By Sara Kropf We see a lot of criminal conflict of interest cases in our firm. Our federal government employee clients often face an investigation based on a vague allegation of a “conflict of interest.” Maybe the client applied for a job with a private company when...
The First Amendment gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so. The last clause, however, is often ignored. It says that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably . . . to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Federal government employees’ rights to “petition the government” are somewhat restricted. In fact, Congress has made it a crime for federal government employees to “petition the government” on behalf of others. This is in 18 U.S.C. § 205.
By Sara Kropf Many of the clients we represent in Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigations are facing allegations that they violated federal ethics regulations or internal agency ethics rules. Here’s how it usually plays out. An OIG agent knocks on the...
By Sara Kropf In Part 1, we reviewed the various rules in place that require research institutions and individual researchers to disclose financial conflicts of interest (FCOIs)—particularly financial support from foreign sources. The Department of Justice is taking...
By: Sara Kropf We've written before (see here, here and here) about the dangers of committing research misconduct, particularly for research that uses federal funds. Now there's a new danger. The federal government has recently started cracking down on institutions'...