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White Collar

  • September 09, 2025

    1st Circ. Urged To Nix $42M Disgorgement In Stock Scheme

    Five alleged participants in a $144 million multinational pump-and-dump scheme asked the First Circuit on Tuesday to vacate a disgorgement order holding them jointly and severally liable for nearly a third of the alleged ill-gotten gains, saying the order is based on "gibberish" records generated by the scheme's mastermind.

  • September 09, 2025

    Mich. Judge Throws Out Charges For Fake Trump 'Electors'

    A Michigan judge on Tuesday dismissed all criminal charges against Republicans accused of acting as fake electors for President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, finding that prosecutors failed to show criminal intent.

  • September 09, 2025

    US Atty Habba Seeks To Nix NJ Mayor's False Arrest Suit

    New Jersey's acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba told a federal judge Tuesday that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's lawsuit over his arrest outside an immigration detention center should be tossed since both the government and Habba are immune from suit, and the court cannot impose a damages remedy under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • September 09, 2025

    4 Possible Factors In Nadine Menendez's Bribery Sentence

    The New York federal judge tasked with sentencing Nadine Menendez in the high-profile public corruption case that also ensnared her husband, a once entrenched New Jersey politician, will weigh a higher number of mitigating factors than in the usual criminal case, leaving her ultimate penalty a question mark to legal observers.

  • September 08, 2025

    NY Supreme Court Says ICE Office At Rikers Order Is Illegal

    A New York state court on Monday ruled that an executive order of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' administration that allowed for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at Rikers Island is "illegal," pointing to Adams' escape of federal corruption charges days ahead of the order being issued.

  • September 08, 2025

    Split Colo. Justices Back DA's Disbarment Over Judge Probe

    The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ruled to uphold a disciplinary board's disbarment of former 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley in a split 4-2 decision that found the issue of whether the presiding disciplinary judge should have recused himself a "close call."

  • September 08, 2025

    10th Circ. Backs Dentist's Murder, Insurance Fraud Convictions

    A dentist convicted of murdering his wife on a hunting trip in Zambia to collect nearly $5 million in life insurance who became the subject of a Hulu documentary must continue to serve a life prison sentence for murder and insurance fraud, the Tenth Circuit ruled on Monday.

  • September 08, 2025

    NY AG To Fight Texas Bid To Enforce Abortion Ban Ruling

    New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday moved to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas that seeks to enforce a money judgment against a New York doctor for providing abortion-inducing drugs to a woman via telemedicine in the Lone Star state.

  • September 08, 2025

    Las Vegas Man Gets 7 Years For $1.4M Fraud Scheme

    A Las Vegas man who pled guilty to charges related to defrauding investors out of $1.4 million, largely for a phony cannabis manufacturing venture, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a New York federal judge in a Friday order that more than doubled the maximum time prosecutors sought.

  • September 08, 2025

    Securities Class Actions Had A Late Summer Appellate Bloom

    While the later summer months are often a quiet time for the nation's courts, the federal appellate courts were hard at work this past July and August issuing important rulings on class certification standards for shareholder lawsuits and handing down split-panel decisions over the future of disclosure litigation.

  • September 08, 2025

    Ex-Trader Barred By SEC In Insider Trading Plea Deal

    A former Irving Investors LLC trader has agreed to disgorge insider trading gains, to be banned from buying or selling securities based on nonpublic information and to stop communicating nonpublic information to others, all under an SEC enforcement action that parallels a recent criminal plea agreement.

  • September 08, 2025

    Jury For Ex-Conn. Official Unlikely To Hear About Other Pleas

    A federal jury scheduled to hear a former Connecticut budget official's corruption trial in less than a month should not be told that three construction executives pled guilty to conspiring to bribe him, a judge said Monday, agreeing that the evidence would cause unfair prejudice.

  • September 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Trump Donor's Tax, Foreign Agent Convictions

    A venture capitalist whose 12-year prison term for evading taxes and making illegal campaign contributions through foreign clients was commuted by President Donald Trump did not plead guilty to the crimes involuntarily, the Ninth Circuit found in affirming his convictions, rejecting his claim that his attorney hid information from him.

  • September 08, 2025

    Penny Stock Trader Denies SEC Claims At Trial Despite Plea

    An Ohio salesman who in 2022 copped to fraudulently pumping a lone penny stock on Twitter told a Manhattan federal jury Monday that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suit alleging he pilfered $2.5 million via dozens of such schemes seeks to punish him for everyday, lawful behavior.

  • September 08, 2025

    Court Says Claim For Coverage Declaration Is Untimely

    A wiring manufacturer demanding coverage from a Nationwide unit for nearly $32 million in outstanding defense costs over claims it violated federal bribery and accounting laws filed its claim for declaratory judgment too late, a Delaware federal court ruled, pointing to the state's three-year statute of limitations for contract-related actions.

  • September 08, 2025

    Appeal Limited To NJ US Atty DQ Ruling, 3rd Circ. Told

    The federal government and defense counsel have agreed that the scope of a Third Circuit appeal is limited to the disqualification of New Jersey Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from overseeing two cases.

  • September 08, 2025

    Ballard Spahr Touts Hire Of Accomplished SDNY Prosecutor

    Ballard Spahr announced Monday that it has hired a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, touting her years of work on headline-grabbing white collar fraud and cybercrime cases.

