Corporate Compliance

Feds Launch Toyota Criminal Probe as SEC Scrutinizes Investor Disclosures

In the latest blows to Toyota Motor Corp.’s once-sterling reputation, federal authorities have announced a criminal probe of automotive safety issues and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the company’s disclosures to investors concerning unintended acceleration problems. Announcing these developments yesterday, Toyota gave few details and it’s…

Feb 24, 2010 1:52 AM CST

Cooley Godward Chair Points Finger at Wilson Sonsini as Brocade Backdating Trial Opens

Gregory Reyes received backdated stock options while serving as the CEO of Brocade Communications Systems Inc. But he can’t be convicted of a crime for doing so because he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong, argued chairman Stephen Neal of Cooley Godward Kronish yesterday at the opening of…

Feb 23, 2010 7:00 PM CST

GC Credited with Breaking Bribery Ring at Company

Jay Dalton, a now-retired general counsel of an international oil and gas pipeline company, is getting credit for not only helping find employees who were bribing foreign government officials, but stopping them from continuing the scheme. Corporate Counsel examined Dalton’s involvement after the late January sentencing of two former executives…

Feb 12, 2010 5:11 PM CST

Reagan Era Influenced Supreme Court Vote in Citizens United Campaign-Finance Case

A landmark campaign-finance decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last month striking corporate spending limits as an unconstitutional restriction of companies’ free speech reflects the influence of the Reagan era, writes David Savage in a Los Angeles Times analysis of the decision. All five of the justices who voted to…

Feb 10, 2010 12:56 AM CST

Bank of America Settles With SEC, Faces New Suit from NY AG

The Bank of America today settled two Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory complaints over its handling of Merrill Lynch & Co. losses and bonuses by agreeing to pay a $150 million fine and improve the bank’s corporate governance rules. The agreement must still be approved by the federal judge overseeing…

Feb 4, 2010 7:08 PM CST

Senate Panel’s Money-Laundering Report Seeks More Lawyer Regulation

A report released today by a Senate panel blames unregulated American lawyers, among others, for the nation’s money-laundering problems, and calls for an attorney exemption from money-laundering restrictions under the Patriot Act to be repealed. Information from the 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will also be discussed…

Feb 4, 2010 1:52 AM CST

Top 10 Wage-and-Hour Settlements Tally 44% More in 2009

In a trend that is expected to continue in 2010, settlements in major wage-and-hour lawsuits against corporate defendants rose 44 percent last year. The top 10 cases in 2009 racked up a total of $364 million, compared to $253 million in 2008, a law firm known for its employment defense…

Jan 12, 2010 11:12 PM CST

Attempted Murder Case Against Former White House Lawyer Followed Fizzling of His Legal Career

The stunning news that a former White House lawyer and Xerox Corp. general counsel had been charged with attempting to murder his wife this week in an alleged out-of-control rage at their upscale Connecticut home left many wondering how such a successful attorney could apparently fall so far from grace.…

Jan 8, 2010 10:27 PM CST

Surviving Law School Buddy Gets 39-Month Term in $9M Insider-Trading Scheme

Stanko Grmovsek began his stock-trading career while he was still in law school, prosecutors say, turning a $30,000 student loan into $300,000. Then, in what he called “the worst decision in my life” in a court statement, he and a former roommate at Osgoode Hall School of Law began operating…

Jan 7, 2010 6:01 PM CST

ABA Prez Applauds Progress Toward Passing Privilege Protection Law

Applauding the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives yesterday that would restrict federal agencies from pressuring organizations and their employees to waive legal protections when they are under investigation, the president of the American Bar Association has called for swift enactment of the the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection…

Dec 17, 2009 11:50 PM CST

You Can’t Sue Us for Malpractice, K&L Gates Tells Non-Client’s Trustee in Filing

Responding to a Pennsylvania malpractice suit contending that a major law firm should have detected an alleged fraud by executives during its internal investigation of a now-bankrupt beverage maker, K&L Gates has fired back in preliminary objections to the Allegheny County action. It contends, among other arguments, that there is…

Dec 17, 2009 1:19 AM CST

Judge Axes Guilty Plea, Says Broadcom Exec Didn’t Lie to SEC, Dismisses Case

Nearly 18 months ago, Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to securities regulators about his role in an alleged company stock options backdating scheme. But in fact Samueli didn’t make any material misstatement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal judge…

Dec 10, 2009 6:15 PM CST

Billionaire Gets Discovery in Bid to Force SEC to Pay His Legal Fees

A federal judge has agreed that billionaire Mark Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, can proceed with discovery in his effort to force the feds to pay his defense fees in a failed insider-trading prosecution. A spokesman for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment on…

Dec 7, 2009 11:25 PM CST

Cops Arrest Record Exec, Claim He Refused to Send Crowd-Control Tweet

Authorities arrested a record company executive earlier this month for allegedly refusing to send out a Twitter message to help restore order among an unruly throng of some 3,000 people waiting to see 15-year-old pop singer Justin Bieber at a New York City area shopping mall. James Roppo, 44, who…

Nov 30, 2009 6:17 PM CST

Trustee Sues Madoff Kin for $199M, Says ‘Family Piggy Bank’ Broke Fiduciary Duty

Four relatives of Bernard Madoff employed at an investment firm they treated as a “family piggy bank” should have to return nearly $199 million handed to them during the years they worked in high-level positions there, a New York bankruptcy court filing today by Irving Picard contends. Athough no one…

Oct 3, 2009 12:24 AM CDT