White Collar Crime

Each year, the U.S. government secures more than 1,200 money-laundering convictions. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at least, is setting its sights with renewed vigor on those who help criminal organizations and terrorists conceal billions in illicit funds.

Increased enforcement of the immigration laws that impact on the hiring of employees is on the horizon.

Last month, the authors began a discussion of the legal consequences of the release of the so-called "Panama Papers," a trove of more than 11.5 million documents a whistleblower gave to a reporter at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) in Spring 2016. The authors conclude their analysis herein.

White-collar prosecutions often turn on the paper trail. But the playing field is not level — not even close.

The number of lawsuits brought under the False Claims Act (FCA) continues to increase. In 2015 alone, relators filed over 600 qui tam complaints — and courts awarded over $3.5 billion — under the FCA.

Comparing the success of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in extracting guilty pleas from companies for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) with the DOJ's notable trial failures in FCPA matters brought against individuals is particularly instructive when we are discussing individual versus corporate criminal accountability, as we did in the first part of this article.
Part Two of a Two-Part Article

In white collar fraud, public corruption and other high-profile cases, DOJ prosecutors sometimes go well beyond the“notice” principle and draft thick indictments laying out in conclusory language the regulatory schema surrounding the challenged conduct; public policy rationales for the laws and regulation said to be violated; alleged motives of defendants; and the government's inferences from alleged facts (“connecting the dots”) — all under section headings or captions advocating the government's view.

Attorney-client privilege issues, which can arise during internal investigations, have become even more complicated following the issuance of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) “Yates Memorandum.”