“Those who aspire to a life of white collar crime, and there are always a few misguided business-people out there, believe they have a full-proof scam that will go undetected, ” writes Walter Pavlo on Forbes.com. “Even in the unlikely event that their crime is discovered, they have an escape plan that includes some exotic, warm destination where they will live happily ever after.”

Pavlo tells the story of once-fugitive Lawrence “Larry” Hartman, a U.S. citizen and a Columbia Law School graduate who once thought himself a king of penny stocks.

“Hartman and some other scammers created empty-shell companies that had the appearance of being publicly traded, after which they cold-called elderly investors in the UK and Ireland to buy shares in the companies. The scam operated between July 2004 and March 2008.  According to his indictment, the group brought in $132 Million into a Costa Rican bank account” Pavlo writes.

The story describes Hartman’s  life on the run and his eventual downfall.

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A former partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild was found guilty on Friday of engaging in insider trading after learning that a client at his law firm was about to announce a merger, according to a Reuters report.

A federal jury in Philadelphia convicted Herbert Sudfeld, 64, on charges of securities fraud and making a false statement.

The Doylestown, Pennsylvania-resident faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia.

Read the article.

The former president of Pilot Flying J, the $31 billion truck stop company run by the family of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, has been indicted in connection to a rebate fraud scheme, reports The Tennessean.

In the latest round of indictments — released Tuesday — related to the years-long Pilot investigation, former president Mark Hazelwood and seven other high-ranking employees were indicted this month.

They are accused in “a scheme and artifice to defraud certain interstate trucking companies and for obtaining money from certain interstate trucking companies by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representatives and promises.”

Read the article.

HSBC says it “successfully defended” an attack on its online banking system on Jan. 29 but services were disrupted on a key day for many people’s personal finances, reports The Guardian.

HSBC customers were locked out of internet banking for several hours after the company was targeted by online criminals in a denial of service attack.

The bank said it was working with the authorities to “pursue the criminals responsible.”

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A New Jersey attorney accused of offering to represent female clients at a reduced rate in exchange for sexual favors was found dead in his vehicle Tuesday morning from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed.

A report on NJ.com says Richard P. Schubach, 58, of Stockton was arrested and charged Monday with three counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact after he allegedly propositioned a female undercover detective in a sting operation, according to a news release issued Monday.

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Miller & Chevalier Chartered announced that the firm elected two new members. Michael J. Satin and Addy R. Schmitt practice in the areas of white collar defense and complex civil litigation.

“We are pleased to welcome Michael and Addy to the firm’s Membership,” said Anthony F. Shelley, Chair of Miller & Chevalier. “Both lawyers have made significant contributions to the success of the firm and to the Litigation department specifically. Their experience supports our strategic growth as they help to resolve matters on behalf of our global clients.”

The firm’s release continues:

Michael J. Satin’s practice focuses on white collar defense and complex civil litigation. He is an experienced trial lawyer who has been lead counsel in dozens of jury trials. He has also argued before the D.C. Circuit and the D.C. Court of Appeals. In addition to his trial and appellate work, Mr. Satin has conducted internal investigations into alleged violations of U.S. laws and regulations, including the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). As a result of his core practice areas, Mr. Satin has particular experience advising clients in the complexities arising for clients who face potential parallel civil and criminal proceedings. Prior to joining Miller & Chevalier, Mr. Satin worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), where he represented indigent defendants charged with serious criminal offenses. As the training director during his final three years at PDS, he designed and implemented a yearly ten-week training program for incoming attorneys. He continues to teach trial advocacy to practitioners and students. Satin holds a J.D., cum laude, from Cornell Law School and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Brown University.

Addy R. Schmitt practices in the areas of criminal and civil litigation. Before joining Miller & Chevalier, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where she represented federal executive agencies and employees at all stages of litigation in matters pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Schmitt also served as counsel and career law clerk to the Hon. Emmet G. Sullivan on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and as a staff assistant in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), as well as a lobbyist for a large national non-profit organization. Schmitt teaches Criminal Trial Advocacy as an Adjunct Professor at American University Washington College of Law and is an active member of the local legal community, including serving on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s Committee on Grievances and chairing the Superior Court of the District of Columbia’s Magistrate Judge Advisory Merit Selection Panel. Schmitt holds a J.D., summa cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Georgetown University.

“Michael and Addy’s successful efforts on behalf of our clients make them wonderful additions to the firm’s Membership,” said Mark Rochon, Chair of the firm’s Litigation Department. “These two talented lawyers have specific experience in the various types of criminal and civil litigation matters that often entangle our clients.”

Stephen Diaco, one of three lawyers accused of setting up a rival’s DUI arrest, was permanently disbarred Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court, reports The Tampa Tribune.

