On September 9, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced settlements with seven public companies relating to their use of separation agreements that the SEC says violate whistleblower protection rules by preventing the employees from claiming any monetary reward for future whistleblowing. The companies agreed to pay over $3 million combined to settle the
In the latest example of the Roberts court reining in the government’s use of broadly worded criminal statutes, on June 26, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Snyder that the federal bribery statute does not extend to after-the-fact gifts and gratuities. The Court held that 18 U.S.C. § 666 requires a corrupt
On Monday, June 17, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced settlements involving $11.3 million in payments for consulting companies failing to comply with cybersecurity requirements in federally funded contracts. The head of DOJ’s Civil Division stated, “Federal funding frequently comes with cybersecurity obligations, and contractors and grantees must honor these commitments. The Justice Department
The federal wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, is one of the commonly used statutes in federal white-collar criminal cases. In our digital age, nearly any significant fraud or scheme could probably be charged as a wire fraud. But even expansive statutes have limits, as the Supreme Court held last year in an important
In November 2023, during her keynote address at the American Conference Institute’s international conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Nicole Argentieri announced that the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ) intended to be more active in generating FCPA investigations and prosecutions. Rather than
As part of implementing a robust cybersecurity standard, we must understand how bad actors are intentionally targeting our older colleagues and loved ones. On April 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges against 16 defendants in connection with a scam that defrauded hundreds of elderly Americans out of millions of dollars. Just
On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a new task force to guide antitrust enforcement in the healthcare industry. The body, named the Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC), is housed within DOJ’s Antitrust Division and directed by longtime DOJ antitrust prosecutor Katrina Rouse.
The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines play an enormous role in federal sentencing. While courts are not required to follow the guidelines, the guidelines remain the starting point for determining a defendant’s ultimate sentence. For that reason, amendments to the guidelines are equally significant.
Recently, the United States Sentencing Commission — the body
At last week’s sentencing of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the government recommended a 36-month prison sentence. Despite the serious nature of Zhao’s crimes – failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, which enabled users to engage in transactions linked to narcotics, terrorist financing and child sex abuse, among others – the court imposed a
On April 17, 2024, the seven-member panel of the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to adopt an amendment prohibiting judges from using acquitted conduct in applying the federal sentencing guidelines. Previously, and consistent with the decision in United States. v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148, 157 (1997) (per curiam) (holding that “a jury’s verdict of acquittal