White Collar Crime Prof Blog

In the News & Around the Blogosphere

Mike Scarcella, BLT Blog, Roger Clemens' Lawyers See Document Fight on Horizon

Liam Moloney & Salvatore Pizzo, WSJ, Parmalat Founder Receives 18-Year Prison Sentence

Pater Lattman, NYTimes Dealbook, Ex-Goldman Programmer Found Guilty of Code Theft

Jenna Greene, BLT Blog, SEC Settles Vitesse Stock Option Backdating Case 

Samuel Rubenfeld, WSJ Blog, Lanny Breuer Hails US Anti-Corruption Efforts At UN Conference

Michael A. Memoli, LATimes, Senate convicts federal judge Thomas Porteous of corruption and perjury

DOJ Press Release, Three Former Financial Services Executives Indicted for Fraudulent Conduct Affecting Contracts Related to Municipal Bonds

DOJ Press Release, Former Goldman Sachs Computer Programmer Found Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court of Theft of Trade Secrets

DOJ Press Release, Former Employee of U.S. Army Contractor in Afghanistan Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 41 Months in Prison for Accepting Corrupt Payments

DOJ Press Release, Perpetrator of $50 Million Real Estate Ponzi Scheme Sentenced to Six Years in Prison

DOJ Press Release, Former New York State Senator and Putnam County Executive-Elect Pleads Guilty in White Plains Federal Court to Obstruction of Justice and Tax Charges

Jonathan Weil, Bloomberg Opinion, Wall Street's Worst at Least Can Do the Math: 

Jesse Eisinger, Propublica, Where Are the Financial Crisis Prosecutions?

DOJ Press Release, Former CEO of the Morgan Crucible Co. Sentenced to Serve 18 Months in Prison for Role in Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice

DOJ Press Release, RAE Systems Agrees to Pay $1.7 Million Criminal Penalty to Resolve Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act -Voluntary Disclosure Results in Non-Prosecution Agreement

DOJ Press Release, Justice Department Charges Seventh Individual for Allegedly Filing Fraudulent Claims for Oil Spill Compensation -Seven Defendants in Total Charged to Date in North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, Michigan, Alabama and Louisiana

(esp)

Ninth Circuit Sentencing Case - Denial of Rehearing En Banc

The Ninth Circuit in U.S. v. Edwards had an unusual set of events.  It seems a judge sua sponte asked the court to rehear a case en banc.  The court then voted not to take the matter up, and a stinging dissent was authored by four judges - dissenting from the denial of the rehearing en banc.  The issue is simple - the dissenting judges believed that the sentence was too low in this white collar case, as well as other white collar matters in the Ninth Circuit, and something needed to be done about this.  To quote -  

"our court's practice of uncritically affirming unreasonably lenient sentences for white-collar criminals renders the Sentencing Guidelines a nullity, makes us an outlier among the circuit courts, and impairs our ability effectively to review sentences for substantive reasonableness. Our "rubber-stamp" approach to reasonableness review permits district courts to abuse their sentencing discretion by paying lip service to appropriate sentencing considerations while paying inadequate heed to the substance of those considerations. Hence we can end up with people like Edwards who engage in fraud and other criminal activities intended to cause extremely large monetary damages, yet who spend token and inadequate time, or even not one day, in jail."

This dissent claims that the Ninth Circuit is "an outlier when contrasted with other circuits' substantive scrutiny of lenient white-collar sentences." It notes that, "[u]nless and until an en banc opinion posts an outer limit on sentencing discretion, we can expect to see more non-imprisonment sentences for serious offenses committed by repeat white-collar offenders. As a circuit we are not taking seriously the recommendations of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission in white-collar criminal matters."

(esp)(w/ a hat tip to Professor Jerold Israel)

Thanks For Your Patience

Thanks for your patience with the slow blogging of these past couple of months.  I am going through my emails and will be posting in the next couple of weeks the many items that you have been kind enough to send.  Please continue to send me your news.

(esp)  

Articles

Jonathan C. Cross, law.com, RICO's Post-'Morrison' Reach: Will Other Courts Adopt the 2nd Circuit's Approach?

Margaret Colgate Love, Wash Post, Time to pardon people as well as turkeys, Mr. President

(esp)

In the News & Around the Blogosphere

DOJ Press Release, FBI Special Agent Darin Lee McAllister Found Guilty of Federal Wire and Bankruptcy Fraud Charges 

SNR Denton Press Release, Michelle J. Shapiro Joins SNR Denton’s White Collar Team

DOJ Press Release, Former Employee of a Financial Institution Subsidiary Arrested on Criminal Complaint for Role in Fraud Scheme Involving Municipal Bonds

DOJ Press Release,  Florida Man Indicted in “Ponzi” Scheme

 

(esp)