LJN Newsletters

  • Procurement Fraud Enforcement

    In Part One of this article, we discussed the fact that each year, the federal government spends several hundred billion dollars to obtain goods and services from corporations and other non-governmental agencies. And we warned that, via new national legislation and investigative initiatives, the attention of Capitol Hill and federal law enforcement offices nationwide is keenly focused on the prevention, detection and punishment of procurement fraud. We discussed recent scandals and prosecutions, the increase in Civil False Claims Act Qui Tam cases, and other things that can take an unwary governmental contractor unawares. We conclude herein with other areas of concern.

    July 30, 2007ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Compliance Lessons from the Chiquita Case

    In March of this year, Chiquita Brands agreed to pay a $25 million criminal fine for payments it made to a paramilitary group in Colombia. The payments were made by the Colombian subsidiary of Chiquita in order to protect the company's employees from threatened violence. Unfavorable press coverage emphasized payments by Chiquita to a 'terrorist group' and downplayed the threats made to Chiquita, which prompted it to make the payments in the first place.

    July 30, 2007Robert Clifton Burns

  • Internet Service Provider Liability

    The liability of an Internet service provider is one of the topics that has been vigorously disputed and discussed in Germany. And given the lack of borders in cyberspace, the outcome could impact e-commerce vendors in the United States and elsewhere.

    July 30, 2007Dr. Katharina Scheja

  • Net News

    Mover Fails to Prove Jurisdiction in Suit over Internet Site
    Filesharing Ruling Against ISP Hailed As Precedent

    July 30, 2007ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • NJ Federal Court Rules Fantasy Sports Is Not Gambling

    Peyton Manning or LaDanian Tomlison? Fantasy sports league enthusiasts can argue over who the top pick will be in this year's draft ' without worrying whether they are participating in illegal gambling after a ruling by a federal judge in New Jersey.

    July 30, 2007Samuel Fineman

  • New Standards for Brady and Giglio Disclosures

    For the past five years, the white-collar criminal-defense bar has been working to enhance the obligations of federal prosecutors to disclose exculpatory and impeaching information under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972), and their progeny. In the past few months, those efforts have begun to bear significant fruit.

    July 30, 2007Robert W. Kent, Jr. and Keenan J. Saulter

  • Federal Judge Gives Clues in YouTube Infringement Case

    A cross-coastal ruling in the little-known predecessor of the epic suit filed in March by Viacom International, Inc. against YouTube, Inc. and its new parent, Google, Inc., elucidates key issues arising under the Digital Milleneum Copyright Act that the a New York federal district judge will likely focus on in the much anticipated and ballyhooed litigation.

    July 30, 2007Samuel Fineman

  • Whole Foods' CEO Mackey: Poster Child for Sock Puppeting's Pitfalls

    Creativity is king, and on the Internet you can be anything imaginable: a man posing as a woman, an undercover agent impersonating a curious boy, or the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company pretending to be an adoring fan of ' himself? So goes the strange tale of John Mackey, the chief executive officer of Whole Foods Market, who used a pseudonymous identity on the Yahoo! message boards for nearly eight years to lambaste competition and promote his supermarket chain's stock, according to documents released by the Federal Trade Commission last month.

    July 30, 2007Samuel Fineman

  • Courts Move to Protect Informants From Web Site

    In response to a controversial Web site that exposes the identities of criminal defendants who have agreed to cooperate with authorities, the federal judges on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania bench have adopted a plan designed to make it impossible for any visitor to the court's Web site to discern whether a defendant is cooperating. The new protocol, adopted last month, is a direct response to the Who's a Rat Web site (www.whosarat.com), and will result in a modification of the docketing of all sentencing and plea documents in all criminal cases.

    July 30, 2007Shannon P. Duffy