By: Sara Kropf It’s a dreary Monday morning in D.C., but I saw this article on Law360 (subscription required, sorry) that brought a little cheer to the day. Last Thursday, a jury in Fort Myers, Florida, acquitted the former division president of Health Management...
By: Sara Kropf The SEC has charged Judy Wolf, a former compliance consultant for Wells Fargo Advisors, with falsifying records that were submitted to the SEC during the investigation of a registered Wells Fargo representative. Ms. Wolf allegedly falsified her internal...
By: Sara Kropf On September 30, 2014, Robert Lustyik entered a guilty plea in connection with alleged grand jury tampering and obstruction of justice. Mr. Lustyik has been charged with interfering with the investigation of his alleged business partner, Michael Taylor....
By: Sara Kropf If you don’t know what the California Public Employees Retirement System (“CalPERS”) is, you should. It is the second-largest public pension fund in the country. It is responsible for operating the pension benefit system and health care benefit system...
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 The government loves to encourage us to be “green.” Drive a Prius and get a tax credit. Put solar panels on your house and get a tax credit. Heck, buy the right kind of heat pump for your house and get a tax credit. But these are small scale. The...
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 one of this blog's 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. According to the EPA’s website, the agency has: 200...
By: Sara Kropf Karen Galo may have been trying to help out a friend, but now she faces five years in prison. In early 2008, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida opened a grand jury investigation into mortgage fraud and money laundering. The...
By: Sara Kropf On May 20, 2013, Judge Kurt Engelhardt of the Eastern District of Louisiana dismissed the obstruction charge in the indictment against David Rainey, a former vice president at BP involved in the Deepwater Horizon spill. The 44-page decision dismissed...