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Business Crimes Bulletin
Climate Change Risk and Disclosure: A New Focus for SEC Enforcement
Jacqueline C. Wolff
Given the massive amount of dollars being poured into ESG funds and the SEC’s renewed focus on both the funds and the companies in the funds, there is no time like the present for companies to engage in an assessment of their climate risks and how these risks and the status of the companies’ ESG goals are being relayed to investors.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Government Looking Into Insider Trading By Tipping Block Trades
Michael Miller and Daniel Podair
How the government might frame insider trading cases based on allegations of tipping before the execution of block trades in securities.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Individual Liability and Criminalizing Cybersecurity Response
Jonathan S. Sack and Christopher M. Hurley
To date, cybersecurity has generally been viewed as an organizational responsibility, and data breaches similarly have been treated as organizational weaknesses or failures. Against this backdrop of organizational responsibility, the Department of Justice has brought a noteworthy criminal case against an individual for his personal response to a corporate data breach.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Repairing the Foreign Agents Registration Act
Harry Sandick and George Carotenuto
In recent years, mostly due to the well-publicized prosecution of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, FARA has become more of a focus for federal prosecutors. As a result, white-collar attorneys have been consulted more often about whether particular conduct requires registration under the Act.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
SCOTUS Hears Arguments In Doctors’ Good Faith Defense to Prescribing Controlled Substances
By Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert
When is a doctor a doctor and when is a doctor a drug dealer? In early March, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in two consolidated cases — Ruan v. United States and Kahn v. United States — to address where that line is drawn.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Strategies for Advising Foreign Clients As DOJ Pursues Extraterritorial Criminal Cases
Emil Bove
This article addresses some issues to consider, including foreign arrest procedures, contesting extradition, and engaging with prosecutors before a defendant arrives in the United States.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Crypto Executive Order ‘Both a Landmark and a Question Mark’
Andrew Goudsward
The Biden administration released its long awaited executive order on cryptocurrency, directing a range of federal agencies to study and assess a litany of issues related to digital assets, including cybersecurity, money laundering and climate impact.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
The FTC Gets Into the College Athlete NIL Game
Nicole Demas, L. Andrew Tseng and Sean P. McConnell
As national champions are crowned in men’s and women’s basketball, hundreds of thousands of college athletes are entering the influencer marketplace for the first time and now find themselves attractive candidates in the fast growing influencer marketing arena. With influencer marketing potentially providing a 5x return on investment, many brands are eager to get into the industry, but it doesn’t come without risks as the FTC Commissioner is taking a closer look at the use of influencers for marketing.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
First Dark Web Insider Trading Case Shows Government Active In Policing Tech
Ian McGinley
In a first of its kind prosecution, the Southern District of New York brought an insider trading case against defendant for selling inside information on the Dark Web. The SEC also brought a civil regulatory action against the defendant for the same conduct. In a rare move, however, SDNY and SEC charged this same conduct under different insider trading statutes. This difference underscores the legal complexities involved when the origin of inside information in the digital world is unknown.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Second Circuit ‘Connolly’ Ruling Shows Limits of Mail and Wire Fraud Statutes
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan Sack
The Connolly decision draws attention to the limits of the mail/wire fraud statutes — laws that are quite expansive but can also be stretched too far when applied to conduct in financial markets, especially markets tied to opaque rules and practices.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Inside Cryptocurrency Pump-and-Dump Schemes
Jonathan Bick
Cryptocurrency pump-and-dump schemes (CPDs) are becoming increasingly prevalent. As in the case of traditional “pump and dump” schemes, CPDs lead to short-term trading perturbations — exaggerated increases and/or decreases in prices, volume, or volatility.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity Litigation
Annie Railton, James Gatta, Jud Welle and Emily Notini
While the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Examining the SEC’s Rulemaking Process
Jonathan S. Sack and Penina Moisa
SEC Chair Gary Gensler's agenda raises important questions of both substance and process, including the technical, but very important, matter of SEC rulemaking: What is required for the Commission to create new rules, or change well-established rules? The answers to these questions, in turn, may determine what can realistically be accomplished given timing and political constraints.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
DOJ 2021 Fraud Section Report Shows COVID Effect Dissipating
Kevin Muhlendorf
Although billed as an annual look-back, the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Fraud Section annual report provides important insight for individuals, entities, and their lawyers as to where the Fraud Section is setting its sights for 2022 and beyond.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Mail and Wire Fraud Post 'Kelly v. United States'
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack
This article discusses the holding by the U.S. Supreme Court Kelly v. U.S. and explains its impact on subsequent cases and concludes with a discussion of the “right to control” theory of mail and wire fraud, which has been challenged in light of the Kelly decision.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Anti-Bullying and Corporate Responsibility
Michael W. Peregrine
As boards implement anti-bullying policies to protect against a toxic management-to-employee workplace environment, they should also consider extending similar protection to the vital interactions between the general counsel and the CEO.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Insurance Fraud Remains Key Area of Government Focus
Michael A. Sirignano
