Commercial Law

A look at the largest ever global bribery case.

The number of lawsuits brought under the False Claims Act (FCA) continues to increase. In 2015 alone, relators filed over 600 qui tam complaints — and courts awarded over $3.5 billion — under the FCA.

Comparing the success of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in extracting guilty pleas from companies for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) with the DOJ's notable trial failures in FCPA matters brought against individuals is particularly instructive when we are discussing individual versus corporate criminal accountability, as we did in the first part of this article.
Part Two of a Two-Part Article

Among the first things we learn as defense attorneys is to keep informed and alert about events that may spawn or affect actions taken by prosecutors. This article sets forth an example of how one stays sensitive to what may be happening in the closed venues of prosecutors' offices.

In September 2016, a national title company invoked the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) when it raised an exception on a title commitment for the sale of real property upon which a grocery store was a tenant. The title company asked the owner to execute an affidavit and indemnity in the title company's favor with regard to any PACA liens incurred by the tenant. This new exception has elicited a fair amount of confusion as to why an 86-year-old statute would suddenly present a cloud on title.

Data security in the financial and legal industries is a tale of two sectors. While the financial industry is heavily regulated and constantly watched by federal agencies, law has at times operated in an almost laissez-faire environment, more ruled by a culture of confidentiality and secrecy than hard regulatory rules.

When the Supreme Court last year agreed to hear the defendant's appeal in United States v. Salman, it raised expectations in some quarters that it might significantly change insider trading law by curtailing liability for trading on tips from family members. But when it issued its opinion in December, it disappointed those expectations by unanimously reaffirming liability for trading on family tips, even where the tipper receives no monetary gain.

It is expected that equipment and software investment for 2016 will ultimately close down 1.1%, including three consecutive quarters of declining growth. This trend is expected to reverse in the new year, however, as investment in equipment and software is expected to grow 3.0% in 2017, according to the Annual 2017 Equipment Leasing & Finance U.S. Economic Outlook released by the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.