Sky Blog
On May 19, 2025, the U.S. Deputy Attorney General issued a memorandum (the “Memo”) announcing a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (the “Initiative”) and instructing the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to pursue False Claims Act (“FCA”) enforcement against “any recipient …
On January 21, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the “Order”), rescinding affirmative action under Executive Order 11246 and other anti-discrimination policies applying to federal contractors. We provided an …
The most important question in whistleblowing is a straightforward one: Why does whistleblowing work? Modernized whistleblower award laws, such as the False Claims Act and Dodd-Frank Act, have had immense impacts on the detection and prosecution of white-collar crimes. …
On March 7, 2024, in a speech before the American Bar Association, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced a “90-day sprint” to establish a new Justice Department whistleblower program. In her speech, Monaco pointed to other highly successful whistleblower …
2023 was another record year for False Claims Act enforcement. On February 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the federal government and whistleblowers were party to a record number of FCA settlements and judgments in Fiscal …
Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors are empowered to resolve serious corporate criminal allegations through deferred prosecution agreements (DPA). In a new paper, I argue that DPAs should not be permitted when corporate misconduct causes people to lose their lives.
To …
On August 24, 2023, in a highly anticipated decision, the Second Circuit in Kirschner v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. et al. affirmed dismissal of state-law securities claims because the syndicated term loan in question was not a “security” and therefore …
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.…
On January 25th, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14005, entitled “Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers,” (“EO”), aimed at increasing the federal government’s procurement of American-made supplies. This EO has …
On October 8, 2019, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ” or the “Government”) issued new guidance for federal prosecutors to follow when corporations claim they are unable to pay a criminal fine or monetary penalty. For …
Whistleblowers play a significant role in detecting corporate fraud. For example, recent high-profile financial frauds such as the Enron scandal and Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme were brought to light by whistleblowers. To encourage more whistleblowers to come forward, the Securities …
In crafting the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA), Congress went beyond the federalization of state trade secret protection to tackle a broader social justice problem: the misuse of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to discourage reporting of illegal activity in …
Registrants, particularly those involved in highly regulated industries, frequently must determine whether and when a government investigation and related pending or threatened litigation must be disclosed in its periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). On September …