In a pair of rulings issued near the end of the last Term, Fischer v. United States and Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court continued to cut back on the Justice Department’s interpretation and enforcement of criminal...more
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal anti-bribery statute does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts taken in the past....more
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in a public corruption case that could have a lasting impact on how the U.S. Government prosecutes corruption and procurement fraud cases involving state and local...more
Readers of prior Firm client alerts in the white-collar criminal space will no doubt recall the Supreme Court's recent trend of scaling back the powers of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in prosecuting public corruption...more
In Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is not a federal crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities under 18 U.S.C. § 666. In so doing, the Court overturned the decision...more
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the main federal anti-corruption statute proscribing bribes to state and local officials does not criminalize gratuities, which the Court described as “payments made to an...more
Last month, in Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States narrowly construed the federal anti-bribery statute. In that case, the mayor of Portage, Indiana worked with other officials to carefully prepare...more
In the latest example of the Roberts court reining in the government’s use of broadly worded criminal statutes, on June 26, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Snyder that the federal bribery statute does not...more
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Snyder v. United States, No. 23-108, holding that federal statute 18 U. S. C. § 666, which makes it a crime for most state and local officials to “corruptly” solicit, accept,...more
Who would have thought politicians can work for tips? Well, that is what Portage, Indiana Mayor Jim Snyder argued (more or less) before the Supreme Court last month, when he sought to overturn his conviction under 18 U.S.C. §...more
On December 13, 2023, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of ex-Portage, Indiana Mayor James Snyder. The court’s ruling will settle a circuit split involving 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B). The statute penalizes any state...more
On December 12, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a former civilian employee of the U.S. Army is being prosecuted by the DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section....more
There is no universal definition of corruption. Frankly, the term can be narrowly defined to focus on bribery or it can be given a wider application, extending to abuse of power. Transparency International defines...more
Editor's Note - MetLife Fights On. MetLife continued to fight its designation as a nonbank systemically important financial institution (SIFI) this week as the insurer filed its reply brief in the Financial Stability...more
A favorite saying of my mentor and colleague in the Labor and Employment Group here at Burns & Levinson is “no good deed goes unpunished.” Over my years of practice, I have found that this phrase oft comes to mind when an...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in United States v. Ring recently upheld a conviction under the public sector “honest-services” fraud statute and the “illegal-gratuities” statute. Notably, the court: (1)...more
In This Issue: - Eleventh Circuit Holds that Production of Foreign Bank Account Records May be Compelled in Criminal Investigation Under Required Records Exception to Fifth Amendment Privilege - Supreme Court...more