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White Collar

  • September 26, 2025

    Swizz Beatz Can't Avoid $7.3M 1MDB Fraud Case

    A New York federal judge on Friday denied hip-hop artist Swizz Beatz's bid to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges he received millions of dollars in the infamous 1Malaysia Development Berhad fraud scandal, saying liquidators for two alleged shell companies sufficiently alleged fraudulent transfers of funds among other claims.

  • September 26, 2025

    Semler Scientific, Bard To Pay $37M To End FCA Claims

    The Department of Justice announced on Friday that two companies have agreed to pay nearly $37 million to resolve claims that they knowingly recommended healthcare providers submit erroneous Medicare claims for tests for diagnosing artery disease.

  • September 26, 2025

    Judge Criticizes Push For Harsher Sentence In CytoDyn Case

    A Maryland judge on Friday blasted federal prosecutors for seeking an enhanced sentence for a former biotech executive convicted of fraud for his role in the CytoDyn stock inflation scheme, saying the government wanted a harsher sentence for allegations he was already acquitted of at trial.

  • September 26, 2025

    $33M NJ Mansion Wasn't Chinese Exile's, Holding Co. Says

    A holding company that nominally owns a $33 million New Jersey mansion has asked a Connecticut federal judge to flip a bankruptcy finding that the company was equitably owned by Chinese exile Miles Guo and functioned as his alter ego, arguing the property was actually paid for by Guo's fraud victims.

  • September 26, 2025

    Star Witness Against NJ Sen. Menendez Asks For Leniency

    The government's key witness in the cases against former New Jersey U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife told a New York federal court that because he pled guilty and cooperated, his sentence for admitted bribery and other crimes should be time served, not the years his seven counts could carry.

  • September 26, 2025

    Hong Kong Judge Rules $109M Fraud Dispute Stays In Court

    A Hong Kong judge refused Friday to send a dispute over ownership of a lucrative copper-lead-zinc mine in the Republic of Congo and an alleged $109 million fraudulent transfer to arbitration, rejecting claims asserted by a Chinese state-owned entity that the matter fell under an arbitration clause.

  • September 26, 2025

    Men On NYPD Gang List Fight To Keep Alive Racial Bias Suit

    Three anonymous men on the New York Police Department's list of gang members have urged a federal judge to reject the city's bid to dismiss their putative class action, saying their claims are based on ongoing racial discrimination and civil rights violations.

  • September 26, 2025

    DC Circ. Revives FCA Suit Against US Cellular

    U.S. Cellular Corp. must face a lawsuit from two whistleblowers alleging it used a sham business to fraudulently obtain discounted spectrum licenses through Federal Communications Commission auctions, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday in overturning a lower court.

  • September 26, 2025

    The Comey Case Was Hard To Bring. It May Be Harder To Win.

    The government faces steep challenges in proving key elements of its bare-bones indictment of former FBI Director James B. Comey, including his state of mind during 2020 testimony before Congress and the potential lack of a credible star witness, experts say.

  • September 26, 2025

    Insurer Owes No Defense To HR Co. In Embezzlement Suit

    An insurer for a human resources company had no duty to defend it in a client's lawsuit alleging that a recently hired employee the company had screened embezzled more than $1 million, a California federal court ruled, finding a misappropriation of funds exclusion applied to bar coverage.

  • September 26, 2025

    Operator Of NBA's Suns Says Doc Suit Is For Buyout Leverage

    Phoenix Suns franchise operator Suns Legacy Holdings LLC has pushed back in Delaware Chancery Court against two minority owners seeking access to company records, responding that the demands are aimed at pressuring a higher-priced buyout from the NBA team's majority owner, Mat Ishbia.

  • September 26, 2025

    4th Circ. Says NC Man's Abuse Of Trust Justifies Sentence

    The Fourth Circuit on Friday affirmed a North Carolina man's 33-month sentence for engineering an investment fraud scheme in which he pretended to be a successful day trader, finding he had abused his position of trust sufficient to support a sentencing enhancement.