During the past year, there were important government reports examining the defrauding of health insurance programs, new trends and government initiatives relating to fraud, and insurance fraud cases involving significant numbers of defendants. When added together, it is not difficult to understand why insurance fraud remains such a key area of focus for government officials, carriers and attorneys.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Fourth Circuit: Shareholders Face High Bar In Demonstrating Scienter
Michael W. Mitchell and Edward Roche
A recent Fourth Circuit decision held that shareholders must meet a high bar in demonstrating scienter to avoid early dismissal of the case. The decision also shows the fact-intensive approach courts use to distinguish fraudulent statements from those that, even if mistaken, were made innocently.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Biden Administration Corporate Enforcement Policies More Symbolism than Effective Reform
Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert
By undoing some of the higher profile policy changes of the prior administration that many perceived as business-friendly, the current administration has served notice on the business and financial community of a return to practices characteristic of a more aggressive enforcement regime.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
With ‘Great Resignation’, Corporations Need to Prepare for the Great Investigation
Veeral Gosalia
Major crisis events, such as political uprisings or financial downturns, are typically followed by an increase in fraud in the business sector and heightened risk to corporate IP and other sensitive information. Anecdotally, this seems to be proving out again in the recent and ongoing fallout from the pandemic. Even before this Great Resignation movement, corporations across the globe were reporting increases in suspicious activity, data leakage, IP theft and other data risks stemming from departing employees and remote workers.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Potential Criminal and Civil Penalties of Digital Asset Exchanges
Nola B. Heller and Samson Enzer
This article discusses the potential criminal and civil penalties that companies can face if their employees engage in insider trading in digital assets, and suggests several measures that exchanges can take to reduce their exposure from such risks.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Feds Jumping Into Corporate Privacy and Cybersecurity Enforcement
David Saunders and Julian L. André
The past 12 months have seen a steady drumbeat of action by federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies of which in-house counsel should take note. Whether new guidance, regulation, investigations, or enforcement activity, the message is clear: The federal government is paying close attention to how companies are handling and protecting their data — especially consumer and sensitive data.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Can A Private Citizen Perform An Official Act?
Harry Sandick and George Fleming
This article discusses the importance of the “official act” requirement established in McDonnell v. United States, and how its logic should lead to a parallel requirement that private citizens should not be chargeable with the commission of official acts as part of a scheme to deprive the public of honest services.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Being Selective: How Companies May Best Protect Privilege When Cooperating With a Government Investigation
Jonathan B. New, Patrick T. Campbell and Francesca Rogo
This article explores a key consideration for companies under government investigation: whether voluntary disclosure of privileged information in an effort to obtain cooperation credit waives the privilege vis-à-vis third parties in subsequent litigation.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Implications of Second Circuit Ruling on Fugitive Disentitlement
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack
Historically, the “fugitive disentitlement” doctrine has foreclosed challenges to criminal charges by a defendant who does not physically submit to a U.S. court’s jurisdiction. As a consequence, to make even threshold challenges to an indictment, a defendant who lives abroad must leave home, waive the right to oppose extradition, and risk pre-trial detention in the United States.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Disclosure of Investigations: Whether and When for Public Companies
Jacqueline C. Wolff and Karin M. Bell
You should be thinking about disclosure long before you even hear from a whistleblower, specifically, in terms of setting up policies and procedures governing how to handle the information flow from the investigative side of the house to the disclosure side.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Smoke & Mirrors: The New York Cannabis Law’s Illusory Lease Mandate
Marjorie J. Peerce, Michael P. Robotti and Kamera Boyd
New York’s recently enacted cannabis law, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation of 2021 (MRTA), created a maze of new legal requirements. These provisions affect not only cannabis companies, but also the companies that conduct business with them.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
As Federal Antitrust Prosecutions Rise, Potential Criminal Pitfalls Loom for HR Professionals
Laily Sheybani
The Biden administration seeks to position itself as one that will crack down on employers’ attempts to limit their employees’ mobility and pay through allegedly non-competitive measures.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Why Are Courts Making Cybersecurity Forensics Reports Not Privileged?
David P. Saunders
Internal corporate investigations can be, and frequently are, privileged. However, it is difficult to square that concept with the recent spate of federal court opinions that have concluded that cybersecurity forensic reports generally are not privileged.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Are Government Investigation Disclosures Protected Under the Common Interest Doctrine?
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack
This article discusses whether disclosures made when a subject of a government investigation borrows money or sells all or part of its business are protected from discovery on the basis of the attorney-client privilege and pursuant to the common interest doctrine.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Van Buren Continues Supreme Court’s Pattern of Statutory Interpretation to Avoid Criminalizing Trivial Acts
Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert
The Van Buren decision fits into a pattern of the court’s modern criminal law jurisprudence that appears motivated by concerns about the ever-expanding reach and severity of federal criminal law.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
Emil Sayegh
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks now target the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
How Will Courts Determine Business Expense Legitimacy Under SEC’s New Disgorgement Authority?
