Last week on March 30, 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision that significantly helps white collar defendants defend themselves against the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), Internal Revenue Service or whatever agency might be prosecuting them. The Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment…
Last September Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates authored a six point Memorandum that identified how the Department of Justice would more effectively go after individuals responsible for corporate wrongdoing. The theory behind the new found emphasis on going after individuals being that corporations only act through individuals. Please click here…
In today’s business climate we cannot seem to go a few weeks without the next big company fraud that has been foisted upon the public. The current scandal du jour is Volkswagen and tomorrow it will be who knows. At some point however, either as a result of a whistleblower…
Last month a friend reached out and in passing told me things were going great with the technology he was developing. He also mentioned that he was in the process of raising $5M in exchange for an equity interest in his company. “Great”, I said and casually asked if he…
Bank of New York Mellon recently learned the hard way that doing a favor for a client can run afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). How hard was the lesson? The SEC entered an Order that imposed, among other sanctions, a 14.8 million dollar fine merely for the…
The Securities and Exchange Commission reported its first enforcement action earlier this month against a company that inserted restrictive language in an employee confidentiality agreement to impede the whistleblower reporting process. In this action, the SEC charged that engineering firm KBR, Inc. violated whistleblower protection rule 21F-17 under the Dodd-Frank…
On November 13, 2014 the New Jersey Supreme Court added New Jersey to the growing number of states that have established complex business litigation programs. Effective January 1, 2015, designated judges in each county will provide individualized case management to complex commercial and construction cases that meet the required criteria.…
For those of us that actually read the bottom of their lawyer‘s email you probably noticed the arcane “IRS Circular 230 Disclosure” that stated the advice contained in this email is not intended and cannot be used for tax avoidance purposes etc… You then probably thought to yourself, but I…
The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower (OWB) awarded individuals over $14 million in 2013 for their “significant and original contributions” to successful enforcement of the securities laws. The OWB is now in its 3rd full year and the number of tips and complaints is trending upward. OWB reports that it…
Late last year the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had entered into its first deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with an individual who worked in an administrative capacity at a large hedge fund. The DPA allowed the SEC to successfully go after hedge fund manager Berton Hochfield who reportedly…