With the federal government appropriating more than $2 trillion for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, plaintiffs' lawyers, regulators and politicians have trumpeted the search for whistleblowers — many of whom will try to cash in on perceived fraud in the funding programs created by the CARES Act and other enactments.
Compliance Programs Offer Companies an Opportunity to Mitigate Risk This article outlines the principles of corporate criminal liability, including the factors prosecutors consider when making charging decisions, and the potentially available sanctions in light of applicable U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and offers strategies for minimizing risk, including lessons from recent criminal enforcement actions.
IGs have been part of the federal landscape for more than 40 years, so why all the fuss now? The answer is that they are a key element of the government's built-in mechanisms for protecting the nation's public treasury, and a relief package of this scope strongly indicates that the IGs and the new oversight bodies will spend many years scrutinizing funds spent under it.
There will likely be some fraud in connection with the pandemic-related programs that should be pursued by the DOJ and the Inspectors General, who have said they will keep close eyes on these programs. They will have no shortage of targets, given the many recipients of government funds, and the breadth of the requisite certifications.
New Jersey legislators are joining a growing line of states in proposing a bill to strengthen data privacy protections, following in the footsteps of privacy laws enacted in Europe and California.
Class Action Complaints Test Whether Plaintiffs Can Sue for Any Violation of the CCPA This article provides an overview of how the CCPA addresses private rights of action, summarizes recent class action complaints that attempt to use CCPA violations as the basis for class-wide claims, and provides suggestions for prioritizing activity in CCPA compliance programs in this new litigation environment.
With the advent of stringent privacy regulations in Europe and the United States, corporations are spending more time and money scrambling to ensure their privacy and compliance processes are able to withstand these high levels of scrutiny. At the same time, competition to provide these services is heating up as the Big Four professional services firms plant their stakes more broadly in this fertile ground.
Over 30 trade associations and companies co-signed a letter last month to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asking him to push back the enforcement date for the California Consumer Privacy Act due to the new coronavirus and a lack of clarity on the enforcement rules.
Most companies doing business in California are well aware of the CCPA and prepared diligently in advance of the law's Jan. 1, 2020 compliance deadline. While compliance certainly is key, even compliant businesses must consider — and prepare for — the eventual onslaught of class action litigation that is coming.