Jorge deNeve, Michael Simeone and David Cohen
Answering that question will force defendants facing SEC enforcement actions to focus on demonstrating the legitimacy of expenses in developing their litigation strategies.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties Are Best Option for International Subpoenas
Lanier Saperstein and Samuel Hickey
One provision of the AMLA was added with little fanfare and minimal discussion, yet it could have a significant impact on foreign financial institutions doing business in the United States.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Government Secret Recording of Interviews Rarely In Best Interests of Witness
Joel Cohen
Secretly recording conversations or interviews is a dirty business, and it is almost never conducted by the government with the best interests of the witness in mind.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Sorting Through the Trump Financial Documents: How Prosecutors Will Search for Clues
Nicholas Gaffney
A Q&A with Bobby Malhotra, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Los Angeles
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Best Practices for Investigations In Remote Environments
Colin Jennings, David Meadows, Nicole Wells and John Winkler
The landscape of corporate investigations has changed dramatically in the last year. New regulations, new market pressures, new data sources and more challenging…
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack
This 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.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Supreme Court Narrowly Interprets CFAA to Avoid Criminalizing ‘Commonplace Computer Activity’
Patricia Kim and Maren Messing
The Court held that only those who obtain information from particular areas of the computer which they are not authorized to access can be said to “exceed authorization.”
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Is a Federal Insider Trading Law Coming?
David L. Axelrod and Hannah L. Welsh
For decades the SEC and the Department of Justice, with the endorsement of federal judges, have used the general securities fraud statutes to patch together a complex and problematic insider trading common law. After years of criticism, however, that could now be changing.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Fifth Amendment Protection of Cellphone Passwords Remains Murky As Supreme Court Declines to Weigh In
Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert
When law enforcement seeks to compel a subject to provide a passcode to allow them to rummage through a cellphone, courts have not spoken with a unified voice. Some, including New Jersey’s highest court, have arrived at the dubious conclusion that requiring an individual to communicate cellphone passcodes to the government does not warrant Fifth Amendment protection. Commentators had hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would reject that expansive view, however, the Supreme Court declined to wade in, seemingly guaranteeing that continued uncertainty on this critical issue will continue to bedevil criminal practitioners.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Second Circuit May Address SEC’s ‘Tolling Agreements’ Tool
Tom McParland
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit signaled last month that it may fully address, for the first time, the question of whether a decades-old change to federal law rendered a commonly used tool for extending U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations unenforceable in federal court.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Developments in Federal Whistleblowing Programs: What Compliance Officers Need to Know
Jonathan B. New, Patrick T. Campbell and Lauren Lyster
This article examines recent developments and trends concerning federal whistleblower programs that compliance officers need to know and provides best practices recommendations for ensuring that your company maintains a robust whistleblower and anti-retaliation program in light of increased whistleblower activity.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
OFAC Asks Non-U.S. Persons to Advance U.S. Foreign Policy
Harry Sandick and Gautam Rao
In recent years, U.S. prosecutors and regulators have shown increasing interest in prosecuting people and entities with little or no connection to the United States. This trend has been especially pronounced in the context of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and has also extended beyond the FCPA to the prosecution of white-collar crime more generally.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Preserving the Privilege In the Corporate Setting
Jonathan S. Feld and Kevin Connor
Assessing the risks and liabilities of a potential transaction requires frank and open communication between the parties, including legal counsel. Understanding the scope and limitations of this privilege in transactional settings and who “holds” it is vital to its preservation.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Scared of Your Clients’ Involvement With Cryptocurrency?
Ross Benson and Robert N. Driscoll
Given the rapid expansion of interest and participation in cryptocurrency transactions, it’s not a matter of whether you have an interest in crypto, think it’s all a bizarre techno-bubble, the eventual replacement for fiat currency, or somewhere in between. The fact of the matter is your clients, and future clients, are more likely than ever to have a connection to this market, and a brief review of the headlines can make this prospect seem terrifying.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Telehealth: The Wave of the Future for Both Medicine and Enforcement
Jacqueline C. Wolff and Michael Herrmann
The prevalent view is that telehealth will remain an integral part of our healthcare system post-PHE and may even continue to expand. And that means criminal and civil enforcement focused on fraud committed using, or furthered by the use of, telehealth will be expanding as well, particularly when one looks at the dollars that a regulator can bring in for fraud or noncompliance.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Employers Must Be Mindful of Pay Practices, As Criminal Charges for Underpayment of Workers Becomes Increasingly Common
Carolyn H. Kendall and Abraham J. Rein
Hillary Clinton's 2015 statement about the possibility of incarceration for employment-related failures was, to many, an alarming prospect. Since that time, this movement has grown, and has recently gained momentum. Today, prosecutors across the country increasingly seek criminal fines and jail time for what were previously seen as non-criminal labor violations.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Federal Public Corruption Prosecutions
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack
This article describes pending federal prosecutions, which level corruption charges against high-level officials, considers how the theories of prosecution in these cases might be viewed in light of court decisions in other public corruption cases, and concludes with some observations about the outer limits of federal public corruption prosecutions.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Corporate ESG Integration Not Optional
Alexandra Poe and Bryan Sillaman
Corporate ESG (environmental, social and governance) integration is becoming less optional every day, driven by increasing regulation, investor demand and the recent embrace of stakeholder capitalism.
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