Civil Remedies › Criminal Law

Fenwick Employment Brief - May 2013: Software Programmer Criminally Charged For Hacking Former Employer's Network

The federal Department of Justice recently filed criminal charges against a 41-year old software programmer and system manager who hacked into his former employer's computer network, causing $90,000 in damage. The complaint...more

New Justice Department's FIRREA Cases Against Banks: Holding The Victim Responsible

The government’s ever-evolving response to the United States financial crisis has come full circle, as civil Justice Department Attorneys seek to rely on legislation enacted to protect financial institutions from fraud to sue...more

U.S. Honey Suppliers Allege Damages Based on Illegal "Dumping" of China-produced Honey

A class action has been brought on behalf of U.S. honey suppliers against defendants including Groeb Farms, Inc., Horizon Partners, Ltd., and Honey Holdings 1, Ltd., alleging an illegal scheme executed by defendants that...more

Wartime Suspension Of Limitations Act Suspends Statute Of Limitations In False Claims Act Cases

The False Claims Act (FCA), which allows both the government and whistleblowers to seek treble damages for claims of civil fraud on the United States, is a powerful tool. In the past two years, the government has aggressively...more

Criminal Antitrust Update - April 2013

INDUSTRY SCORECARD - E-books: Macmillan has become the latest and final major e-book publisher to resolve price-fixing allegations by the DOJ Antitrust Division (the “Division”)...more

Short Wins - And More On Jury Nullification

Six new cases from the federal circuits this week. My favorite - a subjective measure, I know - is United States v. Ramirez. Any time a court, even the Ninth Circuit, vacates a drug conspiracy conviction for insufficient...more

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman To Sue Wells Fargo & Bank Of America For Violating National Mortgage Settlement

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman To Sue Wells Fargo & Bank Of America For Violating National Mortgage Settlement...more

Sheriff Joe Costs Maricopa County Another $1.4M in Lawsuits

An Arizona developer has settled a lawsuit against Maricopa Country, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas for $1.4 million. Conley Wolfswinkel had filed suit after his office was publicly...more

Wage and Hour Compliance Checklist - How to avoid class actions and prepare for a government audit

Will Rogers once said, “Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.” Employee wage and hour class actions and government audits are never funny. Just ask the president of a sheetrock company sentenced in...more

Federal Authorities Announce FCPA Action, First SEC Non-Prosecution Agreement

On April 22, the DOJ and the SEC announced parallel actions against a clothing company to resolve allegations that a subsidiary of the company paid bribes to Argentine officials over a several-year period to obtain improper...more

CMS Proposes to Increase Awards for Non-Qui Tam Whistleblowers

CMS wants to change the way that it rewards non-qui tam whistleblowers who report alleged fraudulent or unlawful conduct related to Medicare or Medicaid. Using an IRS program as a model, CMS recently proposed rule changes to...more

Immigrants Await Results of Suit Against U.S. and Jefferson County, Illinois

It has now been more than two months since the National Immigrant Justice Center (“NIJC”) filed a lawsuit against officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and Jefferson County, Illinois relating to the...more

Recent Multi-Million Dollar Whistleblower Jury Awards — A Wake-Up Call For Employers

In what might be an unsettling trend for employers, juries in Philadelphia and Anchorage have recently issued multi-million dollar jury awards in favor of whistleblowers. Specifically, on March 22, 2013, a Philadelphia Common...more

Are Drunk Drivers Subject to Punitive Damages in Florida?

The former police chief of Truro, MA faces charges of driving under the influence of alcohol following an incident in January in Palm Beach County, FL. John Lundborn was police chief in Truro for just five months. He left...more

Short Wins - Is It Unseemly That DOJ Asks For New Prosecutors While Federal Defenders Are Being Laid Off?

Three opinions are in this week's "short wins" - on restitution calculation, competency in a bank robbery case, and the Fair Sentencing Act....more

YOU CAN’T TRUST OUR NATIONAL BANKS MORTGAGE PAPER TRAIL

FRAUD, NOT MISTAKES AND ERRORS, HAVE PERMEATED THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS IN AMERICA

FRAUD, NOT MISTAKES AND ERRORS, HAVE PERMEATED THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS IN AMERICA When judges begin ordering the accounting and financial books and records of the alleged owner of a borrower’s note to be produced, not...more

Federal Law Provides Enhanced Trade Secret Protection for Employers

Most people know that an employee who misuses his employer’s confidential information may be subject to damages in a civil lawsuit. Many states have enacted a Uniform Trade Secrets Act that allows an employer to pursue a...more

The Enforcement Powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

For several months, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) has implemented a spate of enforcement actions against banks and non-banks. My interest in this article is neither to re-litigate those cases...more

What’s at the Bottom of the ‘Robosigning’ Scandal?

The problematic practice of robosigning – whereby banks and other lenders improperly foreclosed on properties through formulaically processing foreclosure documents – has been much in the news over the past couple of years....more

Cops Must Pay $7M to Man Freed by DNA Evidence After 26 Years

Two retired cops must pay $7 million to a man they framed who served 26 years in prison for rape and murder until he was exonerated based on DNA evidence....more

Court Denies Motion for Class Certification in Hannaford

In an order surely to reverberate with both the plaintiffs’ and defense bar, on March 20, 2013, Judge D. Brock Hornby of the United States District Court for the District of Maine denied the plaintiffs’ motion to certify a...more

BP Could Have Stopped Gulf Oil Spill on Day 2, Says Expert

Oil giant BP could have stopped the massive 2010 oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico just two days after the blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, an expert witness testified today in the civil trial over the spill....more

Domestic Violence Awareness A National Concern

Domestic violence has at least two kinds of victims — those who are hurt, and those accused of hurting others. The President of the United States declared October 2012 a month to assist victims of these crimes in finding the...more

The Importance Of Anti-Corruption Compliance Remediation

When you catch someone (e.g. a child, friend or business associate) in the wrong, it is interesting to watch their reactions. (Notice I left out spouse or relationship partner – we all know our spouse or relationship partner...more

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES- COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT & GOVERNMENT REFORM

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) March 25, 2013 letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke...

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Elijah Cummings to Meet with Fed and OCC on Foreclosure Abuses Washington, D.C. March 25, 2013 Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) sent a...more