DOJ To Speed Up Review Of Qui Tam Benefits Fraud Claims

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it's speeding up the agency's review of whistleblower complaints accusing contractors of defrauding state-administered benefits programs that are funded by the federal government, in violation of the False Claims Act. 

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Justices Say First Step Act Not 'Vehicle' For Innocence Claim

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Supreme Court held Thursday that judges lack wide discretion to pare down sentences for criminal defendants under the First Step Act based on questions about the validity of a conviction, shutting the door on a potential wave of postconviction relief petitions, experts said.

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Dem Sens. Ask DOJ To Preserve Trump-IRS Settlement Docs

By Jack McLoone

Two Democratic Senate leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve any records related to the settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the IRS in a letter published Thursday, signaling that further investigations may be coming.

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Ex-Prosecutor Wants Trump 'Slush Fund' Payments Blocked

By Hailey Konnath

A former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection cases was among a handful of individuals and groups Thursday who pressed federal courts to issue temporary restraining orders blocking payouts from President Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "slush fund," according to motions filed in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

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Goldstein Says Bad Jury Instructions Warrant New Trial

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein said that the prosecutors who convicted him on 12 tax and mortgage fraud charges in February are now contradicting arguments they made at the end of his trial in their attempt to deny him a bench acquittal or new trial.

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Ex-TD Bank Worker Admits Role In $3M Customer Fraud Scam

By Dorothy Atkins

A former TD Bank NA financial service representative entered a plea deal in New Jersey federal court Wednesday, admitting to defrauding bank customers and bribing an employee at another financial institution to falsify bank records to facilitate a $3.4 million fraud scheme.

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Justices Revive Mississippi Death Row Inmate's Batson Claim

By Marco Poggio

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Black Mississippi death row prisoner who argued racial discrimination tainted his jury selection is entitled to habeas corpus relief, finding that Mississippi's courts improperly rejected his challenge to the prosecutor's juror strikes.

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SEC Says AI Crypto Trading Bot Was $12M Ponzi Scheme

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday accused a Texas man of lining his pockets with millions of dollars in investor funds that he falsely promised would be used to trade cryptocurrency using an artificial intelligence-operated bot.

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Financial Adviser Gets 2 Years For $3.7M Investment Fraud

By Gina Kim

A Pennsylvania financial adviser was sentenced to more than two years in prison in federal court Thursday after copping to wire fraud stemming from a scheme where he transferred over $3.7 million from the bank account of a fund he managed to another client's account, to recoup investment losses.

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Detroit Ex-Mayor Can't Prevent Seizure Of Bank Account

By Susan Smiley

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will have 100% of the funds in a bank account tied to him garnished by the U.S. government for distribution in accordance with his criminal judgment, a Michigan federal judge ordered Thursday.

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Man Who Used 'God And Ga. Football' For Fraud Gets 4 Years

By Kelcey Caulder

A federal judge in Atlanta sentenced a man who defrauded would-be investors and college football fans out of more than $940,000 to four years in prison on Thursday, saying he "took advantage of God and Georgia football" to carry out the schemes. 

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4th Circ. Rules IRS 'Cooperation' Doesn't Sink Tax Convictions

By Hayley Fowler

The Fourth Circuit on Thursday affirmed the convictions of two software executives found guilty at trial of failing to pay employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, rejecting the notion that their alleged cooperation with the IRS somehow undermined the charges.

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Series

Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

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Florida High Court Adopts AI Policy For Lawyers

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday amended the state's rules to require those filing court documents to check any artificial intelligence-generated content for accuracy, and allow for sanctions if the content contains errors.

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King & Spalding Blocked From Exiting $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Brian Steele

King & Spalding LLP and Lennon Murphy & Phillips LLC can't withdraw from representing clients in consolidated litigation over an alleged $300 million stock swindle, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled, saying the firms' motions ahead of a June trial lack good cause.

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Fla. Court Refers Atty To Bar Over Bogus Case Citations

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court has referred an appellant's attorney to the state's bar for disciplinary proceedings after filing a petition that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence and "raises frivolous arguments, misstates the law, and cites non-existent case law."

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Parents Demand 'Bad Faith' Sanctions In Camp Mystic Case

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic in Texas' Hill Country should be sanctioned over "bad faith" conduct in litigation over flooding deaths last summer, including purported misrepresentations to courts and regulators and an alleged remark by one of its attorneys to a plaintiffs' lawyer that he would "burn in hell," a state court has been told.

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Trump Considers Tech Entrepreneur For DOJ Grants Post

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump appears poised to nominate a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur for a top U.S. Department of Justice post that oversees grants and criminal justice programs.

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Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Freight Brokers, Uber Lose Key Cases

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's green light of negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in highway crash cases and an adverse verdict against Uber in the sexual assault multidistrict litigation lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

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Ex-Fla. Chief Justice Fred Lewis Dies At 78

By Carolina Bolado

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, who spent two decades on the bench of the Florida Supreme Court, has died at 78, the court announced Thursday.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Gupta Wessler's Deepak Gupta

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

In the decade and a half since starting his own firm, Deepak Gupta has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has won matters in state high courts from coast to coast, and has become a mainstay in federal appellate courts while building his plaintiff-side litigation boutique into a sought-after juggernaut.

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