White Collar Crime

Serious Fraud Office draws up list of big-name candidates for top role

By Friederike Heine | October 14, 2011

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is targeting some of the biggest private practice names in white-collar crime to replace director Richard Alderman when he retires in April next year. The body has drawn up a shortlist of potential candidates for the role, including Dechert litigation partner Neil Gerrard - who is currently in dispute with DLA Piper over his exit from his former firm - and ex-Simmons & Simmons partner Louise Delahunty, who is now a counsel in Sullivan & Cromwell's London office.

1 minute read

Court clerk becomes first to be charged under UK Bribery Act

By Suzi Ring | September 1, 2011

An administrative court clerk is set to become the first person to be prosecuted under the Bribery Act 2010 over allegations that he accepted a bribe to influence criminal proceedings. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided to prosecute Munir Yakub Patel under Section 2 of the Act for requesting and receiving a bribe intending to improperly perform his functions, marking the first case since new UK bribery laws came into effect this summer.

1 minute read

Liquid lunches, sporting events and the Bribery Act – will City corporate life ever be the same?

By Legal Week | August 3, 2011

It has happened. The Bribery Act 2010 is now in force. And yet corporate entertaining has not come to a cataclysmic end, there was still plenty of City schmoozing at Wimbledon and the restaurants in the Square Mile are still doing a brisk business in three-hour lunches for pin-striped ladies and gentlemen buying and selling their wares.

1 minute read

Legal Week launches video debate series for in-house lawyers

By Legal Week | July 5, 2011

Legal Week has launched the first in a series of video debates that will see senior in-house lawyers and partners discuss the key legal topics affecting clients. What the briefings say... draws on the most popular briefings from Legal Week Law, the online library of law updates targeted at in-house lawyers. The videos are free to watch for users of Legal Week Law, which has attracted more than 15,000 registrations since its launch in March 2010.

1 minute read

Firms warned of 'significant risks' of gifts & hospitality under Bribery Act

By Friederike Heine | June 15, 2011

The Law Society has warned that the Bribery Act could present "significant risks" for law firms in relation to gifts and hospitality. The practice note, issued last week (6 June) suggests that firms should introduce procedures to "prevent the giving or receiving of gifts, hospitality or paying of expenses" that might "influence or be perceived to influence a business decision".

1 minute read

SFO handed 'stay of execution' as Govt delays decision on break-up

By Friederike Heine | June 8, 2011

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been granted a 12-month reprieve, with the Home Office set to confirm that it will delay making a decision on whether or not the body will be merged into a new National Crime Agency (NCA) until next year. Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to make the announcement later this afternoon (8 June), confirming that plans to separate the SFO's prosecution division from its investigatory function have been put on ice.

1 minute read

Partnership culture leaves firms vulnerable to a few bad apples

By Georgina Stanley | June 1, 2011

If proof was needed that old-fashioned partnership culture is alive and well in the City despite waves of partner culls and de-equitisations, then look no further than the case of Hogan Lovells' litigator Christopher Grierson and his alleged £1m expenses scam. Previously best known for working on the epic Bank of England/BCCI creditors dispute, his name will now forever be linked in legal circles with the shocking achievement of wrongfully claiming more than £1m in expenses over a four-year period, according to his former firm.

1 minute read

International Edition

Partnership culture leaves firms vulnerable to a few bad apples

By Georgina Stanley | June 1, 2011

If proof was needed that old-fashioned partnership culture is alive and well in the City despite waves of partner culls and de-equitisations, then look no further than the case of Hogan Lovells' litigator Christopher Grierson and his alleged £1m expenses scam. Previously best known for working on the epic Bank of England/BCCI creditors dispute, his name will now forever be linked in legal circles with the shocking achievement of wrongfully claiming more than £1m in expenses over a four-year period, according to his former firm.

1 minute read

White collar crime lawyers on alert as SFO break-up threat recedes

By Friederike Heine | June 1, 2011

White collar crime advisers are scrambling to divine the direction of corporate crime policy amid mounting expectations that the Government will abandon controversial plans to break up the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The coalition Government had planned to split the SFO's prosecution division from its investigation function - a move strongly opposed by the agency and many white collar crime specialists.

