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Business Crimes Bulletin
DOJ Corporate Enforcement Guidelines Are Placing Individual Defendants Between a Rock and a Whirlpool
David S. Krakoff, Bradley A. Marcus and Nadav Ariel
For companies suspected of wrongdoing, cooperating with DOJ investigations and self-disclosing their misconduct often appears to be their only option to avoid prosecution and reduce large financial penalties. But, these benefits often come at a price, especially to company employees who are caught in the middle.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
10 Common Mistakes When Dealing With DOJ Antitrust Criminal Prosecutors
Eric M. Meiring
Corporate counsel should be aware of the following 10 common mistakes that practitioners make when representing clients in criminal antitrust matters.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Supreme Court Forecloses Reimbursement for Certain Internal Investigations Under Mandatory Victims Restitution Act
Marjorie Peerce and Mary K. Treanor
In Lagos v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate victims of criminal offenses cannot recover expenses incurred from internal investigations that the federal government has neither requested nor required under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996,
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Get It in Writing: Deducting False Claims Act Payments
Ashley M. Drake and Joseph F. Savage, Jr.
In fiscal year 2017, the DOJ collected more than $3.7 billion dollars from False Claims Act (FCA) cases — part of the $86 billion it has collected from FCA cases since 1986. States and municipalities are aggressively pursuing FCA recoveries as well. Whether or not such payments are deductible as business expenses under the Internal Revenue Code is an important consideration when negotiating a settlement with the government.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Unprepared for a Cyberattack? The DOJ Wants to Change That
Phillip Bantz
New U.S. Department of Justice Cybersecurity Guidelines Stress Preparedness Amid Reports That Many Organizations Have Failed to Plan for a Breach
Data protection tips are virtually everywhere these days. So it’s hardly surprising that the U.S. Department of Justice has released new guidelines on that very topic. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre is poised to follow suit.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Debtor v. UST: The Battleground Over Retention of a Chief Restructuring Officer
Mark S. Melickian and Jack O’Connor
The battle over retaining a chief restructuring officer, which the United States Trustee has traditionally not objected to, is heating up.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Washington’s FARA Frenzy Spurs New Legal Business
Ryan Lovelace
The FARA feeding frenzy had already been building in recent years, but it gained traction in the months since Manafort's indictment last fall.
The U.S. Justice Department’s aggressive enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) has drawn blood throughout the consultant class in Washington, with lawyers assessing the casualties and prowling for new business.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
In the Courts
Colleen Snow
Former CFO of Bankrate Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for $25 Million Fraud Scheme
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Business Crimes Hotline
Collen Snow
Petrobras Pays $853.2 Million to U.S. and Brazil Authorities to Settle FCPA Charges
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Coordination or Duplication? DOJ Adopts New Policy to Prevent ‘Piling On’ of Corporate Penalties
Jonathan B. New and Victoria L. Stork
In May 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new policy to address a growing problem in white-collar criminal and civil enforcement. With increased…
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Business Crimes Bulletin
The DOJ’s Latest Opioid Crime-Fighting Tool: The Civil False Claims Act
Nekia Hackworth Jones
The U.S. Department of Justice Is Now Using The False Claims Act — Traditionally a Civil Enforcement Tool — to Combat the United States’ Sweeping Opioid Epidemic
The use of the FCA is part of a larger DOJ strategy to develop multi-faceted solutions for this public health emergency.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Supreme Court Ties SEC’s Hands in Whistleblower Case
Janice G. Inman
With its decision in Digital Realty v. Somers, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to companies interested in learning of their own securities violations before the government gets the heads-up. The case’s outcome means whistleblowers who might have reported violations internally will be incentivized to bypass their own companies’ compliance mechanisms in favor of immediate reporting to the SEC.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
DOL’s New Rules on ERISA Claims Procedure for Disability Benefits
Lawrence L. Bell
The Department of Labor (DOL) issued regulations that revise the ERISA claims procedure regulations for employee benefit plans that provide disability benefits. The scope of the new regulations are broader than you may realize and apply to any plan, regardless of how it is characterized, that provides benefits or rights that are contingent on whether the plan determines an individual to be disabled.
