Background -
Gregory Pheasant was riding a dirt bike without a working taillight on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) outside Reno, Nevada. Apparently the scourge of inadequately illuminated dirt bikes has...more
11/10/2025
/ Administrative Authority ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Bureau of Land Management ,
CFTC ,
Chevron Deference ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of the Interior ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
En Banc Review ,
Executive Authority ,
FLPMA ,
Government Agencies ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Non-Delegation Doctrine ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
SCOTUS ,
White Collar Crimes
Kirilyuk involved a complex, multi-year, international credit card fraud in which the government alleged Ruslan Kirilyuk and his co-conspirators stole account information for nearly 120,000 American Express cards, created...more
11/7/2025
/ Chevron Deference ,
Credit Cards ,
Criminal Appeals ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Fraud ,
Kisor v Wilkie ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Sentencing Enhancements ,
Sentencing Factors ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
White Collar Crimes
The Second Circuit’s opinion in United States v. Cole not only erases his fraud convictions and wipes the slate clean for Neil Cole, it also provides hope for all defendants who find themselves facing a retrial on substantive...more
Weighing in on a growing circuit split, the Second Circuit in United States v. Elias recently nixed a forfeiture order that apportioned the total forfeiture amount equally among the coconspirators, regardless of whether that...more
10/23/2025
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Appeals ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Forfeiture ,
Hobbs Act ,
Honeycutt v. United States ,
Robbery ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
White Collar Crimes
Reversing a rare pretrial dismissal of indictment, the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Constantinescu recently clarified the elements of securities fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1348....more
10/13/2025
/ Appeals ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Fraudulent Inducement ,
Investment ,
Material Misrepresentation ,
Pump and Dump ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Securities Violations ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Stock Trades ,
White Collar Crimes
Dr. Seth Fishman was a veterinarian who developed, manufactured, and sold performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) for horses. Fishman and his salesperson (and codefendant) Lisa Giannelli sold the PEDs—which standard horse-racing...more
9/29/2025
/ Appeals ,
Civil Forfeiture ,
Criminal Forfeiture ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
Felonies ,
Food & Drug Regulations ,
Forfeiture Statutes ,
Horse Racing ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
White Collar Crimes
In a case of first impression in the Courts of Appeals, the Second Circuit recently examined when the government may prosecute extraterritorial conduct under the Commodities Exchange Act....more
9/15/2025
/ Appeals ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodities Traders ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Derivatives ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
First Impression ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
Jurisdiction ,
Market Manipulation ,
Morgan Stanley ,
White Collar Crimes
James Weiss owned a company that manufactured machines used in sweepstakes games. In order to resolve an ambiguity about the legality of sweepstakes in Illinois, he retained a state legislator, Luis Arroyo, as a consultant...more
9/9/2025
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Appeals ,
Bribery ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Duties & Responsibilities ,
Fraud ,
Gaming ,
Government Officials ,
Legislative Agendas ,
McDonnell v US ,
Official Act ,
Public Corruption ,
State Legislatures ,
White Collar Crimes
In a case of first impression in the federal Courts of Appeals, the Second Circuit held that district courts may not consider a defendant’s potential eligibility for a sentence reduction under the First Step Act or programs...more
9/5/2025
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
False Billing ,
Federal Sentencing Guidelines ,
First Impression ,
Forfeiture ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Identity Theft ,
Insurance Claims ,
Medical Bills ,
Restitution ,
Sentence Reduction ,
Sentencing ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Wire Fraud
In the United States, a nonprofit called the American Registry for Internet Numbers (“ARIN”) is responsible for the assignment of IP addresses, the unique identifiers assigned to each device that connects to the Internet....more
9/4/2025
/ Appeals ,
Ciminelli v US ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Digital Assets ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Internet ,
IP Addresses ,
Nonprofits ,
Right to Control ,
Telecommunications ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Wire Fraud
“Spoofing,” or the practice of submitting buy or sell orders to trading platforms with the intent to withdraw them prior to execution, is considered fraud under the Seventh Circuit’s decision in United States v. Smith, issued...more
8/28/2025
/ Appeals ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Defense Strategies ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Evidence ,
Fraud ,
Good Faith ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Market Manipulation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Spoofing ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Wire Fraud
When confronted with information suggesting that employees, consultants, or other business partners have engaged in serious misconduct (or to quote Ray Parker, Jr., “when there’s somethin’ strange…in the neighborhood”), most...more
The COVID-19 pandemic presents novel challenges to U.S. regulators investigating allegations of corporate misconduct. Companies currently under investigation or that may find themselves under investigation must be prepared...more
As the annual ABA White Collar Crime Conference wrapped up in New Orleans last Friday night, the Department of Justice released the latest updates to its FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. The key changes to the policy...more
Last week, in what marked the first FCPA enforcement action of 2019, a federal grand jury in New Jersey returned an indictment against two former high-level executives—the president and chief legal officer—of Cognizant...more