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Govt. Drops Charges Against Wife in Return for Husband’s Plea
The Providence Journal (projo.com) reports that the former fire safety chief at the Rhode Island School of Design has plead guilty to mail fraud and filing a false tax return. (see also Chronicle of Higher Education here). The prosecution claims that the accused had fled to Ireland, but the defense contested that position. Interestingly, the…
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Reyes Convicted on All Counts for Options Backdating
A federal court jury in San Francisco convicted former Brocade Communications CEO Gregory Reyes on all ten counts related to options backdating at the Silicon Valley company (see San Jose Mercury-News story here). Among the charges against Reyes are securities fraud and mail fraud for engaging in a scheme to defraud Brocade investors and deprive…
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Rigas Talks
John Rigas, former Adelphia chair, has decided to talk. But unlike James Brown, former Adelphia’s vice president of finance, Rigas’ discussion is post-trial and offers no benefit to the soon-to-be incarcerated defendant. Reporting on the conversation is Lesly Cauley of USA Today, who presents the words of this 82 year old man who is facing…
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Another Court Order from Judge Kaplan
With 13 defendants dismissed from the KPMG related case (see here), the remaining five defendants are moving to continue the case, with the government asking for a severance of one of the defendants. Neither the prosecution or defense find themselves successful with their respective motions. The prosecution’s severance is denied, and the defense motion for…
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Putting a Hold on Ethics Investigation of Rep. William Jefferson
Roll Call reports that a House subcommittee has decided to suspend the investigation of Rep. William Jefferson. This comes just days after the DC Circuit rejected the search of privileged materials from the Congressman’s office (see here). (esp)
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30 Years to Non-violent First Offender in White Collar Case
The case of Chalana McFarland, pending in the 11th Circuit, is a case that should be closely watched as it involves a sentence of 30 years for a non-violent first offender in a white collar case. The defendant argues that this sentence is unreasonable. The preliminary briefs are below: Download final_11_cta_brief.pdf Download appellee_brief_feb_28_06.pdf Download mcfarland_reply_06.pdf…
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US Attorney Firings – Behind the Scenes
Author Jeffrey Toobin has an incredible story in the New Yorker that presents two scenarios – the "firing" of former US Attorney John McKay and the death of AUSA Tom Wales. The article asks the question – "What does the firing of a U.S. Attorney have to do with a murder case?" Several things are…
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Politics and Prosecutions
Courts often refuse to allow evidence in a trial that would demonstrate that the prosecution was politically motivated. Selective prosecution claims place an enormous burden on the defense to produce evidence, evidence that often is in the hands of the prosecution. But exposing the possibility that politics has motivated some high profile prosecutions is something…
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Tom Cruise Wedding Pictures
A press release of the US Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California reports on the arrest of two individuals for their alleged "roles in a[n alleged] scheme to extort actor Tom Cruise for $1.3 million in exchange for copies of Mr. Cruise’s wedding photos which had been stolen." One claim is that one…
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Conviction for Violating the Economic Espionage Act and Arms Export Control Act
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced the guilty plea of a defendant for trying to send to China the computer source code for a visual simulation software program used for training military fighter pilots. The defendant pleaded guilty to violating the Economic Espionage Act, because the code constitutes a trade…
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