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On February 7, 2023, Ishan Wahi (Ishan), a former Coinbase product manager, pled guilty to wire fraud charges in an indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
Ishan admitted that he had used …
United States v. Blaszczak[1] has long been a one-off case that did not fit the mold of the traditional insider trading prosecution, but now — following a 2-1 decision of the Second Circuit in December, reversing most of the …
On December 29, 2022, the Second Circuit issued its highly anticipated opinion on remand in United States v. Blaszczak (“Blaszczak II”), reconsidering the case following the Supreme Court’s January 2021 vacatur of the Second Circuit’s original decision upholding …
The spectacle of a shambling billionaire with an adolescent personality, an inconsistent memory, a fondness for using his depositors’ funds for his own personal purposes, and an eagerness to talk in self-destructive ways to the press has fascinated everyone. This …
For at least a quarter century, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pursued claims of unlawful insider trading where the information at issue was material to the stock price of the sponsor of a clinical trial. In recent years, …
On October 18, 2022, Deputy Attorney General (“DAG”) Lisa O. Monaco announced that Lafarge SA (“Lafarge”), a multi-national building materials manufacturer headquartered in Paris, France, and its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (“LCS”) had pleaded guilty in the Eastern District …
Corporate law prohibits companies from pursuing profits through criminal misconduct. It uses the fiduciary duties imposed on boards under the Caremark doctrine,[1] and the threat of personal liability of directors for deliberate breach, to help motivate directors to make …
Here’s the second episode of The Cutting Edge, a podcast series that examines white collar crime and corporate governance. This episode, “Special Counsel: Whose Interests Do They Serve?” looks at the history and unique status of the special counsel …
On September 13, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement with Prosperity Bank, a regional bank with branches in Texas and Oklahoma, for processing a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan on behalf of an ineligible borrower.…
Good afternoon. Thank you, Dean McKenzie, for the introduction and for hosting us today. I’m happy to be back at NYU, and to see so many friends and former colleagues in the room.
Let me start by acknowledging some of
Can you name 10 corporate criminals? Bernie Madoff, Martha Stewart, and Jeff Skilling don’t count – they are individuals, not businesses. How about just five? Three? It’s surprising the task should be so difficult. Corporate crime inflicts upwards of 20 …
Stock-option backdating, the practice of changing the reported date of a stock-option grant to an earlier date, proliferated in the 1990s and early 2000s, with nearly one-third of public corporations engaging in it, according to some estimates (Heron and Lie, …
Today, the Blue Sky Blog launches its newest podcast series, The Cutting Edge: Current Issues in White Collar Crime and Corporate Governance. The series features top scholars, lawyers, and other esteemed figures in the legal world discussing breaking developments in …
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has signaled that it wants to increase enforcement against “greenwashing” – misrepresentation of a company’s environmental actions. It is not yet clear, though, whether these enforcement efforts will expand the risk of corporate criminal …
At a recent New York City Bar Association event, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco emphasized the Department of Justice’s focus on sanctions evasion and export control violations as key to its work to combat corporate crime.
At …
Internal investigations have become a necessity in today’s increasingly complex legal environment. They are now considered standard practice for businesses responding to serious allegations of financial misconduct and, when properly conducted, play a critical role in determining the credibility of …
Countries around the world are reforming their laws governing corporate criminal liability. Jurisdictions and scholars arguing against broad corporate liability, often rely on the claim that corporate civil liability should be as effective because it can impose equally large sanctions …
Remarks made by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials at the March 2022 American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) National Institute on White Collar Crime (the White Collar Conference) reflect the DOJ’s prioritizing white collar criminal enforcement under the Biden administration.1
On …