A Blog About Current Issues in White Collar Defense
The U.S. Department of Justice is continuing its crackdown on the online gaming industry. On May 23, 2011, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland unsealed an indictment that charged several poker and gambling sites with illegal gambling and money laundering. Those indicted were ThrillX Systems, Ltd., d/b/a BetEd; Darren Wright; and David Parchomchuk,… Read More
This is the fifth of a regular series of posts that summarize and wrap up our latest thoughts that have appeared recently on Ifrah Law’s blogs. 1. Bank Hit With FCA Complaint Over Mortgage Lending The Justice Department uses a Civil-War era statute in a very unusual context – to try to recover more than… Read More
Having the Federal Trade Commission – or any other government agency – initiate an action against you or your company may seem like very bad news. But it can get much worse. Sometimes, what starts as a civil action by a government regulator can culminate in jail time. This is the hard lesson learned by… Read More
Last October, we reported on a unanimous ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, holding that prosecutors must obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a criminal suspect’s car. The court found in that case that the act of attaching such a device to a suspect’s vehicle is a… Read More
In the wake of the catastrophic consequences of last month’s “Black Friday” for online poker players in the United States, many players are wondering about their next step. Pocketfives.com recently interviewed Congressman Barney Frank and although he agreed that is “difficult to figure out what to do,” he still had some concrete advice for the… Read More
Online poker players in the U.S. were shaken on April 15 when the federal government shut down the country’s three biggest poker websites. Suddenly, players were without their favorite sites and could not access the funds that they kept there. Now, players are beginning to pick up the pieces. Since there is no federal law… Read More
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 More
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 More
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 More