The case began with a civil lawsuit in which Diaco and two other lawyers represented a radio personality who was the defendant in a slander suit. “But during the trial, [the plaintiff’s] lawyer, C. Phillip Campbell, was arrested for DUI. The state bar accused the Diaco firm of orchestrating the arrest by having a paralegal ply Campbell with liquor and then trick him into moving her car when a friend on the Tampa Police Department was waiting to catch him,” The Tribune reports.

The two other lawyers remain temporarily suspended.

Read the article.

A California lawyer charged with stealing $400,000 from a client —and later suing his client after she complained to state bar authorities — has been sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading no contest to two felony theft charges, reports The Contra Costa Times.

“On Oct. 27, 2008, Janet Stites’ mother died and left her an inheritance of more than $400,000,” according to the report. “Stites, who is blind, hired an attorney, but on the advice of her friend Richard Stickney, she fired that attorney and hired 56-year-old Concord lawyer Timothy Darden to set up two trusts for her. Within a year, Darden had allegedly swindled $438,000 from Stites and $33,500 from Stickney, and days after they complained to the State Bar of California, he turned around and sued them for fraud.”

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The announcement by the Department of Justice Fraud Section that it hired Hui Chen, a lawyer with previous experience as a federal prosecutor and international corporate compliance, as a full-time Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance expert shows that compliance should be high on corporate agendas for 2016., writes Sarah C. Baskin in the Corporate Compliance and White Collar Advisor, published by Jackson Lewis.

“The DOJ’s move will likely lead to even greater and closer scrutiny of compliance programs. The first step employers should take in responding to this change is to conduct a prompt and thorough review of their compliance programs, starting with their Code of Conduct, their internal controls, monitoring, hotline, management of investigations and reporting protocols to law enforcement,” Baskin writes.

The article lists the key elements of a good compliance program.

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Tonya Couch, the mother of “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch, was released from Tarrant County Jail in Texas today after a judge reduced her $1 million bond to $75,000, ABC reports.

Steven Avery, the subject of the Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer,” filed several motions Monday before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals seeking to be released on bond and making a variety of due process allegations, reports WBAY TV in Green Bay, Wisc.

In the motion, Avery claims that his property was searched illegally, making the evidence collected against him inadmissible in his case.

He also claims a juror influenced and intimidated other jurors into voting guilty.

“He’s serving life in prison for murdering Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County — two years after he was released from prison after serving 18 years for a rape he didn’t commit,” WBAY reports.

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A juror involved in the homicide case that spawned the popular Netflix series “Making a Murderer” says she stands by the verdict, reports the Associated Press.

“The 10-part series raises questions about whether Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were wrongly convicted, spurring new scrutiny of the case and prompting armchair sleuths to flood online message boards and flood local officials with requests for case records,” according to the report. “The show includes comments from an excused juror in Avery’s case suggesting his conviction was based on flawed evidence.”

But one of the regular jurors told the AP by phone that she was “comfortable with the verdict we reached. The thing on Netflix was a movie, not a documentary.”

Read the report.

President Obama’s executive action to expand gun sale background checks has opened up a legal can of worms, specifically the president’s bid to broaden the definition of who’s a dealer — and therefore must get a license and conduct background checks, reports Fox News.

“Under current federal law passed by Congress, only federally licensed dealers must conduct background checks on buyers. The law does not specify whether this applies to online sales and other areas — so those selling or trading guns on websites or in informal settings such as flea markets often don’t register,” the report says.

It adds that questions of interpretation of the executive action may have to be settled by the courts.

Read the report.

The pursuit of legitimate corporate strategic goals is increasingly running into the concerns of corporate officers who see themselves at greater personal legal risk if there are ever allegations of corporate misconduct, writes Michael W. Peregrine, a partner at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery in an article in The New York Times.

He writes that new enforcement policies from the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission regarding individual culpability of corporate officials contributed to this tendency.

He outlines some that proposals that “should help reduce the anxiety of gatekeepers and other management team members concerning their personal liability exposure. In so doing, these steps may remove unnecessary barriers to the use of corporate strategies.”

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Corporate Compliance Insights presents a short film about Richard Bistrong’s journey through the dark side of international business, “getting caught” and what that might mean for today’s compliance challenges.

Richard Bistrong is a former sales and marketing executive in the law enforcement and defense sector for more than 15 years, most of which was as VP for international sales. He pleaded guilty and sentenced to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, including books and records as well as exporting goods without authorization.

Watch the film.

A New York Supreme Court justice on Friday barred daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel from doing business in New York, reports UPI.

Justice Manuel Mendez ordered the country’s two biggest fantasy sports companies to stop taking bets in New York after the state’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, argued their operations were illegal gambling.

