On successive days last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled enforcement actions against international cybercriminal organizations that utilized ransomware to infect computer systems and then extort payment, often in the form of cryptocurrency, from victims worldwide. First, the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle… Continue Reading
Fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK and should be seen as a national security issue, says think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in a paper published last week[1]. It is the crime to which UK citizens are most likely to fall victim[2]. Its impact on the private sector has consequences for… Continue Reading
Following an FBI sting, police sergeant Nathan Van Buren was convicted under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) for selling license plate information obtained from a police database. The Eleventh Circuit upheld his conviction. In April, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Van Buren v. United States, No. 19-783, to address a circuit… Continue Reading
The contours of price gouging enforcement continue to evolve rapidly within the rip current of the coronavirus pandemic. As we previously reported, the Department of Justice and state attorneys general have spearheaded price gouging investigations, and private litigants have turned to the courts with price gouging-related class action lawsuits. Yet one potential authority remains on… Continue Reading
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a statement to financial institutions on March 16, 2020, concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement covered two main topics: Potential delays by financial institutions in filing required Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports Remaining alert to identify malicious or fraudulent transactions, which often arise during natural disasters First, FinCEN… Continue Reading
On March 12, 2019, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced federal criminal charges in “Operation Varsity Blues,” the largest college admissions case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Fifty people have been charged for their involvement in what prosecutors describe as a nationwide conspiracy to get the children of… Continue Reading
In a series of key policy announcements between November 2017 and May 2018, the Department of Justice has demonstrated an increasingly coherent perspective on how it will handle key aspects of white collar criminal enforcement. The policies largely reiterate a message federal prosecutors have delivered for years regarding what they want to see from companies… Continue Reading
This post originally appeared in our sister publication, Password Protected. A “white hat” is an ethical computer hacker who specializes in penetration testing and other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organization’s information systems. According to the Ethical Hacking Council, “The goal of the ethical hacker is to help the organization take pre-emptive measures against malicious… Continue Reading
A January 10 internal memorandum from the director of the fraud section of the DOJ’s civil division commercial litigation branch, which has recently become public, sets out the factors the government should consider in dismissing False Claims Act (FCA) cases in which it has declined to intervene, and may suggest a greater possibility that the… Continue Reading
Last year in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar et al. (discussed on this blog), the Supreme Court reminded litigants that the False Claims Act “is not an all-purpose antifraud statute.” In that case, the Court expanded upon the FCA’s materiality standard, calling it both “rigorous” and “demanding.” How demanding that… Continue Reading
Much of the discussion surrounding President Trump’s 2018 budget blueprint has focused on cuts, but one proposed budget increase shows the new administration is likely to continue focusing on healthcare fraud enforcement. Among cuts of approximately 18% to the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the president’s budget proposes $70 million… Continue Reading
For several years running, insider trading has been among the most high-profile enforcement priorities for both DOJ and the SEC. Unlike most federal criminal law, insider trading remains undefined by statute, having instead been largely judge-made. Unsurprisingly, since the explosion of enforcement actions began, prosecutors and defendants have both pushed the courts to clarify (or… Continue Reading
In the midst of a False Claims Act (FCA) case, the relators have blatantly violated the FCA’s seal provision. Surely this will lead to dismissal, right? Wrong. On Tuesday, December 6, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that violating the FCA’s seal requirement does not necessarily demand that a case be dismissed. The case before the… Continue Reading
As we previously reported, in June the Department of Education (DOE) proposed new rules relating to when students could assert a borrower defense to repayment, effectively a discharge of student loans. On November 1, DOE adopted the rules in substantially the same form they were proposed. In commentary, DOE observes that the former borrower defense… Continue Reading
Last week, a federal district judge ruled for the first time that the “review de novo” promised by section 31(d) of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”), 16 U.S.C. § 823b(d), will be “treated as an ordinary civil action requiring a trial de novo.” FERC v. Maxim Power Corp., Civ. No. 3:15-30113-MGM, at 2 (D. Mass.… Continue Reading
Recently, the Supreme Court handed down its much-anticipated opinion in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar et al.—a case addressing the viability of the implied certification theory in FCA litigation. Justice Thomas, writing on behalf of a unanimous Court, found that the implied certification theory can in fact serve as a… Continue Reading
As citizens of a nation founded on the rule of law, we depend upon law enforcement and prosecutors to protect us from harm and from those who infringe our liberty. In exchange for this protection, we permit these public servants to exercise authority and at times great power. Thankfully, and it should go without saying,… Continue Reading
Over the past two years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stepped up enforcement actions against pyramid schemes and related affinity frauds. Last week, in a speech at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, addressed his division’s most recent efforts to combat these frauds. In particular,… Continue Reading
The U.S. Department of Justice announced last week that Olympus Corporation of the Americas (OCA) agreed to pay $646 million to resolve three cases relating to its longstanding practice to bribe doctors and hospitals in the U.S. and abroad. The company entered deferred prosecution agreements (DPA) related to violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and… Continue Reading
Courts generally agree in False Claims Act cases that the government alone does not count as “the public” for purposes of the Act’s public disclosure bar. The current bar calls for dismissal of complaints whose allegations have already been publicly disclosed, with the aim of preventing parasitic suits. Seven circuits subscribe to the view that… Continue Reading
Demonstrating the importance of full and accurate disclosure, a Chicago commercial real estate developer faces a maximum sentence of 230 years in prison for misrepresenting his company’s finances. After a two-week trial, on February 24, a jury found Laurance Freed, president of Joseph Freed and Associates LLC (JFA), guilty of bank fraud, mail fraud, and… Continue Reading
R (on the application of Colin McKenzie) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office saw an unsuccessful attempt to judicially review the SFO’s currently in-use procedure for dealing with material that it has seized, and which may contain content subject to legal professional privilege (“LPP”). This ‘procedure’, set out in the SFO’s Operational Handbook, provides… Continue Reading
Just in time for Christmas, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the financial industry (including casinos and card clubs) regulator, announced its first-ever enforcement action against a card club, California’s Oaks Card Club (Oaks). The enforcement action, which carried a penalty of $650,000, is the latest in a string of actions against gaming enterprises and is… Continue Reading
I recently attended a Fraud Conference in Miami where I heard a French lawyer insisting that since he was a defence advocate, his job was to defend his clients against fraud allegations, not to prosecute them. Instead of cosying up to the authorities, and self-reporting, he regarded it as his duty to challenge the prosecutor and… Continue Reading
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