On Monday, April 12, 2021, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals released its opinion in United States v. Ghanem, Case No. 19-50278. Ghanem, an international arms dealer, was convicted in the Central District of California for violation of a statute prohibiting dealing in surface-to-air missiles.
However, this was not the offense for which Ghanem
Two former commodities traders at a major global bank were convicted on federal wire fraud charges late Friday in a high profile – but rare partial win– for the government in a spoofing case. We previously discussed the theory of “spoofing” advanced by the Department of Justice against commodities traders, as well as the difficulty
In our last post on www.doescrimepay.com, former federal prosecutors Steven A. Block and Sarah M. Hall summarized the legal saga of indicted R&B star R. Kelly, one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Kelly’s legal troubles are far from the world of non-violent white-collar crime; indeed, Kelly stands charged with offenses that include racketeering,
This week on www.doescrimepay.com, former federal prosecutors Sarah M. Hall and Steven A. Block take the blog in a new direction. We will look back on the legal saga of indicted R&B star R. Kelly and present lessons learned from this non-white collar case for the white collar practitioner.
In today’s Part 1, we
On September 4, 2020, the Eighth Circuit affirmed Reuben Goodwin’s conviction for his role in a Medicare/Medicaid kickback scheme. Goodwin’s conviction was supported by evidence of his knowledge of the conspiracy and willful participation in the conspiracy. The Eighth Circuit’s decision serves to remind everyone the risks a conspiracy charge pose to even a potentially
On July 10, 2020, the Ninth Circuit issued an unusual 2-1 decision affirming a California federal district court’s injunction against the further prosecution of two California marijuana growers, Anthony Pisarski and Sonny Moore. United States v. Pisarski, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 21564 (9th Cir. 2020). These defendants had pleaded guilty to federal possession and
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just released an updated version of its Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. While the new version does not announce any groundbreaking changes, it now includes updates and references to recently issued policies, such as the DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Policy, Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, and the Corporate
In his recently published book, “The Room Where It Happened,” former national security adviser John Bolton reported that in late 2018 in Buenos Aires, President Trump assured Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that he would stop the then-ongoing criminal economic sanctions investigation of Halkbank in the Southern District of New York. Halkbank is a bank majority-owned
