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White Collar

  • August 12, 2025

    DOJ Demurs On Lawsuit Seeking Emil Bove Docs

    The U.S. Department of Justice is contesting a watchdog's lawsuit seeking to obtain public records requests on now-Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove, who was formerly President Donald Trump's criminal attorney and a top DOJ official.

  • August 12, 2025

    Pa. Guilty Plea Means Nothing To Malpractice Case, Atty Says

    An ex-chief financial officer suing his former attorney for allegedly coercing him into a consent agreement that landed him with an over $12 million judgment has urged a Florida federal court to keep his malpractice case against the attorney on track.

  • August 12, 2025

    Uber's Tip Led FBI To $5M 'Grandparent Scam' Ring, Feds Say

    A suspicious pattern of Uber trips to banks by older people led the company to contact the FBI, uncovering a multinational "grandparent scam" operation that stole $5 million from at least 400 people, Massachusetts federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

  • August 12, 2025

    AI Staffing Co. Joonko Gets OK To Wind Down In Ch. 11

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved Joonko Diversity Inc.'s Chapter 11 liquidation plan after the debtor resolved objections from shareholders and others, letting the artificial intelligence-powered recruitment firm wind down its business and repay creditors.

  • August 11, 2025

    5th Circ. Backs Mexican Banks' Subpoena For Fraud Case

    The Fifth Circuit on Monday refused to revive a Mexican businessman's motion to quash a subpoena stemming from major Mexican financial institutions' efforts to obtain discovery as they pursue claims that the businessman absconded with $32 million in loans, saying it detected "no error" in a lower court's denial.

  • August 11, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms SEC Win In Life Insurance Investment Row

    The Ninth Circuit ruled in a published opinion Monday that fractional interests in life settlements are investment contracts and thus securities, backing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's win against Pacific West Capital Group agents, who the SEC alleged sold unregistered securities and didn't properly register as broker-dealers.

  • August 11, 2025

    Feds Charge Mexican Businessmen In Pemex Bribery Scheme

    Two Mexican businessmen living in the U.S. are accused of taking part in a bribery scheme to secure at least $2.5 million in business with Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

  • August 11, 2025

    'Flipping NJ' Developer Fights Charges, Citing Habba's Role

    A New Jersey real estate developer and influencer, who is accused of running a Ponzi-like investment fraud scheme and laundering drug money, on Monday became the latest defendant to seek dismissal of his indictment over what he says was the illegal appointment of Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney for the Garden State.

  • August 11, 2025

    11th Circ. Nixes Ineffective-Counsel Claim In Salmonella Case

    Peanut Corp. of America's former president and a food broker convicted for their roles in a salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened more than 700 cannot throw out their prison sentences, the Eleventh Circuit ruled Monday, rejecting their assertion of ineffective counsel.

  • August 11, 2025

    GE, UNC Agree To $63M Uranium Mine Cleanup In New Mexico

    The United Nuclear Corp. and General Electric Co. agreed to a consent decree with the federal government, New Mexico and the Navajo Nation to spend $63 million on environmental cleanup at a decades-old uranium mine, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.  

  • August 11, 2025

    How A Nonexistent Bar Unraveled A California Bribery Case

    The criminal case against Palm Springs, California, developer John Wessman hinged on a cooperating witness's testimony that Wessman hatched a plan with him at a bar to bribe the city's then-mayor, but his defense counsel from Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP blew up that story on cross-examination by demonstrating the bar hadn't even opened at that time, helping to obtain an acquittal.

  • August 11, 2025

    Miles Guo Ordered To Forfeit $1.3B In Fraud Case

    Bankrupt Chinese exile Miles Guo must forfeit $1.3 billion in cash, luxury goods and real estate, including his 21-bedroom New Jersey mansion, a New York federal judge said Monday, more than a year after the purported billionaire was found guilty of wide-ranging fraud.

