AGG’s Government Investigations Team Insights provides periodic updates covering legal and regulatory topics.
In this edition, we discuss a recent Florida district court case involving prosecutorial misconduct resulting in a new trial, an SEC administrative case involving fraud allegations related to a SPAC, the Biden Administration’s efforts to pursue environmental justice through criminal enforcement of environmental laws, and continued antitrust criminal indictments of employers involving wage suppression.
FEATURED ARTICLES
USA v. Pisoni: Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Southern District of Florida
By: Aaron M. Danzig and Micah Kanters
On July 16, 2021, Judge Darrin P. Gayles of the Southern District of Florida indicated his intent to grant a new trial to three defendants, Matthew Pisoni, Marcus Pradel, and Victor Ramirez, based on his determination that Department of Justice (“DOJ”) attorneys knowingly engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by obtaining privileged documents and deliberately misleading the Court regarding their actions. Prosecutorial misconduct occurs when a prosecutor breaks a law or rule of professional ethics during the performance of their duties. While prosecutors have difficult and demanding jobs, and the vast majority are dedicated public servants, in this instance, the Court was not faced with accidental errors subsequently identified, acknowledged, and rectified, but rather apparently found intentional and egregious ethical violations. Such conduct by federal prosecutors obviously is of great concern for defendants, but it also is highly problematic for the entire criminal justice system, as it calls into question the very integrity of that system while undermining the validity of criminal convictions. Read More >
Pursuing Environmental Justice Through Criminal Enforcement
By: Brooke F. Dickerson
"Environmental Justice" is an effort intended to address the disproportionate adverse impacts of pollution on disadvantaged communities, primarily comprised of minorities and lower-income people. Environmental Justice ("EJ") has been a part of the United States’ official policy since the 1990s but the Biden Administration has now made Environmental Justice a priority in decision-making for all federal agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") defines Environmental Justice as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies." The Agency has issued numerous policies to advance the President’s goals, including increased funding to support EJ activities, increased civil enforcement activities in EJ communities, and increased criminal enforcement in communities overburdened by pollution. Read More >
A New Trend in Antitrust Enforcement: Wage Fixing and "No-Poach" Agreements
By: Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz and Micah Kanters
In October 2016, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") issued an eleven-page joint guidance document entitled "Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals" ("the Guidance"). Directed at human resource professionals, the Guidance reaffirmed the two antitrust agencies’ stance that antitrust laws apply with equal force to firms that compete to recruit and retain the same employees, irrespective of whether those firms compete in the same product or service market. In pertinent part, the Guidance asserted that “naked” agreements (i.e., facially anti-competitive agreements that lack pro-competitive justifications) between competitors in an employment market to fix wages or to not “poach” employees from one another constitute per se violations of the antitrust laws. Per se violations of the antitrust laws can be pursued criminally by the DOJ, and, recently, there has been a notable increase in this type of enforcement action. Read More >