  • September 08, 2025

    Musk Can't Avoid In-Person Deposition In Severance Battle

    Elon Musk must appear in person for a deposition in a federal benefits lawsuit by ex-Twitter executives alleging the tech mogul fired them to escape paying millions in severance, a California federal judge ruled, rejecting a remote proceedings request he based partly on threats to personal safety.

  • September 08, 2025

    Trump Loses 2nd Circ. Appeal Of $83M Carroll Verdict

    A Second Circuit panel on Monday upheld an $83.3 million award against President Donald Trump for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019 in the wake of her sexual assault allegations, rejecting his claims of presidential immunity.

  • September 05, 2025

    SEC Lost Year's Worth Of Gary Gensler Texts, Watchdog Says

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made "avoidable errors" that caused the agency to lose all text messages sent and received by former chair Gary Gensler for nearly a year of his tenure, some of which haven't been recovered, according to a report from the SEC's Office of Inspector General.

  • September 05, 2025

    Near Ch. 11 Litigation Trustee Sues MobileFuse In Del.

    A litigation trustee for bankrupt data analytics company Near Intelligence Inc. has sued New York-based digital ad company MobileFuse LLC in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Delaware, alleging a multiyear circular payment conspiracy that cost Near more than $50.7 million.

  • September 05, 2025

    SEC, CFTC Set Sights On Crypto In Regulatory Collab

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday they are moving forward with a broad regulatory harmonization effort that they hope will encourage innovation in growing markets, and lawyers tell À¶Ý®ÊÓÆµ they expect the focus to be writing rules governing the crypto sector.

  • September 05, 2025

    2nd Circ. Backs Ex-Pfizer Worker's Insider Trading Conviction

    The Second Circuit on Friday affirmed a former Pfizer Inc. statistician's insider trading conviction for making $272,000 in options trades from nonpublic news about the success of trials for the COVID-19 therapy drug Paxlovid, rejecting his arguments that prosecutors improperly shifted their legal theory at trial and pursued the case in the wrong venue.

  • September 05, 2025

    Fla. Judge Trims Trump Media SPAC Exec Hacking Suit

    A Florida federal judge has sent into discovery a suit alleging a board director for President Donald Trump's social media company and his associate hacked a cloud server to steal documents used to oust the former CEO of the company, finding that several computer fraud and conspiracy claims fail but allowing a breach of fiduciary duty claim to move forward.

  • September 05, 2025

    DOJ Pushes To DQ Attorney Over Conflict In Fraud Case

    Federal prosecutors in Georgia are seeking to disqualify an attorney from representing a defendant accused of making false statements in relation to a criminal fraud investigation of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Inc., arguing the lawyer was previously disqualified from representing the company's CEO for a conflict and that "the same is true now."

Expert Analysis

  • Compliance Essentials To Mitigate AI Crime Enforcement Risk

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    As artificial intelligence systems move closer to accurately mimicking human decision-making, companies must understand how the U.S. Department of Justice might prosecute them for crimes committed by AI tools — and how to mitigate enforcement risks, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Attorney To BigLaw

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    When I transitioned to private practice after government service — most recently as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — I learned there are more similarities between the two jobs than many realize, with both disciplines requiring resourcefulness, zealous advocacy and foresight, says Zach Terwilliger at V&E.

  • How The DOJ Is Redesigning Its Approach To Digital Assets

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    Two key digital asset enforcement policy pronouncements narrow the Justice Department's focus on threats like fraud, terrorism, trafficking and sanctions evasion and dial back so-called regulation by prosecution, but institutions prioritizing compliance must remember that the underlying statutory framework hasn't changed, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • At 'SEC Speaks,' Leaders Frame New Views

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    At the Practising Law Institute's recent SEC Speaks conference, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission leadership highlighted the agency's significant priority changes, including in enforcement, crypto and artificial intelligence, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Measuring The Impact Of Attorney Gender On Trial Outcomes

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    Preliminary findings from our recent study on how attorney gender might affect case outcomes support the conclusion that there is little in the way of a clear, universal bias against attorneys of a given gender, say Jill Leibold, Olivia Goodman and Alexa Hiley at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • The Ins And Outs Of Consensual Judicial References

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    As parties consider the possibility of judicial reference to resolve complex disputes, it is critical to understand how the process works, why it's gaining traction, and why carefully crafted agreements make all the difference, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Staying The Course Amid Seismic DOJ White Collar Changes

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    While some of the big changes at the U.S. Department of Justice during the second Trump administration — like an embrace of cryptocurrency and more politicized prosecutions — were expected, there have also been surprises, so practitioners should advise clients to stay focused on white collar compliance in this unpredictable environment, say attorneys at Keker.

  • Opinion

    The BigLaw Settlements Are About Risk, Not Profit

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    The nine Am Law 100 firms that settled with the Trump administration likely did so because of the personal risk faced by equity partners in today's billion‑dollar national practices, enabled by an ethics rule primed for modernization, says Adam Forest at Scale.

  • DOJ Could Target Journalists Under Media Policy Reversion

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently announced media policy largely mirrors policies in effect from 2014 to 2020, but ambiguities in key statutory terms could allow the administration to apply it to journalists in new ways and expand investigations beyond leaks of classified information, says Julie Edelstein at Wiggin.

  • 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.

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