White Collar News

Courtesy of our friends at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, please find below a list of the particularly relevant white collar related articles from last week.  To access the text of each story at its source website, click the hyperlinked listing below:

 -          “SOPA Who? FBI Charges Seven with Online Piracy,” The Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2012. [More coverage here]

 -          “The Benefits of an FCPA ‘Compliance Defense,’” Corporate Counsel, January 18, 2012.

 -          “Judge Throws Out Criminal Case Against Oil Companies For Killing Birds At Drilling Sites,” Forbes, January 18, 2012.  [Opinion here]

 -          “DOJ Collected $1 Billion-Plus in 2011 Antitrust Fines,” Corporate Counsel, January 17, 2012.

 -          “The FCPA Fiasco: Pressure Tactics In Corruption Cases Backfiring,” Forbes, January 17, 2012.

DoJ News

Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou Charged with Disclosing Covert Officer’s Identity and Other Classified Information to Journalists and Lying to CIA’s Publications Review Board.

Here is the criminal complaint.

News That Fits

SEC: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former bank executives with misleading investors about mounting loan losses at San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank during the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.

Press Releases

A mortgage broker and loan officer conspired together in a fraudulent mortgage rescue scheme.  Ultimately, the scheme resulted in a loss of over $1.2 million to homeowners in financial distress.

Press Releases

A couple from Edgewood, Maryland teamed up from September 2004 through August 2010 to obtain fraudulent loans from credit unions.  The co-conspirators were sentenced to jail for bank fraud conspiracy.

News That Fits

SEC Counsel criticized for conflict on interest regarding the distribution of SIPC funds relating to the Bernard Madoff case.

News That Fits

The office of the first-ever inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Steve Linick, has released a report heavily criticizing FHFA managers’ approval of a dubious Bank of America mortgage deal with Freddie Mac in 2010.  Linick’s office asserted that the deal may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Press Releases

USAO-MD: Silver Spring, MD man convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud; two counts of bank fraud; and two counts of aggravated identity theft.  He, along with other co-conspirators, posed as bank customers, requesting addresses to be changed to those controlled by members of the scheme.  The conspiracy involved over 20 individual victims and multiple financial institutions. The compromised accounts contained over $1 million in available funds.

News That Fits

SEC: The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission today issued a report summarizing the staff’s observations and concerns arising from the examinations of ten credit rating agencies registered with the SEC as Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (“NRSROs”) and subject to Commission oversight.

DOJ News

Main Justice: The DOJ Fraud Section is the last holdout in reaching a settlement on allegations investigated by four separate government agencies.