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White Collar
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August 05, 2025
Ex-ComEd Lobbyist Gets 1 Year For Masking Madigan Bribes
A former lobbyist for Commonwealth Edison was sentenced to a year and a day in prison Tuesday for allowing his lobbying firm to serve as a pass-through for the utility to pay associates of ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan for little to no work, as it sought his support for favorable energy legislation.
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August 05, 2025
Shuttered NJ Importer Pleads Guilty To Hiding AC Fire Risks
A defunct New Jersey importer of consumer appliances pled guilty on Tuesday to one count of willfully violating the Consumer Product Safety Act for its failure to report dangerous defects in more than 33,000 portable air conditioners that have been linked to more than 40 fires and one death, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
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August 05, 2025
SEC Fines Platform Founder $10M Over Crypto-Backed Scam
The owner of a shuttered lending platform has agreed to pay over $10 million to end a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission case accusing him of defrauding customers by using their money to buy millions of dollars' worth of TerraUSD before the stablecoin collapsed.
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August 05, 2025
States Push DOJ To Crack Down On Illegal Offshore Gambling
Attorneys general from several states have written a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to target the "rampant spread" of illicit offshore online sports betting and gambling operations, which they say are harming United States citizens and depriving states of tax revenue.
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August 05, 2025
Trump-Tied SPAC Exec Rips SEC Suit After Deal Talks Fizzle
The former CEO of the special-purpose acquisition company that took President Donald Trump's social media platform public has renewed his bid to dismiss the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's suit alleging he failed to timely alert investors to the prospective deal after settlement talks broke down.
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August 05, 2025
Ghislaine Maxwell Slams Feds' Bid To Unseal Grand Jury Docs
Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking children for late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to deny the government's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts, saying release of the sealed materials could jeopardize the appeal of her 2021 conviction.
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August 05, 2025
Disbarred North Carolina Atty Admits To Wire Fraud Scheme
A disbarred lawyer in North Carolina has copped to criminal wire fraud charges stemming from the misuse of his trust account after federal prosecutors said he used escrow funds earmarked for the sale of personal protective equipment to pay back another company.
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August 05, 2025
Binance Founder Seeks Exit From FTX $1.76B Clawback Suit
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to dismiss him from a clawback suit filed by the estate of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX seeking to recover $1.76 billion it says FTX illegally transferred before its collapse two years ago, saying the transaction was outside the court's jurisdiction.
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August 05, 2025
Lottery.com SPAC Exec Wants Info From California Fraud Case
A Manhattan federal judge said Tuesday that he will weigh a request by a special purpose acquisition company CEO accused of fraud in a merger involving Lottery.com Inc. to have New York prosecutors provide discovery from a California criminal case.
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August 04, 2025
Citibank Ignored Red Flags About $45M Wire Fraud, Suit Says
Citibank failed to stop scammers from absconding with $45 million from a real estate property transaction when it processed payment orders even after it detected name mismatches between the identified transaction beneficiary and the account holder, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in California federal court.Â
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August 04, 2025
Firms Not Covered In Ford's $100M RICO Suit, Insurer Says
An insurer said it has no duty to defend or indemnify law firms and attorneys accused of running a billing scheme that defrauded Ford out of more than $100 million, telling a California federal court that the suit doesn't involve a claim arising out of the performance of legal services.
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August 04, 2025
Nurse Agrees To Repay $614K For False Claims In Conn.
A nurse who owned a medication management business and two Connecticut residential care homes agreed on Monday to settle state and federal False Claims Act allegations for $614,000, ending allegations that he billed Medicare and Medicaid impossible daily hours and for clients that were hospitalized or dead.
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August 04, 2025
DC Circ. Backs FBI Agent's Bribery Sentence
The D.C. Circuit Court has affirmed a former FBI special agent's two-year sentence for taking a bribe in connection with a property-buying scheme, finding that he accepted at least $6,500 from a real estate developer in exchange for illegally sharing information from a protected database to which the FBI subscribed.
