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  • Pepper Hamilton and The Freeh Group Join Forces

    With corporate internal investigations as a multi-million dollar business, it is not surprising to see this new alliance – see here. (esp)

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  • In the News & Around the Blogosphere

    Jane Meinhardt, Tampa Bay Business Jrl, Weinberg awarded for work in prosecuting, defending DOJ Press Release, Eight Individuals and a Corporation Convicted at Trial in Florida in $50 Million Medicare Fraud King & Spalding Press Release, Former WellCare Executive Rejoins King & Spalding Jean Eaglesham & Joe Palazzolo, WSJ, Ex-UBS Traders Offered Deal by U.S.

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  • Government Takes Harsher Position After Judge Rejects Plea Bargain Because of Appellate Waiver

    Professor Douglas Berman, in his excellent blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, quoting a Denver Post article, writes that after a federal judge rejected a plea agreement urged by both parties because it included a standard appellate waiver, the prosecutor came back with a harsher offer, albeit one without an appellate waiver, which the defendant accepted. 

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  • New York D.A. Brings State Prosecution After Second Circuit Vacates Federal Conviction

    Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs programmer whose federal conviction for stealing source code from the firm's computers had been vacated by the Second Circuit on the grounds that the statutes under which he was prosecuted did not cover his conduct, has been charged by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance with state charges relating to

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  • In the News & Around the Blogosphere

    AP, Washington Post, Former Ohio county commissioner in federal corruption case gets 28-year prison sentence Benjamin Weiser, NYTimes, Bronx Councilman Is Convicted of Fraud and Loses Seat Basil Katz, Reuters, Key cooperator in Galleon insider cases gets probation Sophia Tareen, Boston.com, Ex-Ill. Gov. Ryan contests corruption convictions DOJ Press Release, Pfizer H.C.P. Corp. Agrees to

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  • The DOJ: In Action or Inaction?

    Here is an interesting piece from the Washington Examiner's Mark Tapscott, commenting on the Government Accountability Institute's new report, Justice Inaction: The Department of Justice's Unprecedented Failure to Prosecute Big Finance. According to Tapscott, the GAI "has concluded that conflicts of interest among President Obama's top Department of Justice appointees may explain why nobody on

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  • 50 Former Prosecutors (And Judges) Can’t Be Wrong

    The BLT reports here on the amicus brief filed by former federal prosecutors and judges in Ali Shaygan v. United States. At issue is whether the government can be fined and sanctioned under the Hyde Act, which covers vexatious, frivolous, or bad faith prosecutions, when the charges brought have an objectively reasonable basis in fact.

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  • Dog Bites Man. Dewey Takes Manila. DOJ Won’t Prosecute Goldman Sachs.

    Pete Yost has the AP story here. DOJ conducted an "exhaustive investigation" for an entire year. Wow. They really know how to investigate financial fraud over there! (wisenberg)

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  • DOJ’s Fraud Protection Racket

    Here is an excellent story by Michael S. Schmidt and Edward Wyatt in today's New York Times about DOJ's pathetic track record in prosecuting and convicting individual high profile fraudsters in connection with the financial crisis. Instead, companies pay whatever it takes by way of civil and (sometimes) criminal penalties in order to move on.

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  • None Dare Call It Misconduct: Except For The Second Circuit

    And there it is. Right on page 24 of the Second Circuit's opinion in U.S. V. Mahaffy, posted here yesterday. "None of this [the government's various rationales for withholding exculpatory and/or impeaching SEC transcripts] excuses the government's misconduct. The transcripts contained substantial Brady material, much of which was easily identified as such." In fact, an

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