1 minute read

Sullivan signs up Simmons white collar crime partner for City base

By Sofia Lind | May 25, 2011

Sullivan & Cromwell has hired Simmons & Simmons white collar crime partner Louise Delahunty as a European counsel in the London office. Delahunty will join the US firm on 20 June in its criminal defense and investigations group.

1 minute read

The Recorder

Ismail Ramsey Confirmed as US Attorney for California's Northern District

By Cheryl Miller | March 8, 2023

Ismail "Izzy" Ramsey will return to the U.S. attorney's office where he once served in the white-collar crime section and created the office's computer hacking and intellectual property unit.

3 minute read

Corporate Counsel

Former Facebook Security Chief Sounds Off on the Case that Rocked the Cybersecurity World

By Maria Dinzeo | March 7, 2023

Ex-Uber security chief Joe Sullivan "is being punished for something that actually happens all the time, and for which we don't have good legal guidance," former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos said.

6 minute read

New York Law Journal

New Enforcement Tools in Regulating Cryptocurrency

By Benjamin M. Daniels and Trevor L. Bradley | March 6, 2023

This article takes a look at the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team's first public action working with the Department of Treasury in targeting the Hong-Kong-based exchange, Bitzlato Ltd., which allegedly served as a haven for money laundering and cybercrime. The action could have broad ramifications for the cryptocurrency market and financial institutions that deal in cryptocurrency.

4 minute read

New York Law Journal

Turning the Tables on DOJ: Individual Defendants Wield Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies Against the Government

By Benjamin Singer, Rebecca Mermelstein and Alix Sandman | March 6, 2023

A high-profile case brought by DOJ's FCPA unit illustrates the messy reality of how DOJ's corporate enforcement policies intersect with individual prosecutions.

9 minute read

New York Law Journal

Not So Fast: The Rights of Victims in Corporate Deferred Prosecutions

By Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack | March 2, 2023

In this article, authors Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack discuss victims' rights in federal criminal law, and then the pair move to the facts in the Boeing prosecution and Judge Reed O'Connor's consideration of the victims' claims.

10 minute read

The Recorder

What to Expect From the Next Era in White-Collar Enforcement

By Walt Brown, Melinda Haag, Joshua Hill and JiLon Li | March 1, 2023

In 2022, the Department of Justice emphasized its focus on individual accountability and corporate cooperation while aggressively pursuing prosecutions, with mixed success, in multiple industries and using novel tools, including increased international cooperation and untested legal theories, according to Paul Weiss' Walt Brown, Melinda Haag, Joshua Hill and JiLon Li.

8 minute read

Corporate Counsel

In First-of-Kind Case, DOJ Alleges Chairman Filed Trading Plans to Pull Off Vast Insider Trading Scheme

By Maria Dinzeo | March 1, 2023

"Few things undermine trust in the markets more than insiders abusing their positions for personal advantage," SEC enforcement division director Gurbir Grewal said.

4 minute read

Daily Report Online

Ex-Federal Prosecutors Reunite to Form White-Collar Law Firm

By Everett Catts | March 1, 2023

Opening Feb. 21, Chaiken Ghali was co-founded by David M. Chaiken and Kamal Ghali, who have a combined nearly 40 years of experience as attorneys.

4 minute read

New York Law Journal

'Definitely Affects the Calculus': White-Collar Experts Break Down US Attorneys' New Corporate Disclosure Policy

By Jane Wester | February 24, 2023

The criminal division policy was revised and the U.S. attorneys' policy was created in response to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco's September memorandum instructing each DOJ component to develop and publish a voluntary self-disclosure policy.

5 minute read

New York Law Journal

Dan Weiner of Hughes Hubbard & Reed on the Benefits of 'Deep Industry Focus'

By Ross Todd | February 22, 2023

"As the saying goes, 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'; we pride ourselves in knowing both the law and the subject matter of our cases, inside and out."

10 minute read