Defendants' Pretrial Access to Documents in White-Collar Prosecutions
October 30, 2007
Accused of withholding a DNA report favorable to the defendants in the Duke lacrosse case, Durham, NC, District Attorney Mike Nifong reached for an argument familiar to defense attorneys: Even if he didn't produce a report identifying exculpatory DNA results, he did produce documents containing those results ' among over a 1,000 pages of related documents produced before trial. Of course, the North Carolina Bar found that Nifong did more than simply bury favorable evidence in a document production. Assume, however, that he had produced exculpatory DNA results, and even a report explaining them, in thousands of pages of documents, but defense counsel didn't find them. Did he satisfy his disclosure obligations?
Company Interviews of Employees Suspected of Wrongdoing
October 30, 2007
Since Sarbanes-Oxley ('SOX') became law in 2002, companies have had a heightened interest in determining if there has been wrongdoing within their business. When a company has reason to believe that one or more employees may have engaged in practices that could expose it and them to civil lawsuits, regulatory actions or criminal charges, good business practice calls for the company to find out what occurred, who was involved, how extensive the conduct was, and how it happened. From the very beginning of this process, a particularly difficult issue is what employees interviewed in the company's investigation should be told about getting their own lawyers.
10b5 -1 Plan Abuse
September 27, 2007
Last month, we wrote that the latest hot topic in corporate executive abuses may be manipulation of traders under prearranged Rule 10b5-1. We said that once a determination is made to review the historical operation of a 10b5-1 plan, reviewers should consider as a threshold issue whether they are sufficiently independent from the subject plans and traders to be properly regarded as objective. We continue with a list that describes several steps that could be taken to reveal some of the 10b5-1 plan abuses that commentators speculate may exist.
Prosecution and Defense of Stock Option Backdating Cases
September 27, 2007
Backdating is different from conduct typically alleged as stock fraud because it is not in itself illegal. So long as the backdating of options is accompanied by proper accounting treatment and public disclosure, there is no securities law violation. Backdating cases thus have come to be thought of largely as accounting cases. As a result, a potent potential defense has emerged for corporate officers who may have known backdating was occurring but, because they did not have hands-on responsibility for their company's financial or accounting practices, were unaware of the accounting or disclosure consequences of that practice.
Complying with the FCPA in Emerging Markets After SOX
September 27, 2007
The recent settlement of parallel FCPA actions in the Southern District of Texas against Baker Hughes, Inc., a major oilfield service company, and its wholly owned subsidiary Baker Hughes Services International Inc. (collectively 'Baker Hughes'), underscores the importance of complying with the FCPA's provisions in emerging markets.
Foreign Companies Prosecuted in the U.S. for Bribes Overseas
September 27, 2007
In an effort to level the playing field for U.S. businesses overseas, many OECD countries adopted the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions in 1998. Nearly 10 years later, the main result may have been to enlarge the playing field of U.S. law enforcement.
10b5-1 Plan Abuse
August 29, 2007
The latest hot topic in corporate executive abuses may be manipulation of trades under prearranged trading plans established pursuant to Rule 10b5-1. Little has been said about the red flags that could indicate abuse of 10b5-1 plans. This article attempts to offer some practical guidance to corporate counsel to ensure that their 10b5-1 plans steer clear of SEC enforcement scrutiny.
Pensions and Restitution
August 29, 2007
Being a white-collar defendant is very expensive. Just the cost of putting up a serious defense is more than most business executives can bear, and whether companies must pay their ex-employees' legal fees has been hotly litigated in the much discussed KPMG tax shelter case in the Southern District of New York. Meanwhile, an important <i>en banc</i> decision of the Ninth Circuit addresses the financial impact on individuals at the other end of the criminal process: whether pension trust funds may be reached to satisfy a criminal judgment of restitution.
Rita v. U.S.
August 29, 2007
Two-and-a-half years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in the remedial portion of its bifurcated decision in U.S. v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), that the system of federal Sentencing Guidelines established by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 could pass constitutional muster only if the Guidelines were treated as having advisory, rather than mandatory, effect. But Booker left open the question of how much weight the now advisory Guidelines should henceforth be given in a district court's sentencing calculus. Last November, the Supreme Court granted writs of certiorari in two cases ' <i>Rita v. United States</i>, and <i>Claiborne v. United States</i>, that seemed likely to resolve this question.
'Swift' Prosecutions of Corporations and Executives
August 29, 2007
Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) celebrated the five-year anniversary of the Corporate Fraud Task Force with a press release and a party at which then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a prepared statement, hailed significant changes in the way white-collar cases have been prosecuted. Gonzales praised the Task Force's role in breaking 'large investigations into smaller, less complex pieces,' and bringing those cases faster. But expedited investigations mixed with quick charging decisions have not been a reliable recipe for success.
