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White Collar

  • June 27, 2025

    Vertical Farm Co. Owner Cops To Tax Evasion, Fraud Scheme

    The owner of a business that helped people set up vertical farms admitted to skipping his income taxes and taking money from customers, including an autism charity, without holding up his end of the deal, according to filings in a Pennsylvania federal court.

  • June 27, 2025

    DOJ Tax Division To Split Criminal, Civil Units, Official Says

    The U.S. Department of Justice aims to finalize a reorganization plan for its Tax Division by summer's end that would separate the criminal and civil tax functions and relocate them to the department's main branches, a department official said Friday.

  • June 27, 2025

    Combs Defense Atty Blasts 'Fake Trial' In Closing Argument

    A lawyer for Sean "Diddy" Combs on Friday attacked the legitimacy of the government's racketeering case, accusing prosecutors of invading the hip-hop icon's private sex life and saying two women he is alleged to have trafficked are motivated by money.

  • June 27, 2025

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Last-Minute Settlements Head Off Trials

    Untouched by the summer slump, the North Carolina Business Court kicked off June with a sanctions order against a biogas company caught spurning court orders and a new complaint by a former NFL player accusing his longtime financial adviser of defrauding him for decades.

  • June 27, 2025

    Justices Limit Universal Injunctions But Defer On Citizenship

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump can partially implement his executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, in a ruling that significantly limits the ability of federal district court judges to issue nationally applicable orders against presidential edicts and policy initiatives.

  • June 26, 2025

    SEC Won't Modify More Biden-Era Off-Channel Settlements

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined Thursday to rework another batch of Biden-era settlements tied to so-called off-channel communications on Wall Street, turning down bids that challenged some terms as unfair in light of more lenient later deals.

  • June 26, 2025

    Ex-NY Gov. Aide Hit With New PPE Fraud Scheme Charges

    A federal grand jury Wednesday tacked on charges against a former top aide to two New York governors in a case accusing her of secretly acting as a Chinese government agent, alleging she illegally steered government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic to businesses she was secretly connected to.

  • June 26, 2025

    Ex-Trump Atty Chesebro Disbarred In NY For Fake Elector Plot

    President Donald Trump's former attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the so-called "architect" in the plot to use fake electors to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results, has been disbarred from practicing law in the state of New York, according to a unanimous decision issued on Thursday. 

  • June 26, 2025

    5th Circ. Revives Biz Records Law, Citing Review Safeguard

    The Fifth Circuit on Thursday tossed a permanent injunction blocking a Texas statute requiring businesses to immediately comply with the state's demand to examine business records, saying the Texas Supreme Court recently "harmonized" the law in a way that addresses Spirit AeroSystems Inc.'s constitutional challenge.

  • June 26, 2025

    Md. Judge Won't Rush Abrego Garcia's Bid To Avoid Removal

    A federal judge declined Thursday to rule immediately on Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia's emergency request to bar the government from quickly deporting him once he's released from detention in his criminal case in Tennessee, expressing concern about her jurisdiction.

  • June 26, 2025

    Judge Casts Doubt On Plea Deals In Blood Test Defect Case

    A set of plea agreements between Massachusetts federal prosecutors and former Magellan Diagnostics executives has been thrown into uncertainty amid a dispute over whether the executives admitted to fraud related to defective blood tests or merely an intent to mislead, a question a judge said Thursday might be "a very expensive rabbit hole."

  • June 26, 2025

    Ex-Mich. Coach Hires 'Real Housewives' Atty In Hacking Case

    A former University of Michigan assistant football coach accused of hacking college students' digital accounts enlisted a D.C. criminal defender who represented a former "Real Housewives" cast member convicted of luring people into fake investments and represented a man convicted of threatening a judge overseeing the criminal case of a former Trump adviser.

  • June 26, 2025

    Former Hoops Star Telfair Gets 6 Mos. For Violating Release

    A Manhattan federal judge sentenced former high school basketball star and ex-NBA player Sebastian Telfair to six months in prison Thursday for violating the terms of his supervised release, after sparing him prison last year for defrauding the league's health plan.

  • June 26, 2025

    '50 Cent' Liquor Biz Can Target Ex-Boss's Home In Ch. 7

    A Connecticut bankruptcy judge ruled that famous rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's liquor company Sire Spirits LLC can enforce its lien on its former brand manager Mitchell Green's home in Westport to get some recovery for a $7 million fraud judgment against him, even as Green goes through Chapter 7 proceedings.

  • June 26, 2025

    Air Force Contractor Agrees To Pay $1M To Settle FCA Claims

    A Massachusetts company will pay approximately $1 million to settle allegations it overcharged the government under a contract supporting Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, federal prosecutors have announced.

  • June 26, 2025

    Combs Used Business 'Kingdom' For Crime Spree, Feds Say

    Sean "Diddy" Combs used his power, wealth and a "small army" of employees to commit crimes including sex trafficking for 20 years, a prosecutor told a Manhattan federal jury Thursday as the hip-hop mogul's trial neared an end.

  • June 26, 2025

    2 Arrested In €66M 'Designer Fuel' VAT Fraud Scheme

    The European Public Prosecutor's Office arrested two people suspected of participating in a criminal scheme that traded in what are known as designer fuels to evade €66 million ($77.2 million) in value-added taxes, the office said.

