By: Sara Kropf Public access to criminal trials is a fundamental principle of our justice system. As the Supreme Court articulated in 1980: [Supreme Court precedent] recognized that open trials are bulwarks of our free and democratic government: public access to court...
By: Sara Kropf Asset forfeiture was supposed to be in decline. The Washington Post published a series of troubling stories about the rising use of asset forfeiture--without warrants or criminal charges--to the tune of $2.5 billion dollars since 2001. Former Attorney...
I’ve posted before about the upcoming criminal trial of Don Blankenship’s involvement in the Massey Mine disaster. The trial started on October 1 and is still going. It’s going to be a long one. Back in February, Mr. Blankenship filed a motion to change the venue of...
Loss calculation drives sentencing decisions in many white-collar cases. The higher the loss amount, the longer the sentence.Courts usually take an expansive view of what counts as a “loss” for sentencing. In a recent Third Circuit case, however, the court rejected...
The Department of Justice today unsealed the indictment of the former president of Warner Chilcott plc, a pharmaceutical manufacturer. A subsidiary of Warner Chilcott pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of health care fraud related to illegal marketing of certain...
Prosecutors sometimes threaten to charge defendants with RICO, even in white-collar cases. This threat often comes when the prosecutor wants to force a plea deal. The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law allows prosecutors to group a wide array of...
The SEC finally gave up the ship in its insider trading case against former hedge fund managers Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman. After the Second Circuit reversed their convictions and the Supreme Court denied cert, the SEC decided not to pursue its civil suit...
The advice-of-counsel defense is a powerful one. If you did something because your lawyer said it was legal, then you may have a winning defense against many white-collar crimes. But all good things come with a price. To raise the defense, you must waive the...
By: Sara Kropf The government's aggressive methods to seize a defendant’s assets before he is convicted of a crime hinders a defendant’s ability to choose—and pay for—his lawyer. A recent Second Circuit case limits the government’s ability to do so. It is based on the...
The calculation of loss amount drives sentencing decisions in many white collar cases. The higher the loss amount, the longer the sentence. Courts always seem to take an expansive view of what counts as a “loss” for sentencing. In a recent Third Circuit case, however,...