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Another Consideration on Sentencing
To add some comments here to my co-blogger : 1. It is unlikely courts will go far afield from the sentencing guidelines because there is a tradition in place and some scrutiny right now, in that everyone is watching what will happen. It seems unlikely that judges will want to drift far from the guidelines…
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Will White Collar Sentences Have the Greatest Disparity Post-Booker?
Doug Berman on the Sentencing Law & Policy blog has an interesting post (here) raising the question whether the defendants in white collar crime cases will be the greatest beneficiaries of the newly-granted discretion federal judges have after Booker. He highlights two below-guidelines sentences given by U.S. District Judge Peter Dorsey, including the year-and-a-day sentence…
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Reporter’s Privilege versus Grand Jury Investigation
It sounds like the investigation into leaks regarding "the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame" has reached a stumbling block. The prosecutor handling the case can’t seem to get the information needed and the reporters aren’t talking. The NY Times and Time magazine reporter have their cause up on appeal…
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Former Wal-Mart Exec May Have Filed False Documents with Company to Fund Anti-Union Campaign
As discussed in an earlier post (here), former Wal-Mart executive and board member Thomas Coughlin was forced out of the company in late March because of falsified expense reports that the company said was in the $100,000-500,000 range. I asked why someone with Coughlin’s resources (both pay and stock ownership) would risk his career for…
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Securing AIG-Related Documents
The SEC moved to ensure access to AIG documents, including those held by off-shore entities with substantial (if diminishing) ties to AIG, by obtaining a court order prohibiting the destruction of documents and an agreement from the off-shore companies to comply with the SEC’s document requests. The SEC does not have jurisdiction over Starr International,…
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Fraud of September 11th Funds
With all the blog items on AIG, Kozlowski, and Scrushy, we sometimes lose sight of the smaller cases happening in the offices throughout the United States. These cases can be vital, not only with respect to deterring corruption, but also with respect to exposing how some federal statutes are being used. The topic here will…
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Can A Lawyer Testify At A Client’s Trial?
News reports (See, e.g., Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Jrl Constitution) are talking about the possibility that Dennis Kozlowski’s attorney may be an upcoming witness at his trial. Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco, along with Mark Swartz is presently on trial for a host of charges, including larceny under New York State law. It seems that…
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What’s Holding Up Pasquantino?
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the case of Pasquantino v. United States back on November 9, 2004. And a good number of cases that were heard after this one, have been ruled on by the Court. But it seems that there is still no decision in Pasquantino and also in Small v. United…
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The Prosecutor Did What?
The Scrushy trial is certainly not getting boring, that is when it has been in session. The breaks come and go and the trial continues. But today AP reported that the prosecutor, while questioning a witness about HealthSouth under Scruchy’s leadership asked: "Was WorldCom a Fortune 500 company?" "Was Enron a Fortune 500 company?" As…
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Lawyer Discipline Statistics
Check Ben Cowgill’s Legal Ethics Blog (here) for links to the ABA’s Survey on Lawyer Discipline and his discussions on the topic, which are always worthwhile.
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