By Dan Portnov On Friday, November 8, 2019, Lawrence Hoskins was convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.[1] The jury verdict, delivered on a Friday afternoon in Connecticut, barely made the national news (the bar has been set higher these days), but...
By: Sara Kropf The trial of Donald Blankenship has been all over the media. I've written about it here and here and here and here. Today, the jury reached its verdict. It found Mr. Blankenship guilty on one charge of conspiracy to avoid certain mine-safety laws. This...
By: Sara Kropf Yesterday a jury in Richmond found former Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife guilty of public corruption. Here are the details of it. I’m sure many others will offer in-depth analysis of the verdict in the coming days. Here are my initial thoughts...
By: Sara Kropf Every few weeks, I review the press releases for the U.S. Attorneys' Offices across the country. In the blur of stories about drug busts and indictments for low-level health care fraud, sometimes a name sounds familiar. No, not because it’s a friend. Or...
By: Sara Kropf Back in July 2013, I wrote a post about two executives at a medical device company in Austin who had been indicted for health care fraud. On June 2, 2014, after a four-week trial, the two men were found guilty by a jury in the Western District of Texas....
By: Sara Kropf For the government, sentencing seems to be a science, not an art. Let the probation office calculate the guideline range. Request a sentence within it, usually at the high end. Done. But for defense counsel, sentencing is an art, not a science,. You...
By: Sara Kropf There have been several high-profile insider trading cases recently. I can’t do justice to the facts of all the recent cases, but here’s a quick sampling of some of the more interesting cases. 1. Use a Facebook Friend. Badin Rungruangnavarat,...
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 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 This is the one of my recurring posts that offer quick summaries of similar cases. Think of them as the Kay and Peele version of my blog posts, though not nearly as funny and always safe for work. The Beastie Boys bemoaned that there are “too many...