  • June 26, 2025

    Ex-Asphalt Exec Gets 6 Months For $23M Bid-Rigging Scheme

    A co-founder and former executive of a Michigan asphalt paving company has been sentenced to six months in prison and fined $500,000 for his role in a bid-rigging conspiracy that earned his company more than $23 million in corrupted jobs, as a Michigan federal judge continued to emphasize the need to deter white collar crime. 

  • June 26, 2025

    Justices Expand Reach Of First Step Act In Resentencings

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that defendants can benefit from lighter sentences under the First Step Act if they were sentenced prior to the 2018 criminal justice reform law but later resentenced after their original sentences were tossed.

  • June 26, 2025

    Justices Say DHS Orders Final In Withholding-Removal Cases

    The U.S. Supreme Court held Thursday that the 30-day statutory deadline for challenging deportation orders in withholding of removal cases starts when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, not when Board of Immigration Appeals proceedings conclude.

  • June 25, 2025

    Ex-Venezuela Military Agency Head Cops To Narco-Terrorism

    A former Venezuela military intelligence director who was criminally charged alongside Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros for allegedly operating a drug cartel with a Colombian guerrilla group pled guilty Wednesday to conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and engaging in narco-terrorism for the group.

  • June 25, 2025

    Judge Rejects Feds' Bid To Thwart Abrego Garcia's Release

    A Tennessee federal judge Wednesday denied the Trump administration's bid to stay Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release from detention on certain conditions, saying the government's contention it would suffer irreparable injury should he be released "defies logic."

  • June 25, 2025

    Coinme Fined $300K In Landmark Calif. Enforcement Action

    Crypto kiosk operator Coinme Inc. has agreed to pay a $300,000 fine to resolve findings that it violated California's kiosk transaction limits and failed to include certain disclosures on receipts, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced Wednesday.

  • June 25, 2025

    11th Circ. Backs Conviction In Bank Reporting Evasion Case

    The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a man accused of trying to prevent regulators from learning about his large withdrawals from Wells Fargo accounts, rejecting his claims that prosecutors charged him with one offense but tried him for another.

  • June 25, 2025

    TD Bank Worker Cops To Taking Bribes To Open Accounts

    A former employee of TD Bank has pled guilty to accepting bribes for opening around 140 fraudulent bank accounts that led to checking account scams that cost the bank tens of thousands of dollars, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey announced Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • How NY's FAIR Act Mirrors ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ State Recommendations

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    New York's proposed FAIR Business Practices Act, which targets predatory lending and junk fees, reflects the Rohit Chopra-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recommendations to states in a number of ways, including by defining "abusive" conduct and adding a new right to file class actions, says Christian Hancock at Bradley Arant.

  • Takeaways From DOJ's 1st Wage-Fixing Jury Conviction

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    U.S. v. Lopez marked the U.S. Department of Justice's first labor market conviction at trial as a Nevada federal jury found a home healthcare staffing executive guilty of wage-fixing and wire fraud, signaling that improper agreements risk facing successful criminal prosecution, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • How Cos. Can Navigate Risks Of New Cartel Terrorist Labels

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    The Trump administration’s recent designation of eight drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations gives rise to new criminal and civil liabilities for companies that are unwittingly exposed to cartel activity, but businesses can mitigate such risks in a few key ways, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • What We Lost After SEC Eliminated Regional Director Role

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    Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Regional Director Marc Fagel discusses the recent wholesale elimination of the regional director position, the responsibilities of the job itself and why discarding this role highlights how the appearance of creating a more efficient agency may limit the SEC's effectiveness.

  • Perspectives

    Reading Tea Leaves In High Court's Criminal Law Decisions

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    The criminal justice decisions the U.S. Supreme Court will announce in the coming weeks will reveal whether last term’s fractured decision-making has continued, an important data point as the justices’ alignment seems to correlate with who benefits from a case’s outcome, says Sharon Fairley at the University of Chicago Law School.

  • $38M Law Firm Settlement Highlights 'Unworthy Client' Perils

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    A recent settlement of claims against law firm Eckert Seamans for allegedly abetting a Ponzi scheme underscores the continuing threat of clients who seek to exploit their lawyers in perpetrating fraud, and the critical importance of preemptive measures to avoid these clients, say attorneys at Lockton Companies.

  • Series

    Teaching Business Law Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Teaching business law to college students has rekindled my sense of purpose as a lawyer — I am more mindful of the importance of the rule of law and the benefits of our common law system, which helps me maintain a clearer perspective on work, says David Feldman at Feldman Legal Advisors.

  • Evolving Federal Rules Pose Further Obstacles To NY LLC Act

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    Following the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent changes to beneficial ownership information reporting under the federal Corporate Transparency Act — dramatically reducing the number of companies required to make disclosures — the utility of New York's LLC Transparency Act becomes less apparent, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Discovery

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    The discovery process and the rules that govern it are often absent from law school curricula, but developing a solid grasp of the particulars can give any new attorney a leg up in their practice, says Jordan Davies at Knowles Gallant.

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