“New York State penal law does not refer to ‘wagering’ or ‘betting,’ rather it states that a person, ‘risks something of value,'” Mendez wrote. “The payment of an ‘entry fee’ as high as $10,600 on one or more contests daily could certainly be deemed risking ‘something of value.'”

Other states are considering similar action against the online fantasy sports sites.

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The Los Angeles Times examines the question of whether actor Charlie Sheen faces legal jeopardy if he did not disclose to sex partners that he was HIV-positive. He announced on Tuesday that he tested positive for HIV four years ago.

Los Angeles police told The Times that they have received no complaints against the actor.

“In California, it is against the law for a person to willfully expose others to the human immunodeficiency virus. The crime is punishable by up to eight years in prison,” the paper reports.

Few cases of this type go to trial, but it has happened, according to the report.

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Akerman LLP has announced the launch of a national Fraud & Recovery Practice Group, resulting in what it calls one of the most comprehensive, multidisciplinary legal teams devoted exclusively to fraud and recovery to be established by a national law firm.

In a release, the firm said the new team leverages the combined strengths of lawyers from the firm’s litigation, healthcare, bankruptcy, and data law practices, including a formidable group of trial and appellate lawyers with substantial experience litigating fraud cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

“Together the group provides comprehensive fraud management services for large insurance companies and self-insured retailers, including detection, investigation, and litigation of complex schemes and unfair and deceptive practices.” the release says. “The team also handles corporate theft, and recovery after data breach, with a focus on financial losses, and has particular experience in all aspects of liquidating Ponzi schemes.”

The group is led by co-chairs David I. Spector, who has reshaped case law in affirmative fraud investigation and litigation, and Michael I. Goldberg, who is qualified as an expert witness on Ponzi schemes and has liquidated some of the largest recoveries in U.S. history.

Read the complete announcement.

In the post-Enron and post-financial crisis era, anti-corruption compliance programs have been a key focus for boards of directors, audit committees and senior management of many multi-national companies, writes Arkady Bukh of New York’s Bukh Law Firm. This trend of increased enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that began five years ago has continued in the United States.

His white paper provides a brief overview of the FCPA, explaining that the act is a federal criminal statute that applies to businesses whose principal offices are in the United States; it is an anti-bribery and anti-corruption statute covering these companies’ international operations. The act features two principal parts: the anti-bribery provisions and the accounting provisions.

One section is titled “Issuers, Materiality and Extraterritorial Application of the FCPA.”

The final section explains why FCPA compliance is crucial.

“The stakes in today’s business environment are particularly high and a bad choice about operational risk could be fatal. A robust compliance program and fully integrated ethics program can limit the damage should a violation occur. There are two critical measures that allow any company to protect and enhance its reputation in the face of a corruption incident: a demonstrable commitment from management to doing ethical business and the use of effective internal programs to detect and prevent corruption,” Bukh writes.

(Article researched and written by Arkady Bukh and Nick Wooldridge of LV Criminal Defense, 520 S 4th Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101, 702-623-6362. Read more about FCPA – http://www.lvcriminaldefense.com/federal-crimes/fcpa/)

Read the white paper.

A young woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted in 2011 by the owner of a pizza restaurant in Addison, Texas, has been awarded $21.43 million following a four-day bench trial heard in the 193rd District Court in Dallas.

Judge Carl Ginsberg issued the award after hearing evidence that Ajredin “Danny” Deari, owner of co-defendant Pastazios Pizza in Addison, served the then-18-year-old victim multiple rounds of beer and whiskey at the restaurant under the pretext of a job interview.

According to a release issued by the plaintiff’s law firm, the victim eventually passed out and awoke in a nearby hotel room while she was being sexually assaulted by Mr. Deari, who then fled the scene. Subsequent physical examinations determined that Deari had infected her with herpes during the assault.

The woman, who is identified as “Jane Doe” due to the nature of the assault and her age at that time, was in Judge Ginsberg’s courtroom throughout the trial.

“The judge called this the most offensive set of facts he had ever seen during his time on the bench,” says Dallas attorney Trey Crawford of Gruber Hurst Elrod Johansen Hail Shank, who represented the woman at trial with co-counsel Royce West of Dallas’ West & Associates L.L.P. and Gruber Hurst Elrod co-founder Michael Gruber.

Deari pleaded no contest to criminal charges and the next day filed for personal and business bankruptcy protection. Pastazios continues to operate under Chapter 11 status.

“This is certainly one of the largest bench trial judgments in Dallas County in recent memory,” says Mr. West. “This young woman has been waiting for justice for four long years, and she’s fought very hard to make sure that every business owner is aware of the consequences of their actions.”

Gruber Hurst Elrod attorney Brian Mason also represented the woman at trial.

The case is Jane Doe v. Pastazios Pizza, Inc.; and Ajredin “Danny” Deari, No. 13-04564.