White Collar

  • September 26, 2025

    Star Witness Against NJ Sen. Menendez Asks For Leniency

    The government's key witness in the cases against former New Jersey U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife told a New York federal court that because he pled guilty and cooperated, his sentence for admitted bribery and other crimes should be time served, not the years his seven counts could carry.

  • September 26, 2025

    Hong Kong Judge Rules $109M Fraud Dispute Stays In Court

    A Hong Kong judge refused Friday to send a dispute over ownership of a lucrative copper-lead-zinc mine in the Republic of Congo and an alleged $109 million fraudulent transfer to arbitration, rejecting claims asserted by a Chinese state-owned entity that the matter fell under an arbitration clause.

  • September 26, 2025

    Men On NYPD Gang List Fight To Keep Alive Racial Bias Suit

    Three anonymous men on the New York Police Department's list of gang members have urged a federal judge to reject the city's bid to dismiss their putative class action, saying their claims are based on ongoing racial discrimination and civil rights violations.

  • September 26, 2025

    DC Circ. Revives FCA Suit Against US Cellular

    U.S. Cellular Corp. must face a lawsuit from two whistleblowers alleging it used a sham business to fraudulently obtain discounted spectrum licenses through Federal Communications Commission auctions, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday in overturning a lower court.

  • September 26, 2025

    The Comey Case Was Hard To Bring. It May Be Harder To Win.

    The government faces steep challenges in proving key elements of its bare-bones indictment of former FBI Director James B. Comey, including his state of mind during 2020 testimony before Congress and the potential lack of a credible star witness, experts say.

  • September 26, 2025

    Insurer Owes No Defense To HR Co. In Embezzlement Suit

    An insurer for a human resources company had no duty to defend it in a client's lawsuit alleging that a recently hired employee the company had screened embezzled more than $1 million, a California federal court ruled, finding a misappropriation of funds exclusion applied to bar coverage.

  • September 26, 2025

    Operator Of NBA's Suns Says Doc Suit Is For Buyout Leverage

    Phoenix Suns franchise operator Suns Legacy Holdings LLC has pushed back in Delaware Chancery Court against two minority owners seeking access to company records, responding that the demands are aimed at pressuring a higher-priced buyout from the NBA team's majority owner, Mat Ishbia.

  • September 26, 2025

    4th Circ. Says NC Man's Abuse Of Trust Justifies Sentence

    The Fourth Circuit on Friday affirmed a North Carolina man's 33-month sentence for engineering an investment fraud scheme in which he pretended to be a successful day trader, finding he had abused his position of trust sufficient to support a sentencing enhancement.

  • September 25, 2025

    Ex-FBI Head Comey Indicted Days After Va. US Atty Replaced

    A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday indicted former FBI Director James B. Comey on making a false statement and obstruction of Congress charges, just days after Donald Trump's former personal attorney took over as interim U.S. attorney in the district.

  • September 25, 2025

    Girardi's Son-In-Law Urges No Prison For Chicago Contempt

    Tom Girardi's son-in-law has argued he should not receive prison time following his contempt plea over millions of dollars in settlement funds Girardi stole from several Lion Air crash clients, saying he fought for months to get the clients paid but recognizes he "could and should" have done more.

  • September 25, 2025

    'Blessings Thru Crypto' Couple Must Pay $6.8M In CFTC Case

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday announced that two Tennessee residents have been ordered to pay over $6.8 million to end the commission's claims they defrauded more than 100 people with a multimillion-dollar commodity pool.

  • September 25, 2025

    Judge Affirms Fla. Studio Didn't Register Movie Securities

    A Florida federal judge affirmed a ruling that a movie studio company sold $1.2 million in unregistered securities purportedly using blockchain technology to license motion picture rights, saying he wasn't convinced the company qualified for an exemption. 

  • September 25, 2025

    Chicago Man Forged Signatures Of Federal Judges, Feds Say

    A Chicago man has been indicted for forging the signatures of two Illinois federal judges on various court filings in an attempt to get around an order restricting his ability to file new cases, according to an announcement made by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday.

  • September 25, 2025

    Imprisoned Pearl Token Founder Hit With Default In SEC Suit

    The incarcerated founder of an unregistered crypto offering known as Pearl tokens has been barred from issuing, offering or selling securities after failing to respond to parallel U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims.

  • September 25, 2025

    FTC, 19 States Halt Cancer Charity Scheme

    A car donation charity that raised more than $45 million meant for breast cancer screenings agreed Thursday to an injunction barring future charity fundraising to end an enforcement action by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of 19 states over misappropriated donation funds.

  • September 25, 2025

    Ex-FTE CEO Gets 12 Years For $13.6M Accounting Fraud

    The former chairman and CEO of FTE Networks Inc. on Thursday was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a multifaceted $13.6 million ploy to conceal the telecommunications and real estate company's shaky financial condition and embezzle company funds.

  • September 25, 2025

    SEC's $1.2M Deal In EB-5 Fraud Case Gets Judge's OK

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that a Nevada federal court has ordered a real estate developer and one of her companies to pay over $1.2 million to settle the agency's claims that they used $10 million raised from overseas investors hoping to immigrate to the U.S. to instead pay down an unrelated project loan.

