The financial and human cost on individuals of arguable “overcriminalization” is enormous, and defense counsel certainly wonder whether that damage can be justified in light of the ultimate legal outcomes of the white-collar dramas we witness.
U.S. companies face a massive wave of wiretapping law class action lawsuits and regulatory enforcement actions over online “tracking technologies.” With this backdrop, the article below identifies some trends and new directions concerning tracking technology legal exposure and highlights some potential solutions for mitigating legal impact.
'Confidential witnesses' can offer plaintiffs a strategic advantage in the early stages of a securities fraud case. Courts must accept well-pleaded allegations at the motion to dismiss stage, even if they are anonymous. A critical task for any court reviewing a complaint with confidential witness allegations is to scrutinize the reliability of these claims.
On Sept. 1, 2025, the UK’s new ‘Failure to Prevent Fraud’, introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA), takes effect, representing a decisive shift in corporate criminal liability. For legal and compliance teams, the challenge is moving from reactive response to proactive prevention, backed by demonstrable procedures.
Two recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decisions illustrate lower courts’ differing approaches to the U.S. Supreme Court’s running rebuke of overly expansive interpretations of the mail and wire fraud statutes.
Subscription businesses may have breathed a sigh of relief when a federal appeals court blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s “click-to-cancel” rule in July, but legal experts say they should scale back their compliance efforts only modestly, or perhaps not at all.
The SEC recently created the Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies Unit, which is responsible for rooting out fraud schemes related to AI, including fake social media sites, and blockchain and crypto fraud. As a result, SEC whistleblowers will have an opportunity to play a key role in providing the SEC original information leading to investigations and prosecutions of AI cases, commonly known as “AI washing.”
As geopolitical tensions escalate and global sanctions regimes become more aggressive, the Ovsiannikov case serves as a stark warning: checkbox compliance is no longer sufficient. EDD must become the operational standard — not just in banking, but across every sector involved in high-risk transactions.
Key Risks for Government Contractors, Tech Companies and Healthcare EntitiesThe DOJ recently unveiled a series of policy updates that shifted the white-collar enforcement landscape. These updates — an emphasis on the False Claims Act, a shift away from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and increased incentives for self-disclosure and whistleblowers — are poised to reshape how companies approach compliance.
The focus of this article is on the spectrum of white collar cases in which the lawyer believes there is a credible chance of winning based not only on an assessment of weaknesses in the government’s case but also of other factors such as loss of the opportunity to favorably litigate outcome-determinative evidentiary issues. Too often in these situations defense lawyers recommend a guilty plea in the mistaken belief that conviction at trial will result in a significant trial penalty far greater than a plea bargain sentence. By reviewing empirical sentencing data we hope to dispel this widely held, but ultimately mistaken view.
