Tag: Bribery
Even Governors Go To Jail
Photo Credit: Steve Helber, AP This afternoon, the long-running saga of Robert McDonnell came to what may be the end (not counting appeals) when the former Virginia Governor was sentenced to serve two years in prison after a jury convicted him of bribery while in office. As with many cases, this one has lessons to… Read More
Does ‘Speech or Debate’ Trump the Right to Defend Oneself in Court?
On February 5, 2013, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives filed a brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to hold that U.S. legislators and their aides cannot be forced to testify about their legislative activities, even when their expected testimony might help exonerate a criminal… Read More
New DOJ Guide on FCPA Provides Guidance, Gives Statute a Broad Reading
After much uncertainty and discussion, the U.S. Department of Justice has finally issued official guidance regarding who qualifies as a “foreign official” under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This guidance was published on November 14, 2012, in the Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a broad guide to enforcement and interpretation… Read More
DOJ Opinion on Key FCPA Issue Makes Sense, But What’s Next?
We have previously advocated for the Department of Justice to employ a more narrow reading of the term “foreign official” in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Therefore, we were pleased to see that the DOJ recently issued an opinion that parsed the definition and came to the conclusion that a member of a foreign royal… Read More
Eleventh Circuit Case Will Test DOJ’s Broad Reading of FCPA
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. While that may seem like a straightforward concept, previous posts on this blog have shown that the precise definition of who constitutes a “foreign official” has long been the subject of much uncertainty, debate, and litigation. The FCPA defines a “foreign official” as… Read More
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
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
Court of Appeals 9th Circuit to D.C. Circuit: We’ll See You in [The Supreme] Court
Yesterday, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit cleared the way for the extortion case against Former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) to proceed to trial. In the process, they flatly disagreed with a 2007 ruling by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on a US representative’s right to advance notice for… Read More
Government Uses Wrong Statute to Prosecute Ex-D.C. Employee
On January 7, 2011, the D.C. Circuit threw out the conviction of former D.C. government employee Ikela Dean, noting that while she might be guilty of something, she was not guilty of the offenses for which she was indicted. Dean, a former employee of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, was involved with reviewing… Read More
Skilling Fallout Doesn’t Spring Ex-Gov From Prison
The Supreme Court’s June decision in United States v. Skilling doesn’t give former Illinois Gov. George Ryan a “get out of jail free” card, a U.S. district judge has ruled. Ryan was convicted in 2006 of a series of fraud, racketeering, and similar crimes growing out of his abuse of public office while he was… Read More
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