  • September 25, 2025

    Ex-FBI Head Comey Indicted Days After Va. US Atty Replaced

    A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday indicted former FBI Director James B. Comey on making a false statement and obstruction of Congress charges, just days after Donald Trump's former personal attorney took over as interim U.S. attorney in the district.

  • September 25, 2025

    Girardi's Son-In-Law Urges No Prison For Chicago Contempt

    Tom Girardi's son-in-law has argued he should not receive prison time following his contempt plea over millions of dollars in settlement funds Girardi stole from several Lion Air crash clients, saying he fought for months to get the clients paid but recognizes he "could and should" have done more.

  • September 25, 2025

    'Blessings Thru Crypto' Couple Must Pay $6.8M In CFTC Case

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday announced that two Tennessee residents have been ordered to pay over $6.8 million to end the commission's claims they defrauded more than 100 people with a multimillion-dollar commodity pool.

  • September 25, 2025

    Judge Affirms Fla. Studio Didn't Register Movie Securities

    A Florida federal judge affirmed a ruling that a movie studio company sold $1.2 million in unregistered securities purportedly using blockchain technology to license motion picture rights, saying he wasn't convinced the company qualified for an exemption. 

  • September 25, 2025

    Chicago Man Forged Signatures Of Federal Judges, Feds Say

    A Chicago man has been indicted for forging the signatures of two Illinois federal judges on various court filings in an attempt to get around an order restricting his ability to file new cases, according to an announcement made by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday.

  • September 25, 2025

    Imprisoned Pearl Token Founder Hit With Default In SEC Suit

    The incarcerated founder of an unregistered crypto offering known as Pearl tokens has been barred from issuing, offering or selling securities after failing to respond to parallel U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims.

  • September 25, 2025

    FTC, 19 States Halt Cancer Charity Scheme

    A car donation charity that raised more than $45 million meant for breast cancer screenings agreed Thursday to an injunction barring future charity fundraising to end an enforcement action by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of 19 states over misappropriated donation funds.

  • September 25, 2025

    Ex-FTE CEO Gets 12 Years For $13.6M Accounting Fraud

    The former chairman and CEO of FTE Networks Inc. on Thursday was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a multifaceted $13.6 million ploy to conceal the telecommunications and real estate company's shaky financial condition and embezzle company funds.

  • September 25, 2025

    SEC's $1.2M Deal In EB-5 Fraud Case Gets Judge's OK

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that a Nevada federal court has ordered a real estate developer and one of her companies to pay over $1.2 million to settle the agency's claims that they used $10 million raised from overseas investors hoping to immigrate to the U.S. to instead pay down an unrelated project loan.

  • September 25, 2025

    Convicted Atty Lacks Moral Fitness, Ethics Panel Says

    Connecticut's statewide grievance committee says an attorney convicted 10 years ago for filing false federal tax returns doesn't have the moral character to return to the legal profession.

  • September 25, 2025

    Flagstar Seeks Instant Win In Ex-Live Well VP Fraud Case

    Flagstar Bank has urged a Michigan federal judge to grant it an early win against a former executive of the now-bankrupt Live Well for his role in a scheme to defraud lenders by inflating the value of bonds, saying because the executive already pled guilty to securities fraud, he cannot now deny liability in the bank's civil case.

  • September 25, 2025

    Atty's 'Horrible' Mistake Rooted In Firm Biz, NJ Justices Hear

    Former Sacks Weston attorney Scott Diamond's counsel urged the New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday to refrain from disbarring him for fraudulently resolving cases behind his former firm's back, arguing during a hearing that his actions stemmed from a "bona fide" business dispute.

  • September 25, 2025

    'Jailhouse Lawyer' Gets 16½ Years For Defrauding Inmates

    A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a recidivist fraudster to 16½ years in prison Thursday, saying the "jailhouse lawyer" cheated inmates out of at least $550,000 by getting them to pay for unauthorized legal filings and calling him an "incorrigible" con man.

