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Sixth Circuit Applies Booker in White Collar Cases
Two decisions by the Sixth Circuit issued last week deal with sentencing enhancements in white collar crime cases, most importantly the loss calculation under Section 2B1.1 that affects so many sentences in economic crimes. In U.S. v. McDaniel (here), the defendants were convicted of conspiracy, theft of U.S. mail, and bank fraud related to a
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Will Scrushy Get Back in the Saddle?
An article in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 22) speculates on whether Richard Scrushy will seek to regain his CEO position if he is acquitted in his criminal trial. While that is getting a little bit ahead of things, Scrushy remains a large shareholder of the company and likely has allies in management. While Scrushy
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Scam Targets Libraries
The volume of information any decent-sized university library must maintain, and the number of providers selling that information on a daily basis, has led to a developing scam involving fake claims that targets university libraries, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (here). Telemarketers are calling libraries demanding payment for items they
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Contributor to Howard Stern Radio Program Will Be Quizzed by SEC About Possible Insider Trading
With the obligatory introductory moniker of "Shock-Jock" Howard Stern, a contributor to Stern’s morning radio program has been subpoenaed by the SEC to testify about possible insider trading in the shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. before the announcement that Stern would be moving his program to that company’s broadcast platform in 2006. Chaunce Hayden
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Alcoa Discloses Informal SEC Accounting Investigation
Alcoa Inc. disclosed in its annual report (available here) filed on Friday, Feb. 18, that the SEC has begun an informal investigation of the company’s accounting for "certain trade payables financing." The company paid some vendors through intermediaries, and the issue is whether the company classified properly its payments and any discounts received. Alcoa’s annual
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Ebbers Trial Coming to a Close
The importance of Scott Sullivan to the government’s case is clear as the prosecutors told the court that they expect to end their case-in-chief on either Tuesday or Wednesday and will not be calling any more witnesses from the company. Sullivan was the principal witness used to establish Bernie Ebbers’ involvement in the fraud, and
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WorldCom Class Action Trial Delayed
While the criminal prosecution of Bernie Ebbers will be concluding soon, the civil securities fraud class action against WorldCom, its directors, and various banks involved in the company’s finances will have to wait a little bit longer before it can begin. As discussed on Jurist, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote has postponed the trial until
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U.S. Attorney White Paper on Procurement Fraud
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a white paper on Feb. 18, "Combating Procurement Fraud: An Initiative to Increase Prevention and Prosecution of Fraud in the Federal Procurement Process." The district is home to the Pentagon and, more importantly, thousands of government defense consulting firms in Crystal City, Rosslyn, and
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New Scholarship
Co-Blogger Peter Henning has a new piece in the Buffalo Criminal Law Review, now available on SSRN titled, "Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 307 and Corporate Counsel: Who Better to Prevent Corporate Crime?" The article "argues that the SEC should adopt the withdrawal portion of the noisy withdrawal rule, and that withdrawal should be mandatory for both
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RICO – Who is an Outsider?
A recent Seventh Circuit decision, United States v. Cummings, highlights a key limit to the RICO statute. For starters this is wonderful case to learn what skip tracing is and the role these individuals serve in finding debtors. The case notes that "Although skip tracing is not necessarily illegal, some skip tracers stray across the
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