Last week, federal prosecutors in Georgia filed papers supporting the local probation office’s U.S. Sentencing Guidelines calculation calling for a sentence of life in prison for Stewart Parnell, the one-time CEO of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), for his role in a salmonella outbreak. The case is a cautionary reminder for the food and beverage
FFIEC Assessment Helps Financial Institutions Prevent Cyber Attacks
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recently issued an assessment tool meant to assist financial institutions in the detection of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the prevention of cyber attacks.
The FFIEC is an interagency body that develops the principles and standards used by agencies and organizations empowered to examine financial institutions, such as the Consumer Financial
SEC’s Whistleblower Program Awards Over $3 million to Company Insider
On Friday, July 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will award more than $3 million to a company insider who helped the SEC “crack a complex fraud.”
The SEC’s whistleblower program was adopted under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. It rewards high-quality, original information that results in enforcement actions exceeding
Defining a Legitimate Scope for the Federalization of Business Crime
The Washington Times published an article titled “Defining a Legitimate Scope for the Federalization of Business Crime” by Washington partner George Terwilliger, assisted by Richmond associate Katherine Mims Crocker, about the proper role of federal policing and prosecutorial authority, and how it exceeds the limited role the U.S. Constitution prescribes for it.
The Fourth Circuit Expands the Implied Certification Theory to Anti-Retaliation Claims
On January 8, 2015, the Fourth Circuit determined that, amid a circuit split, the “implied certification” theory of liability under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) was viable in the Fourth Circuit. United States v. Triple Canopy, Inc., 775 F.3d 628, 635 n.3 (4th Cir. 2015) (“contractual implied certification claims can be viable under the
Broker-Dealer Audits: PCAOB Disciplinary Orders and Extraordinary Cooperation Credit
Despite a decreased budget in 2015, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Chairman James R. Doty believed there would be enough resources to continue with the PCAOB’s strategic plan to serve as the oversight body Congress envisioned. As we reported back in February, Doty noted that the 2015 budget would allow for 75
CFPB Drives Action Against Auto-Finance Company
Putting the brakes on what it viewed as aggressive debt-collection tactics, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed suit in Ohio federal court on June 17, 2015, against Security National Automotive Acceptance Company LLC (SNAAC) for several violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), specifically pertaining to Sections 1031 &
CFPB Asserts Sweeping RESPA Enforcement Authority In First Appellate Decision
In a decision asserting broad authority for the CFPB and which is certain to set the tone for future CFPB appellate rulings, Bureau director Richard Cordray recently issued the Bureau’s first decision from an appeal of a Bureau administrative enforcement action. The decision, issued June 4, generally affirmed a 2014 Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decision
Facebook Takes a First Step Toward Mass Adoption of Encryption
This week, the social networking service Facebook quietly announced that it will begin making PGP encryption available for communications from Facebook to its users. While this step, in itself, is a small one not likely to directly impact many individuals, if it signals a resurgence in development of public key cryptography for use by the general public, it will have dramatic consequences for the privacy and security community and for the lawyers who support it.
PGP is the encryption protocol developed in the 1990s by Phil Zimmermann as the first tool widely available for general public use that applies the same highly secure encryption techniques once used almost exclusively by governments and military to secure communications. At the time, encryption technology was restricted from export, and the author fought a long legal battle over his release of the product. While sophisticated in its encryption capabilities, PGP and more recent incarnations of similar techniques have suffered greatly from a lack of high-quality software implementations to make them user friendly and to automate the steps (such as “key signature”) to make them secure.
With Rule-Making Expected, CFPB’s March 2015 Arbitration Study Continues to Draw Attention
In a recent letter, 58 members of Congress asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to exercise its rule-making authority and ban mandatory arbitration provisions in consumer financial agreements. In support of their request, the authors cite the CFPB’s March 2015 internal study on arbitration, which the CFPB conducted pursuant to Section 1028 of