  • September 25, 2025

    Convicted Atty Lacks Moral Fitness, Ethics Panel Says

    Connecticut's statewide grievance committee says an attorney convicted 10 years ago for filing false federal tax returns doesn't have the moral character to return to the legal profession.

  • September 25, 2025

    Flagstar Seeks Instant Win In Ex-Live Well VP Fraud Case

    Flagstar Bank has urged a Michigan federal judge to grant it an early win against a former executive of the now-bankrupt Live Well for his role in a scheme to defraud lenders by inflating the value of bonds, saying because the executive already pled guilty to securities fraud, he cannot now deny liability in the bank's civil case.

  • September 25, 2025

    Atty's 'Horrible' Mistake Rooted In Firm Biz, NJ Justices Hear

    Former Sacks Weston attorney Scott Diamond's counsel urged the New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday to refrain from disbarring him for fraudulently resolving cases behind his former firm's back, arguing during a hearing that his actions stemmed from a "bona fide" business dispute.

  • September 25, 2025

    'Jailhouse Lawyer' Gets 16½ Years For Defrauding Inmates

    A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a recidivist fraudster to 16½ years in prison Thursday, saying the "jailhouse lawyer" cheated inmates out of at least $550,000 by getting them to pay for unauthorized legal filings and calling him an "incorrigible" con man.

  • September 25, 2025

    Bondi Faces Key 'Test' As Trump Orders Prosecutions

    Attorney General Pam Bondi has reached a crossroads less than eight months into her tenure as she faces an extraordinary directive from President Donald Trump to wield the U.S. Department of Justice against his political enemies.

  • September 24, 2025

    SEC Gets $7M Default Insider Trading Win Against UK Trader

    A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday ordered a British-Lebanese trader to pay over $7.7 million, stemming from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading allegations, months after the defendant avoided extradition from the U.K. on parallel criminal charges.

  • September 24, 2025

    Texas Banker Says Co.'s $30M Fraud Suit Must Be Arbitrated

    A South African company's lawsuit accusing a Texas family, a wealth manager and Frost Bank of orchestrating a $30 million embezzlement and money laundering scheme belongs in arbitration, the defendants have told a Fort Worth federal judge.

  • September 24, 2025

    Equity Trader Gets 2 Months For Insider Trading

    A Connecticut-based former head of equities trading for an investment firm who copped to insider trading in June has been sentenced to two months in prison and ordered to pay more than $331,000.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Reel Justice: 'Oh, Hi!' Teaches Attys To Return To The Statute

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    The new dark comedy film “Oh, Hi!” — depicting a romantic vacation that turns into an inadvertent kidnapping — should remind criminal practitioners to always reread the statute to avoid assumptions, meet their ethical duties and finesse their trial strategy, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • How Banks Can Harness New Customer ID Rule's Flexibility

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    Banking regulators' update to the customer identification process, allowing banks to collect some information from third parties rather than directly from customers, helps modernize anti-money laundering compliance and carries advantages for financial institutions that embrace the new approach, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • Opinion

    Premerger Settlements Don't Meet Standard For Bribery

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    Claims that Paramount’s decision to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump while it was undergoing a premerger regulatory review amounts to a quid pro quo misconstrue bribery law and ignore how modern legal departments operate, says Ediberto Román at the Florida International University College of Law.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • Grappling With Workforce-Related Immigration Enforcement

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    To withstand the tightening of workforce-related immigration rules and the enforcement uptick we are seeing in the U.S. and elsewhere, companies must strike a balance between responding quickly to regulatory changes, and developing proactive strategies that minimize risk, say attorneys at Fragomen.

  • DOJ-HHS Collab Crystallizes Focus On Health Enforcement

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    The recently announced partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to combat False Claims Act violations, following a multiyear trend of high-dollar DOJ recoveries, signals a long-term enforcement horizon with major implications for healthcare entities and whistleblowers, say attorneys at RJO.

  • What To Do When Congress And DOJ Both Come Knocking

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    As recently seen in the news, clients may find themselves facing parallel U.S. Department of Justice and congressional investigations, requiring a comprehensive response that considers the different challenges posed by each, say attorneys at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • How Courts Are Addressing The Use Of AI In Discovery

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    In recent months, several courts have issued opinions on handling discovery issues involving artificial intelligence, which collectively offer useful insights on integrating AI into discovery and protecting work product in connection with AI prompts and outputs, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • Tips For Crypto AI Agent Developers Under SEC Watch

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    With agents powered by artificial intelligence increasingly making decisions in the cryptocurrency world, there's a chance the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could use the Investment Advisers Act to regulate this technology in financial services, but there are ways developers can mitigate regulatory risks, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • A Look At Key 5th Circ. White Collar Rulings So Far This Year

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    In the first half of 2025, the Fifth Circuit has decided numerous cases of particular import to white collar practitioners, which collectively underscore the critical importance of meticulous recordbuilding, procedural compliance and strategic litigation choices at every stage of a case, says Joe Magliolo at Jackson Walker.

  • How Cos. In China Can Tailor Compliance Amid FCPA Shifts

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently updated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement guidelines create a fluid business environment for companies operating in China that will require a customized compliance approach to navigate both countries’ corporate and legal systems, say attorneys at Dickinson Wright.

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