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DOJ to Continue Crackdown on Political Corruption
Legal Center |
2008/03/28 08:53
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| pUS Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Thursday he would personally ensure that the US Department of Justice does not bow to political pressure as it prosecutes government officials for corruption. In a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Mukasey said:/ppPublic corruption can inflict damage that is not only costly but also profound. When a public servant at any level of government exploits his or her office for improper purposes, the damage is measured not just in dollars and cents but also in erosion of the public trust upon which depends the survival of our system of government./ppWe fight, investigate and prosecute public corruption to ensure that those who hold public office live up to the public's trust, and to build the public's confidence in the very idea of government, without which the government cannot function./ppThe investigation and prosecution of public corruption is therefore among the highest obligations of law enforcement, and it should come as no surprise that I consider it to be one of the top priorities of the Department of Justice. In recent years, the Department's career prosecutors and criminal investigators have been engaged in a renewed effort to pursue corruption at all levels and in all branches of government./ppMukasey emphasized that the joint efforts of the DOJ and US Attorney's offices had resulted in the convictions of 1,093 individuals for corruption in 2006, including former congressmen Randy Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney./ppMukasey's speech came only hours after a federal grand jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico charged Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila and 12 associates with 27 counts of conspiracy, false statements, wire fraud, federal program fraud and tax crimes related to campaign financing./p |
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Hollinger settles civil fraud lawsuit with SEC for $21.3M
Attorney Career |
2008/03/27 09:09
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| pHollinger Inc., the Canadian holding company with an interest in former newspaper publisher Hollinger International has agreed to pay the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $21.3 million to settle claims that from 1999 to 2003 it violated securities law by failing to disclose to investors payments and other transactions that benefited the executives to the detriment of the company. The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by the SEC in November 2004 against former Hollinger International chairman Conrad Black, former Hollinger president David Radler, and Hollinger Inc. Under the terms of the settlement, Hollinger Inc. has agreed to be permanently enjoined from committing future securities laws violations. The settlement must still be approved by US District Judge William T. Hart before it becomes final./ppRadler was sentenced in December to 29 months in prison for one count of mail fraud, after pleading guilty and agreeing to serve as a witness against Black. Black was convicted in July of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and sentenced to 78 months in prison; he began serving his sentence earlier this month after a federal appeals court rejected his request to remain free on bail while his appeal is pending. Radler, Black and other Hollinger executives were prosecuted in the United States in connection to allegations that they diverted more than $80 million from Hollinger International, now Sun-Times Media Group, and its shareholders during the company's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. /p |
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Nebraska legislature rejects death penalty ban
Legal Center |
2008/03/27 05:13
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| pA Nebraska bill that would have banned the death penalty, replacing it with a sentence of life in prison without parole, failed in the Nebraska Legislaturenbsp; on Tuesday, receiving only 20 of the 25 necessary votes to move forward. Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that execution by electric chair, the only method authorized in the state, was cruel and unusual punishment and therefore prohibited by the Nebraska constitution. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman on Tuesday voiced support for the death penalty, saying that the the legislature should decide on a new means of execution that can pass constitutional muster./ppIn February, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Brunning filed a motion for rehearing on the ban of the electric chair. Nebraska is the only state to solely rely on the electric chair for capital punishment. /p |
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SEC Proposes Naked Short Selling Anti-Fraud Rule
Legal Center |
2008/03/26 09:15
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On March 17, 2008 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission)
issued a release proposing a new anti-fraud rule under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934, as amended (Exchange Act), which addresses “naked” short selling, which the
SEC has generally defined as “selling short without having stock available for delivery
and intentionally failing to deliver stock within the standard three-day settlement
cycle.”
Specifically, proposed Rule 10b-21 is intended to target: (i) short sellers who
deceive certain persons, such as their broker-dealers, about the source of borrowable
shares, to circumvent the Regulation SHO “locate” requirement; and (ii) long sellers
who misrepresent to their broker-dealers that they own the shares being sold, also to
circumvent Regulation SHO, as well as certain other rules.
The deadline for submitting comments on proposed Rule 10b-21 is May 20, 2008. |
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Supreme Court Allows Retiree Benefits With Medicare
Attorney Career |
2008/03/25 09:14
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| pfont color=#000000The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a federal policy that allows employers to reduce their health insurance expenses for retired workers once they turn 65 and qualify for Medicare. /font/ppfont color=#000000The justices turned down an appeal by the 35-million-member AARP to undo a rule that essentially allows employers to treat retirees differently depending on their age. /font/ppfont color=#000000The rules were put into place by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, with the support of labor unions and other groups. They worried that employers would greatly reduce or eliminate health benefits for millions of retirees if they could not take Medicare into account when structuring the health benefit packages they voluntarily provide their retired workers. /font/ppfont color=#000000The EEOC rule makes clear that employers can spend more on retirees under 65 years of age than those over 65 without running afoul of age discrimination laws. /font/ppfont color=#000000The EEOC said it proposed the rule in response to a decision in 2000 by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that held that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act requires employers to spend the same amount on health insurance benefits provided Medicare-eligible retirees as those received by younger retirees. /font/ppfont color=#000000AARP said EEOC violated the intent of Congress when it proposed the rule. But the EEOC said the same age discrimination law allows it to carve out an exemption to preserve the long-standing practice that allows employers to coordinate benefits with Medicare. /font/ppfont color=#000000The same appeals court upheld the EEOC policy last year /font/p |
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9th Circuit: County Can't Use RICO
Court News |
2008/03/25 09:14
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| pAn anti-illegal immigration lawsuit turned out to be much better as a metaphor than as a lawsuit./ppWhen a former leader of Canyon County, Idaho, invoked civil RICO lawsto sue four corporations for hiring illegal immigrants, the move madeheadlines all the way up to emThe New York Times/em: The newspaper viewed it as a prism to understand how the immigration issue split the Republican Party./ppBut an ideologically balanced panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disposed of the complaint last week.Canyon County didn't have standing to argue that the companies' allegedhiring of illegal immigrants unfairly upped the cost of providingpublic services, Senior Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled./ppWe find it particularly inappropriate to label a governmental entity'injured in its property' when it spends money on the provision ofadditional public services, Tashima wrote, given that those servicesare based on legislative mandates and are intended to further thepublic interest./ppSenior Judge William Canby Jr. and Judge Consuelo Callahan joined Tashima. /p |
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