  • August 11, 2025

    Chicago Suburb's Ex-Mayor Gets 4 Years For Extortion, Bribery

    A former mayor of McCook, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, was sentenced to four years in federal prison Monday for accepting more than $250,000 in bribes and extortion payments.

  • August 11, 2025

    Tulsa Says Settlement Moots High Court Jurisdiction Bid

    Tulsa is asking the Supreme Court to deny a petition by an Oklahoma attorney that looks to undo his conviction stemming from a speeding ticket issued on tribal lands, arguing it seeks review of a broader jurisdictional question that the municipality and the Creek Nation have already resolved.

  • August 11, 2025

    Liberty Mutual Nabs FCPA Declination, Will Disgorge $4.7M

    Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. will avoid prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and disgorge nearly $4.7 million over bribes paid by employees of its Indian subsidiary, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday, in the first FCPA declination since President Donald Trump paused prosecutions under the law.

  • August 11, 2025

    Ex-Ill. Speaker's 'False Hope' Won't Delay Prison Sentence

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan must begin serving his seven-year bribery and wire fraud prison sentence as ordered in October, a federal judge has ruled, finding that Madigan "clings to false hope" in arguing his forthcoming appeal to the Seventh Circuit will present an issue substantial enough to overturn his entire conviction.

  • August 11, 2025

    SEC Says Biotech Investor Traded On Inside Info About Deal

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed suit against a Texas-based individual investor, accusing him of insider trading on stocks by buying shares of a public biotech firm ahead of its 2020 merger with a privately held biotechnology company.

  • August 11, 2025

    McDermott, Other Firms Sign Deal To End $4.4M Guo Claims

    McDermott Will & Schulte, four other law firms and one consulting firm have agreed to settle, for an undisclosed amount and without formal litigation, clawback claims totaling $4.4 million by the Chapter 11 estate of bankrupt Chinese exile and convicted criminal Miles Guo.

  • August 11, 2025

    Girardi's Public Defender Rejoins Kendall Brill & Kelly

    A federal public defender who represented disgraced plaintiffs attorney Tom Girardi in his wire fraud trial has returned to Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP in Los Angeles as a partner, the firm said Monday.

  • August 11, 2025

    Pa. Judge Accused Of COVID Fraud Seeks Diversion Deal

    A Pennsylvania county judge facing criminal charges for allegedly misusing COVID-19 unemployment relief money to pay his former law firm's staff is working with prosecutors to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement, with the federal court agreeing to hold a conference on the matter, according to court filings Monday.

  • August 11, 2025

    FTX Customers Aim To Beef Up Case Against Fenwick & West

    New information that has emerged since customers of the now-collapsed cryptocurrency trading platform FTX Trading Ltd. sued Fenwick & West LLP over the firm's alleged role in that collapse justifies updating the complaint against the firm, those customers told a Florida federal court Monday.

  • August 11, 2025

    White & Case Adds Ex-Chicago Prosecutor From Perkins Coie

    White & Case LLP has grown its global litigation practice in Chicago with the addition of a longtime Perkins Coie LLP partner who previously was an assistant U.S. attorney in the city, the firm said Monday.

  • August 11, 2025

    Terraform Founder Set To Plead Out Of $40B Fraud Case

    Terraform founder Do Kwon is on track to enter a guilty plea in his $40 billion criminal fraud case, a Manhattan federal judge said Monday, in an order that comes ahead of a scheduled 2026 trial and amid weeks of talks between his lawyers and prosecutors.

  • August 11, 2025

    NY Judge Won't Unseal 'Redundant' Maxwell Grand Jury Docs

    A New York federal judge on Monday denied the Trump administration's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits in the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is appealing a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking teenage girls for sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, concluding that the materials contain almost nothing new.

  • August 08, 2025

    Frank Founder, Exec Can't Undo JPMorgan Fraud Convictions

    Charlie Javice, the startup founder convicted of lying to JPMorgan Chase ahead of its $175 million purchase of her college-aid website Frank, and her former colleague have failed to show good reasons why they should now be acquitted, the judge on her case has found.

