Bank Hit With FCA Complaint Over Mortgage Lending
On May 3, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil case against Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, asserting that Deutsche Bank was liable for more than $1 billion to the U.S. government for its statements and actions during the mortgage meltdown of the last few years. This case is one of the few…
Read MoreThe Disintegration of White-Collar Criminal Bernie Madoff
In December 2010, Bernie Madoff contacted the Financial Times to say that he was ready for his second prison interview. It had been two years since news broke of Madoff’s 16-year, $65 billion Ponzi scheme, and just 17 months since he began serving his 150-year sentence. By the time he was interviewed, his oldest son,…
Read MoreDOJ Shows Its Continuing Strong Interest in FCPA Violations
Over the course of several years, officials of the United States Department of Justice have made clear the Department’s intent to enforce vigorously the dictates of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In general terms, the FCPA prohibits the offering or giving of things of value to any foreign official to assist in obtaining or…
Read MoreStrike Force Hits Hard at Massive Medicare Fraud
Last month, the Federal Medicare Strike Force charged 111 defendants in nine states for their alleged participation in fraud schemes that reportedly cost Medicare almost a quarter billion dollars. Last month’s sweep resulted from the Justice Department’s and Health and Human Services’ work with the FBI, the HHS inspector general, and various state and local law…
Read MoreThe Great Race: Legal Online Poker Advances in Nevada, Hawaii Legislatures
Hearing Clarifies Issues in Nevada The Nevada Assembly Committee on Judiciary met on March 24, 2011, to discuss AB 258, which would provide for the licensing and operation of Internet poker in Nevada for the first time. Committee members were, not surprisingly, interested in the possible benefit or harm to Nevada’s existing bricks-and-mortar gaming industry…
Read More‘Taking the Fifth’ Before Congress: A New Ethics Twist
It’s unethical for a prosecutor to put a witness on the stand in a criminal trial when he or she knows in advance that the witness is going to take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify at all. Legal ethics authorities reason that the only effect of that kind of testimony is not to…
Read MoreBrady Violation Leads to Reversal of Conviction in D.C.
Editor’s note: This is a guest blog post by David Deitch, a Washington, D.C.-based litigator and the author of the White Collar Criminal Defense Blog. He can be reached at dbdeitch@nulldeitchlawdc.com. According to the D.C. Court of Appeals, when it comes to Brady disclosures, late is not necessarily better than never. In Miller v. United States,…
Read MoreThe Recession’s Effect on Federal Prison Sentences
On March 2, 2011, Jeff Ifrah, founder of Ifrah Law, and Jeffrey Hamlin, an associate in the firm, published the following article in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Prison inmates in the United States may have reason to thank Wall Street for the 2008 recession. The bloated federal deficit is forcing agencies to tighten their budgets, including…
Read MoreBig Boeing Award, New Rules Won’t End DOD Conflicts of Interest
After a decade of delays and embarrassing missteps, on February 24 the Air Force awarded one of the largest contracts in military history, a $35 billion deal to build nearly 200 giant airborne refueling tankers, to the Chicago-based Boeing Company. At one point, the Air Force had awarded the contract to a team composed of…
Read MoreWill the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
As Arizona plans a trial for accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, a new set of questions has arisen: How will a jury be able to sit in impartial judgment, untainted by nonstop online coverage of the crime and its aftermath? What safeguards should a judge impose to keep the jury from following the case…
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