Features
The False Claims Act Seal: Does It Bind and Gag the Defendant?
<b><i>Part One of a Two-Part Article</i></b><p>A company that finds itself the target of a federal fraud investigation often faces the fraught question of whether it may, or even must, disclose the existence of that investigation to third parties, such as its investors, shareholders, major creditors, or insurers. The question can be even more complicated if that investigation is being pursued under the False Claims Act and arises as the result of a sealed <i>qui tam</i> complaint.
Features
New-Wave Legal Challenges for Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies
As the adoption of cryptocurrencies spreads throughout the business and financial sectors, so too do the concerns that lack of regulation render the new-age currency susceptible to fraud, manipulation, and to being used as a vehicle for money laundering. Nevertheless, recent efforts by U.S. enforcement agencies to apply and enforce financial regulations mean greater scrutiny than ever before.
Features
The Rise of the Travel Act
The DOJ continues to prioritize health care anti-fraud enforcement through the aggressive use of different statutes and investigative methods. Now, the government is putting a 60-year-old tool to a new use: It is using the federal Travel Act to pursue criminal charges against health care entities in connection with health care bribery/kickback schemes. This article discusses these recent actions and the potential ramifications of the expansion of the scope of the Travel Act.
Features
Antitrust Corporate Dispositions
This article provides critical background on DOJ policy and practice, and highlights some of the steps corporate counsel — as well as "spin-off" counsel for individual employees — can take during leniency or plea negotiations to secure non-prosecution protection for the company's employees as part of any antitrust corporate disposition.
Features
The Arrival of Justice Gorsuch May Bring Opportunity to Reform the Collective Entity Doctrine
Recognizing a Fifth Amendment privilege for corporations — whether through wholesale abolition of the collective entity doctrine or by recognizing some limited exception for custodians of smaller corporations — would not foreclose meaningful white-collar prosecutions, but it would restore protection of the Fifth Amendment rights of individuals who are sacrificed under the current bright-line rule. Will Justice Gorsuch help in this endeavor?
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance ProgramsThe parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.Read More ›
- Removing Restrictive Covenants In New YorkIn Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?Read More ›
- Read This Before You Set Your 2018 Billing RatesSetting the next year's billing rates follows a simple formula at most firms: last year's rate plus a common percentage increase across all lawyer cohorts. A more disaggregated approach is needed -- firms should set higher percentage increases for senior lawyers and lower increases for junior lawyers.Read More ›
