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Five Convicted of Election Fraud in East St. Louis
Five defendants, including the chairman of the Democratic party in East St. Louis, IL, Charles Powell, Jr., were convicted of conspiracy and vote fraud for offering voters small amounts of cash, cigarettes, and liquor to vote in the 2004 Presidential election. The other defendants were a former director of regulatory affairs for the city, and…
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Back to Court for Scrushy?
On the TV lawyer shows, once the jury announces a not guilty verdict — the outcome of both Matlock episodes I’ve watched — everyone leave the courtroom and nothing further happens to the defendant. Not so, most likely, with Richard Scrushy. As discussed in our earlier posts (here and here) and in news stories (see…
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Two Cert. Grants of Interest
The Supreme Court granted cert. at the end of the term earlier this week in two civil RICO cases that are of interest. On Monday, the Court granted cert in Bank of China v. NBM LLC, on the following question: Did the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit err when it held that civil…
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The SEC Focuses on Attorneys
One of the issues raised in the debate of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was the role of lawyers in corporate misconduct. One provision of the Act, Section 307, adopted the up-the-ladder reporting requirement for corporate counsel. Another aspect of the SEC’s push to regulate securities lawyers is to bar them from appearing before the Commission because…
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White Collar Defendant Gets 87 Month Prison Term in Fraud Case
Just to note that some judges continue to adhere to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and impose significant sentences on defendants in white collar cases, U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway in New Jersey sentenced Rene Abreu to an 87-month term of imprisonment for his leading role in a large-scale bank and mail fraud scheme involving his…
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More Scrushy From the Other Side of the Pond
The "not-guilty" verdict in the Scrushy trial is not surprising, although its timing is – 1. The judge replaced a juror after 16 days of deliberations, telling them to start "anew." But 4 days later there is a verdict. Did they really start anew? Or did this new juror help to reconcile the prior split…
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Scrushy Acquitted on All Counts
The jury returned not guilty verdicts on all counts in the prosecution of Richard Scrushy, dealing the government a significant blow, at least for now. Among the charges was the first prosecution under the CEO/CFO certification provision adopted in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (18 U.S.C. Sec. 1350), and the acquittal means that legal issues related to…
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Government Files Its Sentencing Memorandum for Ebbers
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a memorandum on the government position on the sentencing of former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers, which is currently set for July 13. The government’s memorandum, which runs 83 pages (available below), adopts the position taken by the Probation Office that the loss from…
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SEC Investigation of Fidelity’s Controlling Shareholders for Gifts
The Johnson family, which controls Fidelity Investments, the mutual fund giant, has become part of the SEC investigation into gifts given by brokers seeking to obtain the business of large investment firms. An earlier post (here) discussed the investigation of Scott DeSano, a senior Fidelity executive in charge of stock trading, related to gifts he…
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Witness May Be Cooperating in the Investigation of Milberg Weiss
A Wall Street Journal article (here) indicates that one Paul Tullman, who entered into a guilty plea last year to tax charges, may be cooperating in the grand jury investigation of alleged payments made by Milberg Weiss to representative plaintiffs in securities class action and shareholder derivative suits (see earlier posts here and here). The…
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