King Fahad National Library extends weekend hours    SFDA refers illegal cosmetics facility to prosecution over expiry date tampering    King Salman chairs Cabinet session, endorses international cooperation and national development initiatives    GASTAT: Inflation remains stable at 2.3% in June    Saudi Arabia leads MENA in venture capital with $860 million in H1 2025    Saudi tech and innovation delegation explores AI and space partnerships in UK    Trump to slam Russia with 'severe' 100% tariffs if no Ukraine deal is made in 50 days    'Why are you not preventing settler terrorism': Palestinians call out IDF following beating death of American    Former Israeli leader says 'humanitarian city' in Gaza would be a 'concentration camp'    As theories swirl about Air India crash, key details remain unknown    Biggest human imaging study scans 100,000th person    Beyoncé's unreleased music stolen from car during Cowboy Carter tour    First Harry Potter image released as production begins    Jorge Jesus returns to Saudi Arabia as Al Nassr head coach on one-year deal    Wirth opens registration for world-class traditional arts programs in Riyadh    Saudi Arabia operates 10 renewable energy projects with SR19.8 billion in investment by end of 2024    Jeddah exhibition showcases 500 years of Makkah and Madinah imagery    Jannik Sinner beats Carlos Alcaraz to win his maiden Wimbledon title    Chelsea defeat PSG 3-0 to win first expanded Club World Cup    Theo Hernández: Al Hilal can compete with Europe's best    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Tough battle against white-collar crimes
By Grant McCool
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 26 - 06 - 2010

A Supreme Court decision siding with two imprisoned former corporate executives is another reminder to a US public angered by financial scandals that prosecuting white-collar criminal cases can be a lot tougher than it looks.
Federal prosecutors, who have suffered setbacks in the past year in probes stemming from the financial crisis, were dealt a blow Thursday in two cases that many people thought were long over.
The high court said prosecutors had gone too far in using an “honest services” law against convicted former Enron Corp CEO Jeffrey Skilling and ex-media mogul Conrad Black, who both are behind bars for corporate fraud. The law is a favorite tool in public corruption and corporate cases where there are allegations of bribery and kickbacks.
“It's going to have an impact on essentially all phases of commercial and public life because it affects public officials and it impacts executives,” said Kelly Kramer, a partner at the law firm Nixon Peabody who focuses on government investigations and white-collar defense.
“It impacts anybody who has any fiduciary responsibilities,” Kramer said. “It's a significant limitation on the government's ability to prosecute such cases.”
Thursday's ruling came as President Barack Obama's administration has boosted the prosecutorial ranks, partly because of public pressure and expectations that some individuals or corporations should be held accountable for the financial meltdown in which middle-class citizens lost their homes and savings.
During the past two years, the government has prosecuted a host of executives from Wall Street financial advisory firms to small city mortgage lenders and brokers to millionaires charged with avoiding taxes.
Thursday's unanimous opinion of the nine high court justices does not mean Skilling or Black will be released from prison.
However, it does give them leverage in trying to shorten their sentences in return for not pressing for what would be a costly and time-consuming rehearing of their cases at the trial court level, according to criminal law experts.
Skilling's appeal was the third Enron case to reach the high court. In 2005, it unanimously overturned former Enron auditor Arthur Anderson LLP's obstruction of justice conviction, saying vague jury instructions allowed jurors to convict without finding criminal intent.
Experts said the court's ruling Thursday had left the heart of the honest services statute intact.
“This is certainly not a huge surprise,” said Andrew Liepold, a law professor at the University of Illinois in Champaign. “The honest services law has been controversial since it was passed 22 years ago.”
Academics and other lawyers said prosecutors still had other powerful tools in the securities laws that are traditionally available for white-collar cases.
“The implication is it will be a fairly narrow ruling for Skilling and Black and for future prosecution,” said Eric Sussman, the Chicago head of white-collar crime defense at the Kaye Scholer law firm.
Sussman said the Obama administration had to grapple with determining whether there were any crimes committed during the financial meltdown or just mistakes, not how to prosecute those cases.
“They still are not out of the starting blocks,” he said.
In the last five weeks, federal prosecutors and the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropped criminal and civil probes of AIG's Financial Products unit and some of its executives over the giant insurer's near collapse in 2008. The AIG meltdown led to a $182 billion government bailout.
Last November, a New York jury acquitted two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers in a closely watched case brought amid the liquidity crisis in which the investment bank folded and was bought by rival JPMorgan Chase & Co.
One New York white-collar criminal defense lawyer, Glenn Colton of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, said he did not believe prosecutions were necessarily becoming more difficult.
“There is always a reevaluation and prosecutors are always weighing how to most aggressively do what they think is right in prosecuting and investigating activity versus doing something so aggressive that it risks being deemed illegal or unconstitutional,” Colton said.
“Reasonable minds can differ ... and sometimes the judge sides with the defense saying they pushed the envelope too far.”


Clic here to read the story from its source.