Hello again. Below are summaries from a variety of published Fifth Circuit cases from April 2025, along with a late addition from March. One benefit of releasing the April summaries in early June is that you get the Federal...more
Often wrong, never in doubt. That’s our promise here at Budding Trends. A little over a year ago, we wrote these words: “DEA will reschedule marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule III.” We later acknowledged we (may have)...more
In a significant move to curb illegal activities at the U.S. Southwest border, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert, on May 1, 2025, concerning oil smuggling from Mexico into the United States,...more
U.S. and Mexican companies and financial institutions are seeking to navigate AML/CFT, sanctions, export control, and tariff and supply chain concerns as their governments’ make rapid changes around trade and tariffs and ramp...more
At the American Bar Association’s White-Collar Crime Institute’s conference held in Miami, Florida on March 6-7, 2025, two panelists from the panel “Sentencing: Effective Mitigation in White-Collar Cases” differed on whether...more
U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals - Albert v. Ass’n of Anti-Money Laundering - ADA, § 309 - NRA v. Bondi - firearms, sales to minors, young adults, constitutional challenges - Org of Prof Aviculturists v. FDLA...more
President Donald Trump announced that his imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada will take effect today, March 4, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. EST....more
U.S. President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14157 (the EO) on Jan. 20, 2025, calling for the designation of drug cartels and other foreign organizations as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) or specially designated...more
Upon being sworn in on February 5, 2025, Attorney General Pamela Bondi immediately issued memoranda reorienting national security enforcement resources of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to focus on addressing illegal...more
In response to the tariffs imposed by President Trump on Canada, Mexico, and China on February 1, 2025 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), each of those three countries has indicated it plans to...more
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that initiates the process of designating certain drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The executive order is primarily focused on...more
The first two days of the new Trump administration were marked by pronouncements that portend short-run uncertainty about the tariff environment. Although President Trump’s past statements had led many people to expect he...more
Recently, President Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, using his final days in office to issue clemency actions intended to nullify prison terms...more
2024 was a primarily lean and flat year for the U.S. cannabis industry. The state-legal cannabis industry has been volatile from its inception, and 2024 represented a year of winnowing with many cannabis businesses failing....more
On November 25, 2024, President-Elect Trump made two posts to his Truth Social account in which he stated that on day one of his second Administration, he would impose additional tariffs of 10% on all products from China, and...more
In June 2024, the UAE introduced Cabinet Decision No. 43/2024, establishing a comprehensive framework for handling non-resident foreigners caught in possession of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances while entering the...more
The United States treats drug offences very seriously, and foreign nationals should be attentive to U.S. laws about drugs that may impact their ability to enter the United States....more
La Subdirección de Control y Fiscalización de Sustancias Químicas y Estupefacientes del Ministerio de Justicia y del Derecho de Colombia publicó recientemente una circular por medio de la cual informan a los usuarios que, a...more
In July 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Treasury’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released a joint notice discussing how Mexican-based Transnational...more
AGG’s Government Investigations Team Insights provides periodic updates covering legal and regulatory topics. Our team, which includes former federal prosecutors, SEC enforcement attorneys, and federal agency attorneys, has...more
Having been swept along for nine days “by the force of the hostile winds on the fishy sea,” Odysseus and his crew came to a strange land. After securing their ships, Odysseus sent some of his “companions ahead, telling them...more
If you know, you know. The government’s less familiar version — if most know, the defendant knows — just got a boost from the Supreme Court of the United States, which recently held that Federal Rule of Evidence 704(b) did...more
With a significant mass of cases left to decide and only a few weeks to issue the opinions, the U.S. Supreme Court has reduced the backlog by four yesterday. None of them, however, resolves the future of Chevron deference or...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued four decisions today: Moore v. United States, No. 22-800: This case concerns the constitutionality of the Mandatory Repatriation Tax (“MRT”) included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and...more
The U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases yesterday, in each of which timing played a decisive role in the outcome. These cases did not produce the unanimity that has characterized most of the Court’s decisions so far this...more