Business Organization › Criminal Law › Constitutional Law

Using the Privilege: Fifth Amendment Fundamentals for Corporations

Most in-house lawyers, if they're fortunate, haven't bumped up against the Fifth Amendment and its related issues since the bar exam. After all, the so-called "nickel" typically arises solely in the criminal context, and...more

Avoid Getting Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Don’t Become A Client’s Surrogate In Communicating With The Government

Sometimes, even seemingly innocuous acts can cause intractable problems. In one recent tax case, United States v. Matsa, S.D. Ohio No. 09-297, 2010 WL 117548 (Oct. 19, 2010), a simple letter from an attorney to the government...more

Use A Form S-8, Go To Jail! (Really)

One might not expect that filing a registration statement on Form S-8 could result in a criminal conviction. However, that is what happened to the CEO and CFO of a small public company. They were both convicted of selling...more

Borrowing Money From A Foreign Government May Make You A Subversive Organization In California

In 1941, Robert Noble, Ellis O. Jones and several other individuals were indicted for violating California’s Subversive Organization Registration Law. The defendants were active in a pro-German group called the Friends of...more

Rassegna Giurisprudenziale

Si riporta di seguito una breve rassegna dei provvedimenti maggiormente significativi emessi negli ultimi mesi in materia di responsabilità amministrativa degli enti ex D.Lsg. 231/2001. CORTE DI APPELLO DI BRESCIA –...more

US v. Elie et. al.

Reply Memo ISO Motion to Dismiss re Bank Fraud

In an attempt to tell a story that Mr. Elie and the Poker Companies engaged in a conspiracy to deceive banks about voluntary transactions by the banks’ customers, from which the banks profited, the Government makes...more

US v. Campos et. al.

Reply Memo ISO Motion to Dismiss re IGBA / UIGEA

In both its response to defendants’ argument for dismissal of the UIGEA charges and of the IGBA charges, the government runs from the language of the statute, which, in each case,requires dismissal of the charges...more

Secretary Of State Issues Business Identity Theft Warning

Two weeks ago, the National Association of Secretaries of State held a business identity theft forum in Atlanta, Georgia. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen moderated a panel on “Fostering Intergovernmental...more

$499 Bankruptcy – Is that for real????

$499 Bankruptcy – Is that for real???? $499, $899, low price, or free bankruptcy advice were a few of the advertisements I saw while searching bankruptcy terms today on Google. Most of these ads were appearing in the Google...more

What’s included in the attorney fees I’m paying?

What’s included in the attorney fees I’m paying? What are you paying for when you hire an attorney? You are paying for the attorney’s time, expertise and for service to start with. Almost all of my cases are handled on a...more

Court Slaps Down Section 25400 Market Manipulation Claim Against Convicted Felon

Corporations Code Section 25400 is California’s anti-market manipulation statute. The statute copied clauses (1) through (5) of Section 9(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and declares unlawful specified actions...more

Honest Services Fraud: Skilling, Black, and Weyhrauch

Skilling v. United States, Docket No. 08-1394 (U.S. June 24, 2010); Black v. United States, Docket No. 08-876 (U.S. June 24, 2010); Weyhrauch v. United States, Docket No. 08-1196 (U.S. June 24, 2010). In a set of opinions...more

White Collar Defense Alert: Supreme Court Significantly Limits Fraud Prosecutions

On June 24, 2010, in Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. ___ (2010), the Supreme Court vacated former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s conviction, holding that the honest services fraud statute, which makes it a crime to use the...more

Supreme Court Curtails Reach of Honest Services Fraud and Affirms Juror Bias Metric

On June 24, 2010, the Supreme Court released its much anticipated decision in the prosecution of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, sharply curtailing the scope of the federal “honest services” fraud statute. The statute,...more

Correctional excellence: Accreditation and the American Correctional Association

In the United States there are more than 1,800 state and federal correctional facilities and more than 420 privately operated facilities. Of these, about 83%, some 1,500, are accredited by the American Correctional...more