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August 04, 2025
NY Atty Found Guilty Of Duping Lender Who Backed Lien Biz
A Manhattan federal jury on Monday convicted a former compliance lawyer of pilfering from a $20 million line of credit extended to his tax-lien business by a subsidiary of Emigrant Bank.
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August 04, 2025
Mass. Ambulance Cos. Settle State FCA Allegations For $6M
Two Massachusetts ambulance companies have agreed to pay $6 million to settle allegations that they "upcoded" claims to the state's Medicaid program, MassHealth, billed it for unnecessary services, and committed other False Claims Act violations, the state attorney general's office announced Monday.
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August 04, 2025
Funeral Home Owner Pleads Guilty To Fraud, Again
For the second time, an owner of a southern Colorado funeral home pled guilty on Monday in connection to claims that her company illegally stored nearly 200 decaying bodies and committed more than $1 million in fraud.
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August 04, 2025
Plaintiff Bar Urges FINRA To Reject Industry's Arbitration Recs
The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association on Monday urged the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to reject industry recommendations to loosen its arbitration rules, calling on the brokerage industry regulator to "resist pressure from industry groups seeking to dilute hard-won safeguards."
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August 04, 2025
Feds Get 2nd Crack At Regeneron FCA Case After Key Ruling
The government may pursue an alternate theory of its False Claims Act kickback case against Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and try again for a pretrial win after a First Circuit ruling created a "critical shift" in the law, a Massachusetts federal judge said Monday.
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August 04, 2025
Ex-CNBC Pundit Gets 5 Years For $2.7M Investor Fraud
A California federal judge sentenced former frequent CNBC guest James Arthur McDonald Jr. to five years in prison Monday for defrauding investors out of at least $2.7 million after he admitted he "betrayed" some of his close friends as part of his scam.
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August 04, 2025
FinCEN Urges Industry To Stay 'Vigilant' On Crypto ATM Fraud
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Monday cautioned about rising fraud involving crypto ATMs, saying criminals are increasingly using the kiosks to launder money and scam vulnerable consumers, especially seniors.
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August 04, 2025
Connecticut Justices Say Atty Due Extra $300K For ID Theft
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Monday that an attorney whose identity was stolen by scammers can receive punitive damages under the state's unfair trade practices statute in addition to a separate award of treble damages under a different law, holding that a lower court misjudged the allowable recovery.
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August 04, 2025
UBS To Pay DOJ $300M To Settle Inherited Credit Suisse Case
Swiss bank UBS said Monday it has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $300 million to settle outstanding obligations inherited from the mortgage-backed securities business of Credit Suisse, the lender it acquired in 2023.
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August 01, 2025
NJ Court Will Mull Legality Of Habba's US Atty Appointment
If Alina Habba was illegally appointed acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, a pair of defendants in a drug trafficking case are not entitled to dismissal of the indictment, but it "appears appropriate" that Habba would be barred from prosecuting them, a federal judge ruled Friday.
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August 01, 2025
Oppenheimer Says OFAC Is Looking Into Its AML Policies
Wall Street brokerage and investment bank Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. said Friday that the U.S. Department of the Treasury's sanctions arm is investigating its anti-money laundering compliance program.
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August 01, 2025
Right-Wing Duo Cop To Robocall Voter Suppression Charges
Two Virginia-based right-wing activists accepted a plea on felony charges on Friday for leading a misinformation robocall campaign that discouraged Black voters from voting by mail in the 2020 election, the Michigan attorney general's office announced.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Teaching Business Law Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Teaching business law to college students has rekindled my sense of purpose as a lawyer — I am more mindful of the importance of the rule of law and the benefits of our common law system, which helps me maintain a clearer perspective on work, says David Feldman at Feldman Legal Advisors.
