 22, 2024
Insurer, Atty Drop Case Linked To Bogus Check Scheme
An insurance firm has agreed to drop its claim seeking a declaration from a Washington federal court that it is not on the hook to cover a Seattle-area solo practitioner over an alleged counterfeit check scheme, after the bank and attorney settled their underlying dispute.
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August 22, 2024
Army Adviser Gets 12 Years For Scamming Gold Star Families
A former New Jersey financial counselor with the U.S. Army and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve was sentenced to 151 months in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding Gold Star families and other related crimes, the U.S. attorney's office announced.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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High Court Paves Middle Ground For Proceedings Obstruction
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Fischer sensibly leaves the door open for prosecutors to make more nuanced assessments as to whether defendants' actions directly or tangentially impair the availability or integrity of anything used in an official proceeding, without criminalizing acts such as peaceful demonstrations, say attorneys at Perry Law.
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How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts
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.
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Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC
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.
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Opinion
A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue
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.
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Series
Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Series
After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC
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.
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Opinion
Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron
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.