Corporate Compliance

Craigslist Sues South Carolina AG in Showdown Over Erotic Services Ads

Threatened with potential criminal prosecution over its role in allegedly promoting prostitution through Internet ads posted by third parties on its website, Craiglist Inc. has responded with a pre-emptive strike. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in South Carolina today, the national classified advertising website seeks a declaratory judgment…

May 20, 2009 10:44 PM CDT

New SEC Focus: Painting the Barn, Not the Sistine Chapel

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may soon be using more discretion in civil investigations, focusing on the big fish rather than the small fry. Speaking today at a program on corporate investigations sponsored by the American Bar Association, an SEC official and the general counsel of the FBI said…

May 7, 2009 8:48 PM CDT

Lawyer Predicts ‘Miranda Warnings’ by Law Firms in Corporate Probes

A judge’s recent decision to refer Irell & Manella to the California State Bar for an ethics probe has corporate lawyers speculating it will lead to more detailed warnings by law firms conducting corporate probes. U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney said Irell had conflicts of interest when it represented both…

Apr 13, 2009 4:40 PM CDT

US Sues BP Sub Over Alaska Oil Spills, Seeks Maximum Penalties

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit against a subsidiary of a global oil company, contending that two discharges totaling some 200,000 gallons of crude oil into Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope in 2006 violated federal clean air and water laws and seeking maximum penalties. Filed in federal…

Apr 1, 2009 9:15 PM CDT

Mayer Brown Escapes a Refco Case; No Private Right of Action, Judge Rules

Plaintiffs in a securities fraud case filed over the collapse of Refco Inc. can’t hold an international law firm defendant liable for alleged aiding and abetting, a federal judge in New York City has ruled. Because there is no private right of action under the applicable federal statutory law, Mayer…

Mar 18, 2009 8:35 PM CDT

Madoff Aides Talk to Feds, as Some Call for International Financial Court

As a plea deal in the federal criminal case against Bernard Madoff appears imminent, several people who worked for him reportedly are talking with prosecutors about how he allegedly operated a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Under proffer agreements protecting them from prosecution if they tell the truth, two assistants told…

Mar 10, 2009 12:03 AM CDT

US Clients of UBS Mull Options as Feds Press Swiss Bank to Name More Names

Contending that a Swiss bank’s plan to name client names to U.S. regulators as part of a $780 million settlement of a criminal tax probe violates Switzerland law requiring secrecy, American depositors are mulling their options. Attorney Andreas Rued of the Rued Winkler law firm in Zurich said unnamed UBS…

Feb 19, 2009 6:53 PM CST

Swiss Bank UBS Settles With US; Will Pay $780M, Name Client Names

Updated: In a clash between U.S. tax law and a longstanding international tradition of secret accounts, a Swiss bank has blinked first. Although UBS AG had resisted handing over to the feds names of American residents who are private banking clients, it has now agreed to do so, the U.S.…

Feb 19, 2009 1:31 AM CST

Feds to Target Lawyers in Fraud Cases

Lawyers and other “gatekeepers,” such as mortgage and real estate brokers, should be prime targets in upcoming criminal prosecutions of widespread fraud underlying the current economic crisis, officials said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today. “They have the most to lose, they’re the most likely to flip, and they…

Feb 11, 2009 11:54 PM CST

Are Banks Liable for Madoff Losses? Plaintiffs Say Yes, Argue Multiple Theories

It’s a bad time to be a bank with any connection to the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme that Bernard Madoff is accused of running, or any other such claimed investment swindle. Seeking to recover from banks assets that may not be recoverable from those alleged to be directly responsible…

Feb 7, 2009 1:50 AM CST

Halliburton Agrees to Record $559M Bribery Settlement

Halliburton has agreed to pay $559 million to settle charges that its former KBR Inc. unit bribed Nigerian officials during the building of a gas plant. The settlement is the largest ever by a U.S. company in a bribery probe, report the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Under terms of…

Jan 27, 2009 11:53 AM CST

Jenner’s Chair, Anton Valukas, to Probe Lehman Bros. as New Examiner

The chairman of the Chicago-based Jenner & Block law firm has been nominated to serve as the court-appointed examiner in the record-breaking Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in progress in federal court in Manhattan. As examiner, Anton Valukas will have “the power to investigate a wide range of issues, including asset transfers…

Jan 20, 2009 8:24 PM CST

Testimony: Former Pa. Senator Funneled Work to Law Firms

A longtime Pennsylvania senator wielded his power, in part, by pressuring companies to send legal work to certain law firms, including his own, according to testimony yesterday at his federal corruption trial. Former state senator Vincent Fumo, 65, is charged with defrauding the Citizens’ Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, by getting…

Jan 6, 2009 10:02 PM CST

Nonlawyer Earns Almost $300K a Year from Disability Suits

Thomas Mundy isn’t a lawyer. But he says he’s filed 150 lawsuits over the past 18 months, seeking to enforce a federal law that requires businesses to be wheelchair-accessible. Disabled since a 1988 motorcycle accident and otherwise unemployed, Mundy sues when he runs across violations of state disabilities law, according…

Jan 5, 2009 10:58 PM CST

Double-Edged Rules

Proposed accounting changes alarm corporate counsel

Jan 1, 2009 6:50 AM CST