Ninth Circuit Upholds Dramatic Upward Departure in Fraud Case
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a very large upward departure by a U.S. District Judge in Nevada of more than 17 years above the recommended range under the Sentencing Guidelines, based on conduct that the defendant was never convicted of or even charged with. In this highly unusual…
Read MoreFive Years Later, Skilling’s Sentence Is Still Up in the Air
On Sunday, October 16, 2011, an op-ed article by founding partner Jeff Ifrah and associate Jeff Hamlin appeared in the Houston Chronicle. The article discusses the upcoming resentencing of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and the fact that it is now close to the fifth anniversary of his conviction. The following is the full text…
Read MoreJudge Awards $1.7 Million to Defendant in EPA Malicious Prosecution Case
On September 30, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ordered the United States to pay $1.7 million in a malicious prosecution lawsuit to Hubert Vidrine, based on findings that the U.S. government had maliciously prosecuted Vidrine for alleged environmental crimes. This is a rare ruling by a federal court requiring…
Read MoreDistrict Judge Orders Much-Reduced Sentence in Fraud Case
A federal judge has made a major reversal in the case of Steve Warshak, the Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals founder who was sentenced to 25 years for defrauding customers who bought his “male enhancement” pills, which were advertised in the notorious “Smiling Bob” ad campaign. We have discussed Warshak’s case in a previous blog post. Warshak…
Read MoreJudge Imposes Draconian Sentences in Medicare Fraud Scheme
On Sept. 16, 2011, a federal judge in Miami sentenced Lawrence Duran to 50 years in prison, the longest sentence ever imposed in a Medicare fraud case, for his role in a massive fraud scheme that resulted in more than $205 million in losses. Duran was also ordered to pay $87 million in restitution. Duran…
Read MoreAppeals Court Limits Scope of ‘Intended Loss’ in Sentencing Guidelines
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit recently considered what type of proof is required for a sentence enhancement based on “intended loss” under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The court held that a loss enhancement applies only to losses the defendant purposely sought to inflict, not losses the defendant merely knew would occur…
Read MoreNo Attorney’s Fee Award for This Type of Prosecutorial Misconduct
The case of United States v. Shaygan recently made the news when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overturned a district court’s award of $600,000 in attorney’s fees to a defendant who was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct. The misconduct was indeed egregious — including recording conversations between a lawyer and a…
Read MoreProsecutors’ Misconduct Is More Than Just ‘Honest Mistakes’
A federal judge in the District of Columbia recently ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice will be allowed to retry star pitcher Roger Clemens on perjury charges after a mistrial was declared earlier this summer when the prosecution made reference to inadmissible evidence in open court. The government claimed that its violation of court…
Read MoreJudge Delivers Rebuke to Prosecutors in Sentencing NSA Official
The recent sentencing of a government intelligence official saw a dramatic and unusual rebuke of the U.S. Department of Justice by a federal judge. Four years after searching the home of National Security Agency official Thomas Drake, who was suspected of illegally leaking classified information to a reporter, and more than year after actually indicting…
Read MoreMajor FCPA Case in Jeopardy Because of Prosecutors’ Errors
In late June, U.S. District Court Judge Howard Matz of the Central District of California, the judge in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case against Lindsey Manufacturing Co. and two of its executives, invited both sides to submit briefs on the question of whether the defendants’ convictions should be dismissed. It had been revealed…
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