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If the President Says So
A Washington Post story (here) notes that in a recent interview of President Bush by Fox News anchor Brit Hume, the President expressed his belief that Rep. Tom DeLay was innocent of the money laundering and conspiracy charges brought in Texas. According to the story, the President said, "I hope that he will [be acquitted],…
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Lord Black Indicted on Additional Charges
Lord Conrad Black, who was indicted in November on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the alleged diversion of corporate funds from Hollinger International, Inc., was reindicted by a grand jury in Chicago on additional counts that include RICO and obstruction of justice (superseding indictment here). The obstuction charge relates to Black’s alleged removal of…
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CEO and CFO Settle SEC Fraud Charges
The SEC settled a securities fraud action against Edward Heil and Bret Jenkins, the CEO and CFO of eSafetyWorld, Inc. (now known as EZ Auctions and Shipping Inc.), for conduct that included false statements about a "revolutionary" containment device for anthrax released during the anthrax scare in 2001. According to the SEC Litigation Release (here):…
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Three Outside Hollinger Directors Receive Notice of Possible SEC Civil Suit
Three outside directors of Hollinger International, Inc., received Wells Notices from the SEC that the Commission’s Enforcement Division intends to recommend a civil enforcement action against them. The three directors, former Illinois Governor James Thompson, Marie-Josee Kravis, and Richard Burt, comprised Hollinger’s audit committee during the period when its former CEO and controlling shareholder, Lord…
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Ken Lay’s Defense: It’s All Fastow’s Fault
Ken Lay’s speech at the Houston Forum (here) sets forth his defense to the conspiracy charges, and a featured player will be former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow. As Ellen Podgor noted in an earlier post (here), defendants in criminal cases usually don’t announce so far in advance of trial that they intend to testify, but…
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Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Another Civil RICO Case
After having one civil RICO case dropped from its calendar in mid-November, the Supreme Court has now added a second RICO case to its docket in the past two weeks. The Court granted certiorari in Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Williams, involving a putative class-action against the company and third-party temporary-worker agencies alleging that workers illegally…
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SEC Files Securities Fraud Charges Against Co-Founder of Skin Nuvo International
The SEC filed civil securities fraud charges against Jeffrey Schmidt and two other defendants alleging that they defrauded investors into providing over $11 million that was supposed to be invested in Skin Nuvo International stores even though the company was failing. Schmidt promised investors a 30-40% return on their investment in the skin care and…
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Global Economic Crime Survey
PricewaterhouseCoopers has released its third biennial Global Economic Crime Survey (2005) as reported on the Law Librarians blog here. The report, written in collaboration with Professor Dr. Kai-D Bussman, Chair of Criminology and Penal Law at Martin-Luther-University, Halle, Germany, explores two new topics: "the effectiveness of fraud risk management systems" and "the profiles of fraud…
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Is it Mail Fraud to Write Someone’s Astronomy Paper?
As part of a plea agreement, "[a] former basketball coach at Barton County Community College, in Kansas, admitted on Monday to falsifying the transcript of a former player and stealing $89,614 in Pell Grants and other student-aid funds." (see Chronicle of Higher Education here – subscription required). In a press release issued by the U.S.…
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Ken Lay Says He Will Talk at Trial
The new defense style for CEOs is to be bold, be out there, and don’t hold back. After all isn’t that what innocent people do? Well that is exactly the way Ken Lay is handling his case. He announced yesterday that he would in fact take the witness stand at trial. (See Wall Street Jrl…
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