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Evolving Federal Rules Pose Further Obstacles To NY LLC Act
Following the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent changes to beneficial ownership information reporting under the federal Corporate Transparency Act — dramatically reducing the number of companies required to make disclosures — the utility of New York's LLC Transparency Act becomes less apparent, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Discovery
The discovery process and the rules that govern it are often absent from law school curricula, but developing a solid grasp of the particulars can give any new attorney a leg up in their practice, says Jordan Davies at Knowles Gallant.
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DOJ Signals Major Shift In White Collar Enforcement Priorities
In a speech on Monday, an official outlined key revisions to the U.S. Department of Justice’s voluntary self-disclosure, corporate monitorship and whistleblower program policies, marking a meaningful change in the white collar enforcement landscape, and offering companies clearer incentives and guardrails, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.
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Breaking Down 4th Circ. 'Actual Knowledge' Ruling For Banks
A recent decision from the Fourth Circuit finding that banks must have "actual knowledge" to be found liable for losses arising from an automated clearinghouse transfer warns that the more financial institutions know about a name mismatch issue for any particular transaction, the more liability they may face, say attorneys at Katten.
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Strategies To Limit Inherent Damage Of Multidefendant Trials
As shown by the recent fraud convictions of two executives at the now-shuttered education startup Frank, multidefendant criminal trials pose unique obstacles, but with some planning, defense counsel can mitigate the harm and maximize the chances of a good outcome, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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CFTC Memos Clarify When 'Sorry' Still Gets You Subpoenaed
A pair of Commodity Futures Trading Commission advisories released in February and April open a new path to self-reporting but emphasize that serious breaches still warrant a trip to the penalty box, prompting firms to weigh whether — and how — to disclose potential violations in the future, say attorneys at Pryor Cashman.
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Cos. Must Assess And Prepare For Cartel-Related FCPA Risks
Given the Trump administration’s strong signaling that it will focus on drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations when it resumes Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, global businesses should refresh their risk assessments and conduct enhanced due diligence to account for these shifting priorities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Reassessing Corporate Separateness After Explosion Of LLCs
Following the dramatic increase of limited liability companies in the U.S., the Corporate Transparency Act's enactment and the Trump administration's subsequent narrowing of that law, it's worth revisiting the underlying legal principles that govern shell companies in order to remedy the problems that initially motivated the CTA, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.
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Series
Playing Guitar Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a lawyer not only requires logic and hard work, but also belief, emotion, situational awareness and lots of natural energy — playing guitar enhances all of these qualities, increasing my capacity to do my best work, says Kosta Stojilkovic at Wilkinson Stekloff.
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Takeaways From DOJ's Latest FCA Customs Fraud Intervention
The U.S. Department of Justice's recent intervention in a case alleging customs-related reverse False Claims Act fraud underlines the government’s increased scrutiny of, and importers’ corresponding exposure from, information related to product classification, country of origin and pricing, say attorneys at Bass Berry.
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Crisis Management Lessons From The Parenting Playbook
The parenting skills we use to help our kids through challenges — like rehearsing for stressful situations, modeling confidence and taking time to reset our emotions — can also teach us the fundamentals of leading clients through a corporate crisis, say Deborah Solmor at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Cara Peterman at Alston & Bird.
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When Physical And Cyber Threats Converge: 6 Tips For Cos.
Amid an ongoing trend of increased digital threats of harm made against corporations, organizations and high-profile individuals, an emerging legal framework is providing a risk management road map for general counsel and their teams to navigate the increasingly fraught landscape, say attorneys at Covington.
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4 Ways To Leverage A Jury's Underdog Perceptions
Counsel should consider how common factors that speak to their client's size, power, past challenges and alignment with jurors can be presented to try and paint their client as a sympathetic underdog, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.
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Why Hiring Former Jurors As Consultants Can Be Risky
The defense team's decision to hire former juror Victoria George in the high-profile retrial of Karen Read shines a spotlight on this controversial strategy, which raises important legal, ethical and tactical questions despite not being explicitly prohibited, says Nikoleta Despodova at ND Litigation.