On May 12, 2025, Matthew Galeotti, the Head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), announced changes to DOJ’s white collar enforcement priorities and corporate cooperation policy. During a speech on...more
On May 15, 2025, the New York Times reported that the Trump Administration has opened a False Claims Act (“FCA”) investigation into Harvard University’s admissions procedures. Michael C. Bender & Michael S. Schmidt, Trump...more
In United States v. Aiello, the Second Circuit (Raggi, Chin, Sullivan) remanded the cases of Steven Aiello, Joseph Gerardi, Louis Ciminelli, and Alain Kaloyeros (collectively, the “defendant-appellants”) for retrial on their...more
In United States v. Lewis, the Second Circuit (per curiam) affirmed the judgment of conviction of Chanette Lewis, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. The...more
In United States v. Lajeunesse, the Second Circuit (Leval, Chin, Lee) vacated the conviction of a criminal defendant denied an opportunity to personally address the court during his sentencing hearing....more
In United States v. Hunt, the Second Circuit (Walker, Parker, and Bianco) affirmed the conviction and sentence of Brendan Hunt, who in the wake of the 2020 presidential election threatened prominent elected officials on...more
On August 30, 2023, in United States v. Avenatti, the Second Circuit (Walker, Raggi, Park) put another nail in the coffin of disgraced former celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti. Avenatti became well-known in 2018 due to his...more
In Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), the Supreme Court held that attorneys must advise their noncitizen clients of the risk of deportation arising from criminal conviction, and that the failure to do so violates the...more
In recent years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps in the United States, with more than 150 million users, and the most popular smartphone app in the United States. Despite its widespread popularity...more
On June 16, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., that (i) under the False Claims Act, the government may move to dismiss a False Claims Act (“FCA”) action...more
On June 1, 2023, the United States Supreme Court decided two consolidated cases, United States ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu Inc. and United States ex rel. Proctor v. Safeway, 589 U.S. ___ (2023), holding that a defendant’s...more
In a recent opinion, the Second Circuit upheld a 57-month sentence that applied a two-level sentencing enhancement for obstruction of justice and rejected a request for a sentencing reduction for acceptance of responsibility...more
In Watts v. United States, the Second Circuit (Livingston, Parker, Park) issued an unpublished summary order that affirmed Michael Watts’ convictions for his role in a pump-and-dump scheme, and agreed with the government that...more
In its most recent opinion in the United States v. Eldridge case, the Second Circuit (Chin, Sullivan, and Nardini) (the “panel”) held that second-degree kidnapping under New York Penal Law is not a crime of violence pursuant...more
In United States v. Lewis, the Second Circuit (Lohier, Carney, and Nathan) affirmed a gun-related conviction, but rejected the district court’s assertion that a bright-line rule bars the application of the Fourth Amendment to...more
In United States v. Kukushkin, the Second Circuit (Pooler, Lohier, and Nathan) affirmed the conviction of Andrey Kukushkin for conspiring to illegally donate monies to a political campaign in violation of 52 U.S.C. §§ 30121,...more
On March 2, 2023, the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), and the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets...more
In United States v. Mendlowitz, the Second Circuit (Kearse, Pooler, and Menashi) issued a summary order in which the panel affirmed the defendant-appellant’s conviction for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud....more
On December 20, 2022, the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced the amendment of multiple regulations to add or revise certain general licenses across OFAC sanctions...more
As has been widely reported, last week, the SEC, CFTC, and U.S. Attorney’s Office (“USAO”) for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) announced charges against Samuel Bankman-Fried (“SBF”), the co-founder and majority...more
On September 15, 2022, Deputy Attorney General (“DAG”) Lisa Monaco announced a series of changes to the United States Department of Justice’s (the “Department” or “DOJ”) corporate enforcement policies. This follows a prior...more
In connection with the war in Ukraine, the United States has significantly enhanced its sanctions against the Russian Federation. However, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) recently...more
In United States v. Percoco, the Second Circuit (Raggi, Chin, Sullivan) the Second Circuit affirmed the convictions of several defendants involved in the so-called “Buffalo Billion” scandal. The charged crimes included three...more
The Second Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed a panel decision holding that officers lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk defendant Calvin Weaver after a traffic stop. The en banc majority (Judge Nardini, who authored the...more
In United States v. Kassir, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Nardini) held that the concurrent sentence doctrine applies to collateral review of criminal convictions. Under the doctrine, a court may decline to consider a...more