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Court of Appeals Reaffirms that Deference Is Alive and Well When It Comes to Substantive Requirements of SEQRA EISs
Steven C. Russo and Evan Preminger
The New York Court of Appeals has long established that an agency’s assessment of environmental impacts pursuant to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, is entitled to substantial deference, admonishing lower courts that it is not their role to substitute their judgment for the judgment of agencies undertaking the action. Sometimes, however, lower courts give lip service to the deferential standard of review but fail to apply it.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Compliance Officers: Law Enforcement Partners or Targets?
Jonathan B. New and Patrick T. Campbell
Part One of a Two-Part Article
Part One of this article examines key actions brought by U.S. regulators against compliance officers in 2017 based on their failures to ensure that their firms maintain effective compliance and AML programs.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
The Recent Court and Regulatory Battles Behind the Net Neutrality Controversy
Barry Skidelsky
Though it has been a news focus recently, the legal issue of “net neutrality,” or an open Internet, has been a point of contention between Internet access providers and network users since the mid-1990s. Both sides have zealously but unsuccessfully lobbied Congress with multiple efforts to have desired legislation passed. This has left us instead with shifting regulatory actions taken by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attempting to address the issue.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
Federal Circuit Holds That PTAB’s Determination on Whether the One Year Time-Bar Is Triggered in Inter Partes Review Is Reviewable on Appeal
Jon E. Wright and Pauline M. Pelletier
On Jan. 8, 2018, the Federal Circuit issued its significant en banc decision in Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom. In that decision, the Federal Circuit held that the time-bar of 35 U.S.C. §315(b) is reviewable on appeal, thus overturning a prior panel decision and opening the door for parties to challenge how the USPTO has interpreted and applied that statutory provision.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
Federal Circuit Holds Scandalous or Immoral Marks Entitled to Registration
Stacey C. Kalamaras
Refusal Is an Unconstitutional Violation of Free Speech
On Dec. 15, 2017, a unanimous Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that despite Appellant’s mark comprising “immoral or scandalous” matter, the PTO could no longer refuse federal registration of such marks on the grounds that this refusal violated the free speech clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
SEC’s New Cyber Unit Moves to Tackle ‘Scam’ Coin Offering
Ben Hancock
In the First Enforcement Action Initiated By Its New “Cyber Unit,” the SEC Announced It Has Secured a Court Order to Freeze the Assets of Individuals Behind a “Scam” Initial Coin Offering
In the first enforcement action initiated by its new “Cyber Unit,” the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced it has secured a court order to freeze the assets of individuals behind a “scam” initial coin offering, or ICO.
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The Rescue Effort for AIA Patent Trials Is Underway in SCOTUS
The U.S. solicitor general, law professors, nonprofits and even one pharma company make the case for saving the Patent and Trial Appeal Board as a cost-effective mechanism for challenging patents.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
FTC's Letter to Paid 'Influencers'
C. Ryan Barber
In the digital age, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been keeping tabs on the growing trend of brands hiring so-called "influencers" — athletes, celebrities and others with large followings — to promote their products on social media. In April, the FTC turned its attention downstream to the "influencers" themselves, sending 90 letters to influencers and marketers informing them of their responsibility to "clearly and conspicuously" disclose the business relationships behind social media posts.
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Internet Law & Strategy
FTC Tells Paid 'Influencers' to Disclose When Instagram Posts Are #Ads
C. Ryan Barber
The consumer agency has taken the view that advertisement — without proper disclosures — can mislead consumers. The agency has previously put the burden of ensuring proper disclosure on the brands. On April 19, the FTC turned its attention downstream to the "influencers" themselves.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
SEC Takes Aim at Political Contributions By Investment Advisers
Joseph F. Savage, Jr. and Stephanie M. Aronzon
While it remains unclear both when the regulators will invoke their authority to enforce the nearly limitless strict liability provision of the "pay-to-play" rules and how they will determine the appropriate remedy, the recent settlements and the SEC's handling of exemptive relief petitions may provide some clues.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Future Shock? Uncertainty over Long-Term Effects of the FCC Privacy Rules Repeal
Rhys Dipshan
The Repeal May Open Up ISPs to Future Legal Challenges on How and When They Can Sell Their Customer's Private Data
While the recent repeal of the Federal Communications Commissions' (FCC) broadband privacy rules have caused an uproar over what many may see as lagging federal data privacy protections, it does little to change how broadband ISPs handle their users' data.
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