Category: Federal Criminal Law

August 17, 2012

Executive’s Internet Searches Give SEC the Road Map to Make an Arrest

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb with insider trading, citing his Internet searches as support that he tried to cover up his illegal acts. As a high-level executive in the treasury department at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Robert D. Ramnarine helped the company target, evaluate, and acquire other pharmaceutical companies…. Read More

August 6, 2012

Judge Clamps Down on DOJ Efforts to Apply U.S. Law Abroad

The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent boasts about rigorous enforcement of the securities laws ran into a significant obstacle this month when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed part of a $50 million securities fraud case and accused DOJ prosecutors of overreaching. In an increasingly global economy, the case is a good measure of… Read More

July 23, 2012

In Effort to Extradite UK Man in Piracy Case, DOJ Is Overreaching

A current anti-piracy case demonstrates the U.S. government’s intent to enforce its copyright laws not just beyond national borders, but beyond the extent of logic. The U.S. Department of Justice has issued an arrest warrant and extradition order for a 24-year-old college student in England who ran a website that contained links to independent websites… Read More

July 9, 2012

What Does One Need to ‘Know’ to Commit a Federal Crime?

On July 2, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit tackled an interesting question of statutory interpretation that centered on the precise usage by Congress of the word “knowingly” in a federal criminal law that prohibits luring people under 18 years old into prostitution. In United States v. Daniels, the appeals court… Read More

April 24, 2012

Worst Part of Wal-Mart Bribery Case Is Failure to Conduct Proper Investigation

Over the weekend, The New York Times broke a major story, publishing a highly detailed 8,000-word article that seems to indicate that Wal-Mart not only engaged in a pattern of bribery of Mexican government officials in the mid-2000s but also that the company intentionally stifled an internal investigation of the alleged bribery and in fact… Read More

April 17, 2012

Since DOJ Won’t Confess Error, It’s Time for Others to Stay on the Case

A Washington Post article today points out that in many cases over the past several decades, federal prosecutors knew that the evidence against a defendant was flawed because the science upon which the conviction had relied was not reliable – yet the prosecutors failed to notify the defendants or their attorneys of the problems. The… Read More

April 9, 2012

Grassley’s Case Against DOJ Stance on Financial Fraud Is Vastly Overstated

In recent weeks, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has criticized the Department of Justice’s handling of executives that some argue are responsible for the financial crisis. Sen. Grassley, the ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, held a hearing in February that looked at mortgage fraud, foreclosure abuse and lending discrimination practices. During… Read More

March 12, 2012

Nevada Case Points to Perils of Assertion of 5th Amendment in Civil Cases

One of the hardest decisions on which a lawyer may be called upon to advise a client in civil litigation is the decision whether to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege. On the one hand, the overlap between pending civil and criminal matters may make it dangerous for the client to make statements that could incriminate… Read More

March 1, 2012

Dismissal of FCPA Cases Represents Cautionary Tale for DOJ

A dramatic, headline-grabbing white-collar crime sting in January 2010 involved the arrest of 22 executives and employees of companies in the military and law enforcement products industry – and ultimately led only to a series of acquittals and mistrials, causing many to wonder whether the case should have been brought at all. After two trials… Read More