Too Little, Too Late for Defense Argument?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit is considering whether the government’s belated disclosure of potentially exculpatory evidence deprived criminal defendant Amit Mathur of a fair trial. The fact that Mathur’s counsel received some of the evidence after the government’s case in chief and declined to use it in Mathur’s defense makes it…
Read MoreFourth Amendment the Loser in BALCO Ruling
A recent ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is a win for Major League Baseball players whose drug-testing records must now be returned to them after they were improperly seized in a 2002 federal steroids probe. But it’s not a win for Fourth Amendment values. In a September 13, 2010,…
Read MoreFor Convicted CEO, Legal Fee Payment Depends on the Agreement
When is a company obliged to pay the legal fees of a wayward employee? The answer generally depends on the precise wording of the employee agreement, if an agreement exists. A good case in point is the recent one of Frances Flood, the CEO of ClearOne Communications, who left the company in 2004 while…
Read MoreImpeachment Trial of Federal Judge Raises Issue of ‘Kickbacks’
The impeachment trial of U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. is continuing before a U.S. Senate committee. Porteous, a federal judge in New Orleans, is accused of four counts of corruption. Each count is referred to as an article of impeachment. The first article of impeachment involves what some have described as a “kickback”…
Read MoreWhy Did Craigslist End ‘Adult Services’ Section?
We noted last May that the popular Craigslist website faced major flak from state attorneys general and from anti-prostitution groups over its “Adult Personals” section, which many say was a thinly veiled venue for prostitution. On September 3, Craigslist abruptly discontinued the “Adult Personals” section and replaced the link with the word “Censored.” Craigslist didn’t…
Read MoreMd. Case: An Issue of Medical Judgment or Criminal Fraud?
On September 1, 2010, John R. McLean, a former cardiologist based in Salisbury, Md., was indicted by a federal grand jury for health care fraud and for making false statements to Medicare and Medicaid. McLean is charged with performing operations to insert stents – devices to treat coronary disease – in the arteries of patients…
Read MoreA Conservative Argument For Legalizing Online Gambling
Conservative columnist Michelle Minton just wrote an interesting op-ed piece for Forbes.com on why Republicans, and by extension, conservatives in general, should favor legalized Internet gambling. Minton’s arguments come in the wake of the recent passage by the House Financial Services Committee of a bill that would legalize Internet gambling, including online poker, in the…
Read MoreLesson From Ex-Congressman’s Plight: Follow Rules, Come Clean
Federal prosecutors often take very seriously the prohibitions on illegal lobbying and on withholding the truth from the FBI. That’s one of the lessons that former U.S. Rep. Mark Siljander probably learned last month when he pleaded guilty to two federal charges relating to his alleged ties to an Islamic charity claimed to have funded…
Read MoreIn Lerach Case, An Interesting Sentencing Distinction
The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles just took an interesting and nuanced position concerning a very high-profile request for community service as part of a guilty plea. Disgraced plaintiffs attorney William Lerach pleaded guilty in 2007 to a charge of conspiring to obstruct justice and make false statements in many of his law firm’s…
Read MoreHonest Services Fraud — Still Alive and Kicking?
We wrote recently that the very recent Supreme Court decision in United States v. Skilling, limiting the reach of the federal “honest services” statute, may have an immediate impact on the ongoing case against Kevin A. Ring, a former associate of Jack Abramoff. See “Skilling Having Impact on Pending Honest Services Fraud Cases,” July 28,…
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