By: Sara Kropf Ryan International Airlines has had a couple of rough years. The company had once found success flying mail for the U.S. Postal Service and providing military transport for personnel and cargo. But as military spending declined, Ryan found its revenues...
By: Sara Kropf I’m taking a break today from derivatives and insider trading, I bring to you: “Rebecca—The Musical.” It is based on the Daphne du Maurier novel. (The musical, not the blog post.) Unfortunately, "Rebecca" is not ready for prime time, thanks in part to...
By: Sara Kropf A few years ago, a woman was referred to me. She thought someone had scammed her husband out of a lot of money. I wish I could tell you I was able to help her, but I wasn’t. I always remembered the name of the person who she thought had taken their...
By: Sara Kropf The website for private investment company Oppenheimer & Co. says the company traces its roots back to the 1870s and a gentleman named Harris C. Fahnestock. Mr. Fahnestock was apparently an investment advisor to President Abraham Lincoln. The...
By: Sara Kropf Henry David Thoreau said, “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” According to the Department of Justice, a couple of commercial fishermen knew exactly what they were after when they broke laws...
By: Sara Kropf For most white-collar cases, the key issue at sentencing is the calculation of the loss amount. Although not mandatory, the Sentencing Guideline range will unquestionably influence the final sentence. And the Guidelines rely heavily on the loss amount...
By: Sara Kropf It’s not often that someone wishes the government investigated him earlier. But Philip Falcone, the hedge fund advisor for Harbinger Capital, may be wishing exactly that. Mr. Falcone and Harbinger Capital recently agreed to settle an SEC investigation...
By: Sara Kropf One thing I miss about my former BigLaw firm is having the IT department around to help when something goes wrong with my computer. One thing I don’t miss is having the IT department tell me to reboot my computer every time I called them, no matter what...
By: Sara Kropf If you thought legal work related to asbestos is limited to those late-night television ads asking if you (or anyone you know) suffer from mesothelioma, you’d be wrong. There is apparently a niche criminal defense practice out there, representing people...
By: Sara Kropf A confession: I picked this post topic because I kept seeing articles about Bitcoins and still did not understand what the heck they were. So I figured that if I wrote a post about it, then I’d be forced to learn. After some research, I learned enough...