Expert Analysis

  • State Tort Claims May Help Deter Bribes During FCPA Pause

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    As the U.S. pauses Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, companies that lose business due to competitors' bribery should consider using state tortious interference suits to expose corruption, deter illegal practices and obtain compensation for commercial losses, says Jason Manning at Levy Firestone.

  • Series

    Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Oft-Forgotten Evidence Rule Can Be Powerful Trial Tool

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    Rule 608 may be one of the most overlooked provisions in the Federal Rules of Evidence, but as a transformative tool that allows attorneys to attack a witness's character for truthfulness through opinion or reputation testimony, its potential to reshape a case cannot be overstated, says Marian Braccia at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

  • 1st Circ. Ruling Widens Split Over Sentencing Enhancements

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    In U.S. v. Salvador-Gutierrez, the First Circuit recently switched sides in a circuit split by holding that certain sentencing enhancements apply only where the defendant used a minor in the commission of the crime, deepening a divide over the scope of role adjustments, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • Whistleblower Rewards May Soon Materialize In UK

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    Recent government and Serious Fraud Office announcements indicate that the U.K.’s long-standing aversion to rewarding whistleblowers is reversing, underlining the importance for organizations to consider managing misconduct risk and prepare for a potentially significant uptick in tipoffs, says Tom Grodecki at Cadwalader.

  • DOJ Export Declination Highlights Self-Reporting Benefits

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent decision not to prosecute a NASA contractor, despite a former employee pleading guilty to facilitating unlicensed exports, underscores the advantages available to companies that self-report sanctions violations, cooperate with investigations and implement timely remediation, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • Customs Fraud Enforcement In The Age Of Tariffs

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    In the wake of the Trump administration’s new approach toward tariffs, two recent Justice Department developments demonstrate aggressive customs fraud enforcement, with the DOJ emphasizing competitive harm to American businesses, and signaling that investigations will likely involve both civil and criminal enforcement tools, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz and London & Naor.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles

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    Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Fledgling Crypto ATM Regs May Be Due For A Growth Spurt

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    As cryptocurrency ATM use and availability become more prevalent within the U.S. financial services ecosystem, states — only a few of which currently have a crypto ATM framework — may need to consider expanding legislation and regulation to accelerate consumer fraud protection practices, says Jason Noto at Polsinelli.

  • UK May Play Major Role In Corporate Misconduct Regulation

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    In light of the U.S.' pause in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office has released new guidance showing it may seize the opportunity to play a heightened role in regulating corporate misconduct by U.S. companies with a global presence, particularly over the next few years, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Series

    Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.

  • Avoiding The Risk Of Continued AI-Washing Enforcement

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    A recent action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice, alleging a software developer defrauded investors by lying about his app’s artificial intelligence capabilities, suggests this administration will continue to target AI washing, so companies should adopt practices to mitigate enforcement risk, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 4 Ways Slater Is Priming DOJ For Continued Antitrust Success

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    Just as Jonathan Kanter did during his recent tenure leading the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater is following the effective blueprint set by Thurman Arnold when he modernized the division more than 80 years ago, says Perry Apelbaum at Kressin Powers.

  • DOJ Memo Raises Bar For Imposition Of Corporate Monitors

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    A recently released U.S. Department of Justice memo, outlining guidance on the imposition of compliance monitors in corporate criminal cases, reflects DOJ leadership’s concerns about scope creep and business costs, but the strategies for companies to avoid a monitorship haven't changed much compared to the Biden era, says James Koukios at MoFo.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Becoming A Firmwide MVP

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    Though lawyers don't have a neat metric like baseball players for measuring the value they contribute to their organizations, the sooner new attorneys learn skills frequently skipped in law school — like networking, marketing, client development and case evaluation — the more valuable, and less replaceable, they will be, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

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