In federal court, “not guilty” doesn’t always mean no punishment. Under a quirk of federal sentencing law, judges are permitted to consider at sentencing anything that they consider relevant, including conduct for which a...more
On September 22, 2023 a federal jury convicted two promoters, CPA Jack Fisher and attorney James Sinnott, in the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) first criminal trial over allegedly abusive syndicated conservation easements...more
Two labor-market criminal antitrust trials recently ended in acquittals, further demonstrating the challenges the United States has faced in this area (See our previous coverage of this prosecution trend, reported on: Feb....more
United States District Court Acquits all Defendants in US v. Patel - On April 28, 2023, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut acquitted the defendants in US v. Patel of the charges of conspiring...more
Previously relegated to purely civil enforcement, in the last year the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has increased its focus on pursuing criminal charges for anti-poach agreements between companies that attempt to...more
On April 28, 2023, U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden issued the latest blow to the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) efforts to criminally prosecute individuals who engage in “no-poach” agreements by granting the defendants’...more
On August 9, 2022, in CFTC v. EOX Holdings LLC, the first insider trading trial in a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforcement action, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found...more
Last month, the first two trials arising from the DOJ’s recent push to criminally prosecute wage-fixing and employee non-solicitation agreements both ended in acquittals on the antitrust charges. In United States v. Jindal,...more
Juries Acquit Criminal Antitrust Defendants of All Charges - This month, federal juries acquitted defendants facing criminal antitrust convictions in two trials against employers accused of improperly restraining trade in...more
The Department of Justice criminal prosecution of Mark Forkner, chief technical pilot at Boeing responsible for the 737 Max, ended in quick acquittal. DOJ prosecutors suffered an embarrassing loss in an attempt to hold...more
Takeaway: Despite this acquittal, the Department of Justice has demonstrated that it can and will prosecute individuals for corporate malfeasance. A settlement by a corporation does not necessarily protect individual...more
On February 26, 2020, the US District Court for the District of Connecticut reinforced the Second Circuit’s recent decision to limit prosecutors’ ability to pursue Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) charges against foreign...more
On February 26, a federal district court in Connecticut acquitted the defendant in United States v. Hoskins on all counts related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). A jury had previously found the defendant guilty...more
On February 26, 2020, a federal judge in Connecticut granted, in part, defendant Lawrence Hoskins’s post-trial motion for acquittal on seven counts relating to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. United States v....more
In a closely followed case, on February 26, 2020, a District Court Judge in Connecticut granted Lawrence Hoskins’ motion for acquittal on the seven FCPA counts on which the jury convicted him. Hoskins was a UK citizen who...more
A ruling issued on Wednesday, February 26 by a Connecticut federal court details the type of control necessary to find that a foreign national acted as an agent of a U.S. domestic concern for purposes of falling within the...more
Outlook for This Week in the Nation’s Capital - Budget Release. The President is scheduled to release his Fiscal Year (FY) 21 budget request today. The bipartisan budget agreement passed earlier this year set the FY 21...more
On May 2, 2019, a jury sitting in the District of Massachusetts convicted five senior executives of Insys Therapeutics, Inc. (Insys) with racketeering conspiracy in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d)....more
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California acquitted a former sell-side foreign exchange trader on all counts brought against him arising from his alleged misuse of confidential client...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in January, announced a wave of coordinated spoofing cases that the Acting Assistant Attorney General, John P. Cronan, described as the...more
On Thursday, June 15, 2017, a Connecticut federal jury delivered a mostly defendant-friendly verdict in the criminal trial of three residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) traders charged with conspiracy, securities...more
On March 7, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky reversed the October 27, 2016 criminal jury verdict against Kentucky cardiologist Dr. Richard E. Paulus, and acquitted him on all counts of health...more
Last month, we reported on a Massachusetts federal court jury’s decision to acquit the former CEO of Warner Chilcott in one of the first prosecutions of a health care executive following the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”)...more
On July 21, 2016, two former executives of Acclarent, Inc., a medical device company owned by Johnson & Johnson, Inc., were found guilty of ten misdemeanor violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), following a...more
Like many before it, this year has been one to watch in government health care fraud enforcement efforts. In September 2015, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released the “Yates Memo,” which reaffirmed the government’s...more