On July 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a $9 million
settlement with federal government contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc. for
alleged violations of the False Claims Act in a case pending in the Eastern
District of California. The settlement results from alleged false
statements by Aerojet related to compliance with Department of Defense
Corporate & Commercial
CMS Considers Streamlined Physician Group Stark Law Self-Disclosures
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced an opportunity for public comment on its voluntary self-referral disclosure protocol (SRDP). The voluntary SRDP is a way to resolve technical violations under the physician self-referral law (commonly known as the Stark Law) by submitting information to CMS about prohibited conduct. During this period, CMS is…
Court Holds U.S. Wire Fraud Statute Reaches Foreign Defendant’s Conduct
The federal wire fraud statute has a far-reaching scope, allowing prosecutors to go after conduct as varied as investor fraud to college admissions scandals. In late June, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguably broadened that scope even further by affirming a wire fraud conviction for a defendant who devised the scheme from…
DOJ’s Public Struggles with Electronic Evidence Highlights the Need for Counsel to Formally Demand Discovery Early and Often
DOJ’s dismissal last week of a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case in Boston is the latest in a string of bad outcomes for the government due to discovery mishaps. While the government works to revise its discovery policies and seek resources to collect, review, and analyze the vast amount of electronic evidence attendant to nearly…
Bank Regulators Remind Financial Institutions Not to Take a One-Size Fits All Approach to Assessing AML Risks from Customer Relationships
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively the “Agencies”) issued a Joint Statement on July 6, 2022, reminding banks[1] of the “risk-based approach to assessing customer relationships…
FinCEN Issues Statement on BSA Due Diligence for Independent ATM Owners and Operators
On June 22, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Statement on Bank Secrecy Act Due Diligence for independent ATM owners and operators. The purpose of the statement is to “provide clarity to banks on how to apply a risk-based approach to conducting customer due diligence (CDD) on independent Automated Teller Machine (ATM)…
Less is More? DOJ Signals Shift to More Targeted Evidence Collection
For a corporation receiving a grand jury subpoena, the most difficult (and expensive) part of a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) inquiry is often sifting through corporate data to find relevant material. That is proving to be increasingly burdensome to prosecutors as well—not just because it costs DOJ time and resources to review extensive data…
Supreme Court Signals Interest in Clarifying Pleading Requirements in False Claims Act Suits
The Supreme Court (Court) will soon decide whether to take up a critical (and long-running) issue concerning applicability of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) pleading standards in False Claim Act (FCA) suits. To satisfy Rule 9(b)’s particularity requirement for fraud allegations, FCA plaintiffs generally have needed to detail specific false claims submitted by defendants.…
FinCEN Proposes No-Action Letter Process
On June 3, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing public comment on the enactment of a no-action letter process. This Advanced Notice follows FinCen’s Report to Congress submitted in June 2021 that was based on FinCen’s consultation with the Attorney General, State bank supervisors, State credit…
Twitter to Pay $150M for Violating 2011 FTC Order Regarding Misrepresentation of its Privacy and Security Practices
On May 25, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it, along with the Department of Justice, fined Twitter $150 million for violating a 2011 agreement the company had with the Commission. Under the 2011 FTC order, Twitter agreed that it would protect the integrity of nonpublic consumer information, including users’ phone numbers and…