By Porter Wright on PGA golfer Phil Mickelson agreed to forfeit almost $1 million that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said was obtained through insider trading. Mickelson was named as a “relief defendant” in a criminal case, filed in the Southern District of New York against professional gambler William Walters and a former director of Dean Foods, Thomas … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) detailed new rules that would focus investigations of corporations on responsible individuals and warned that companies cannot abuse the attorney-client privilege to hide key facts in criminal investigations. On Monday, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who issued the so-called Yates Memoranda in September, detailed DOJ policy on how the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on A Chicago jury took one hour to find a trader guilty of “spoofing” some of the world’s largest commodities futures markets by deceptive electronic trading. On Tuesday, Michael Coscia was found guilty of 12 counts of fraud and “spoofing” by attempting to flood the gold, corn, soybean and crude oil futures markets with small orders, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case appealed to the highest Court. The appeal sought to limit the scope of the FCPA by narrowing the law’s definition of the term “foreign official.” Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez, former executives of Terra Telecommunications Corp., had challenged … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on FBI Director James Comey shared the bureau’s enforcement trends and objectives at the New York City Bar Association’s Third Annual White Collar Crime Institute on May 19. Comey recognized that although counter-terrorism is still a top priority for the agency, white-collar cases are receiving significant focus and resources. In the mortgage industry, agents are investigating … Continue Reading
By Bob Tannous on On Monday, June 18, 2012, DOJ announced that it had entered into a two-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Data Systems & Solutions LLC (“DS&S”), a company that provides design, installation, maintenance and other services at nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, to resolve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company, which is based … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Rajat Gupta, the former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company and board member at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, was convicted on four of six counts by a federal jury in New York today for providing nonpublic material information to Raj Rajaratnam in 2008. Specifically, Mr. Gupta was convicted of conspiring to commit insider … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On June 14, 2012, David Edmonds, the sole remaining U.S. defendant in the Carson FCPA case entered into a plea agreement. He will plead guilty to a one-count indictment alleging a violation of the FCPA. The case has been closely watched because of a number of the interesting arguments raised the defendants, but as those … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This afternoon, Judge David Hittner sentenced R. Allen Stanford to 110 years in prison for his decades-long Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of over $7 billion. The court also imposed a personal money judgment of $5.9 billion. The sentence was less than half of what the Government requested, but given that Mr. Stanford is already … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, June 4, 2012, New Jersey Federal Judge Katharine Hayden sentenced Matthew Kluger (a former associate at several prominent law firms) to twelve years in prison for his role in a insider trading scheme. One of his co-conspirators, Garrett Bauer (a Wall Street trader), received a nine-year sentence. On Tuesday, June 5, 2012, Judge … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On May 29, 2012, Florida Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez granted a Government Motion to reduce the sentence of Robert Antoine, the former director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. ("Haiti Teleco"), the Haitian state-owned telecommunications company, from 48 months to 18 months, based on his cooperation with the Government’s FCPA investigation into the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Back on December 1, 2011, when Judge A. Howard Matz entered an order vacating the convictions and dismissing the Superseding Indictment against Lindsey Manufacturing Company, Keith Lindsey, Steve Lee in the criminal FCPA case, he noted that "Dr. Lindsey and Mr. Lee were put through a severe ordeal. … The financial costs of the investigation … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on An article by Ben Protess and Azam Ahmed of the New York Times examined the new techniques by used by the SEC to catch those engaging in insider trading. As the article explained, the Commission "is taking its cue from criminal authorities, studying statistical formulas to trace connections, creating a powerful unit to cull tips … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, May 21, 2012, Florida Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez sentenced Jean Rene Duperval, the former director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. ("Haiti Teleco"), the Haitian state-owned telecommunications company, to nine years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder bribes paid to him by two Miami-based telecommunications companies. The … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In connection with a May 14, 2012 hearing, Judge James Selna has prepared Tentative Minute Orders which deny two motions in the Carson FCPA cases. In a Motion to Suppress and a Motion to Dismiss, the defendants raised issues regarding DOJ’s relationship with Control Components, Inc. ("CCI"), the employer of defendants, who cooperated with the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Prosecutors and the SEC work quite vigorously to recover ill-gotten gains from those who have committed securities fraud, with the ultimate goal of compensating investors. A conviction in a criminal case or judgment in civil case brought by the SEC may result in a large number, like the $53.8 million forfeiture judgment in the criminal … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, April 30, 2012, two of the remaining defendants in the Carson FCPA case submitted Reply Briefs in support of motions that raise significant issues about the impact on the employees when a corporation conducts an internal investigation and ultimately cooperates with the Government. The briefs argued that: (1) certain statements should be suppressed … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Wednesday, April 25, 2012, DOJ announced that Garth Peterson, a former managing director for Morgan Stanley’s real estate business in China, pled guilty in federal court in Brooklyn, New York for participating in a conspiracy to evade the internal accounting controls which the company was required to maintain under the FCPA. Because Morgan Stanley … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a Brief filed on April 2, 2012, the Government argued that the statements by defendants in an FCPA case that were given to their employer during an internal investigation should not be suppressed because the employer’s "actions were not the result of any pressure or influence from the government sufficient to convert the Company’s … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On March 26, 2012, Judge Jed Rakoff issued an Opinion and Order in the two related cases against Rajat Gupta, granting in part a Motion to Compel and ordering the SEC to turn over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office materials relating to 44 witnesses (who were interviewed by the SEC and prosecutors jointly during the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, the Government filed a motion in the FCPA Sting Case to dismiss the charges against Jonathan M. Spiller, Haim Geri, and Daniel Alvirez, the three defendants who had previously pled guilty to conspiracy charges in the case and were awaiting sentencing. This unusual event occurred after the Court had dismissed … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, March 12, 2012, a federal jury in Florida convicted Jean Rene Duperval on two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering and 19 counts of money laundering related to an FCPA scheme involving Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. ("Haiti Teleco"), the Haitian state-owned telecommunications company. Following a week-long trial, the jury took only three hours … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a result that probably surprised few, Robert Allen Stanford was convicted on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 for his decades-long Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of over $7 billion. As reported by the New York Times (here), "the jury cleared Mr. Stanford of only one of several counts of wire fraud, but found him guilty … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, March 5, 2012, several of the defendants in the Carson FCPA case in California filed a Motion to Dismiss and a Motion to Suppress, raising a new set of interesting issues in a case where the corporation has already settled with the Government and individual employees face charges. In both motions, the defendants … Continue Reading
