In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the case, Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC et al. (February 8, 2024).  The Supreme Court’s decision reaffirms an ongoing trend — to protect and encourage whistleblower reporting as a means to enforce proper corporate governance.  The European Union’s Whistleblower Directive and new United States whistleblower incentive programs continue to...

The Supreme Court , in a unanimous decision, rejected a challenge by corporate pharmacy defendants, to the intent requirement in a Medicaid and Medicare over-billing False Claims Act case.  Justice Clarence Thomas, who has established himself as the lead justice concerning False Claims Act cases, wrote the unanimous opinion. The defendants, SuperValu and Safeway, claimed that thier alleged overbilling did not meet the intent requirements...

In a pair of criminal cases , the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a one-two punch to the Justice Department’s prosecution of corruption cases based on violations of the criminal wire fraud statute.  In Ciminelli v. U.S., and Percoco v. U.S., the Supreme Court reversed the convictions in two separate decisions relsasedd on the same day. The Ciminelli and Percoco criminal cases were brought by the...

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge by Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank, to its criminal prosecution for anti-money laundering violations and evasion of Iran Sanctions.  In a 7-2 decision, authored by Justice Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court rejected Halkbank’s claim that it was immune from U.S. federal criminal prosecution.  The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the Second Circuit to consider whether the common law...

In a companion case to Trump v. Vance, which I discussed in Part I, the Supreme Court, in Trump v. Mazars, rejected Trump and DOJ’s challenges to enforcement of congressional subpoenas for Trump’s financial records.  Again, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the Court, in a 7-2 vote, upheld the subpoenas but ordered the lower court to apply a comprehensive four-part test to the proposed subpoenas....

In a decisive ruling, in Trump v. Vance, the Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s challenges to a New York State grand jury subpoena.  In a 7-2 vote, The Supreme Court rejected the Trump Administration challenges.  In a separate case, Trump v. Mazars, which will be analyzed in Part II tomorrow, the Supreme Court rejected challenges by a vote of 7 to 2 to Congress’ subpoena...

In an important case decided in June 2020, the Supreme Court, in Liu et al v. SEC, addressed the SEC’s ability to seek “equitable relief” in civil proceedings.  In 2017, the Supreme Court, in Kokesh v. SEC, ruled that a disgorgement order in an SEC action constitutes a “penalty” for purposes of application of the five-year statute of limitations.  The Supreme Court left open the...