Expert Analysis

  • How AI Is Easing Digital Asset Recovery In Fraud Cases

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    In combination with recent legislation and a maturing digital asset infrastructure, artificial intelligence tools are making it easier to recover stolen assets, giving litigants a more specific understanding of financial fraud earlier in the process and making it economically feasible to pursue smaller fraud claims, says Solomon Shinerock at Lewis Baach.

  • Fleeing Or Just Leaving Quickly? 2nd Circ. Says It Depends

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    The Second Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Bardakova decision adopted a new approach for determining whether a defendant who commits a crime in the U.S., and then leaves and remains abroad, intends to avoid prosecution — making it more difficult to argue against the fugitive disentitlement doctrine in most cases, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • What 2 Profs Noticed As Transactional Law Students Used AI

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    After a semester using generative artificial intelligence tools with students in an entrepreneurship law clinic, we came away with numerous observations about the opportunities and challenges such tools present to new transactional lawyers, say professors at Cornell Law School.

  • Despite SEC Reset, Private Crypto Securities Cases Continue

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Trump administration has charted a new approach to crypto regulation, the industry still lacks comprehensive rules of the road, meaning private plaintiffs continue to pursue litigation, and application of securities laws to crypto-assets will be determined by the courts, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Crypto Custody Guidelines Buoy Both Banks And Funds

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    A statement released last month by banking regulators — highlighting risks that the agencies expect banks holding crypto-assets to mitigate — may encourage more traditional institutions to offer crypto-asset safekeeping and thereby offer asset managers more options for qualified custodians to custody crypto-assets for their clients, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Reel Justice: 'Eddington' Spotlights Social Media Evidence

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    In the neo-Western black comedy “Eddington” released last month, social media is a character unto itself, highlighting how the boundaries between digital and real-world conduct can become blurred, thereby posing evidentiary challenges in criminal prosecutions, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • Rebuttal

    BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

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    A recent ݮƵ op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

  • What FinCEN's AML Rule Delay Means For Advisers

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    Even with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's statement last month delaying the compliance date for a rule requiring advisers to report suspicious activity, advisers can expect some level of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission oversight in connection with anti-money laundering compliance, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • 5 Ways Lawyers Can Earn Back The Public's Trust

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    Amid salacious headlines about lawyers behaving badly and recent polls showing the public’s increasingly unfavorable view of attorneys, we must make meaningful changes to our culture to rebuild trust in the legal system, says Carl Taylor at Carl Taylor Law.

  • How To Successfully Challenge Jurors For Cause In 5 Steps

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    To effectively challenge a potential juror for cause, attorneys should follow a multistep framework rather than skipping straight to the final qualification question, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Criminal Healthcare Fraud Takeaways From 4th Circ. Reversal

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    After the Fourth Circuit reversed a doctor’s postconviction acquittal in U.S. v. Elfenbein last month, defense attorneys should consider three strategies when handling complex criminal healthcare matters, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Series

    Hiking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    On the trail, I have thought often about the parallels between hiking and high-stakes patent litigation, and why strategizing, preparation, perseverance and joy are important skills for success in both endeavors, says Barbara Fiacco at Foley Hoag.

  • White House Report Strikes An Optimistic Note On Crypto

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    Taking seriously President Donald Trump's pledge to adopt a pro-innovation mindset toward digital assets and blockchain technologies, a recent benchmark White House report on crypto provides a comprehensive regulatory framework that takes into account the products' novel characteristics within the high-tech ecosystem, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • DC Circ. Ruling Augurs More Scrutiny Of Blanket Gag Orders

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    The D.C. Circuit’s recent ruling in In re: Sealed Case, finding that an omnibus nondisclosure order was too sweeping, should serve as a wake-up call to prosecutors and provide a road map for private parties to push back on overbroad secrecy demands, says Gregory Rosen at Rogers Joseph.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Negotiation Skills

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    I took one negotiation course in law school, but most of the techniques I rely on today I learned in practice, where I've discovered that the process is less about tricks or tactics, and more about clarity, preparation and communication, says Grant Schrantz at Haug Barron.

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