Tag Archives: fraud

On June 6, 2023, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) proposed new auditing standards that would substantially broaden auditors’ responsibilities for considering an audit client’s noncompliance with laws and regulations, including fraud. If adopted, the proposal is likely to entangle auditors in complicated questions of legal and regulatory compliance.

PCAOB Release No. 2023-003 (the “Proposal”) heightens auditors’ responsibilities for detecting legal and regulatory noncompliance and alerting appropriate members of management and audit committees.… More

This is the third part in our 2023 series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations. Up next: congressional investigations.

Health care fraud enforcement remained a top priority at both the national and local levels in 2022 and we predict 2023 will be no different.  This post details certain categories of health care fraud that regulators and government agencies have indicated will be a focus in this coming year as well as other expected trends.… More

This is the second part in our 2023 series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations. Up next: health care enforcement.

The days of decreased IRS enforcement activity may be coming to a close.  Although the overall volume of civil audits and criminal investigations has declined in recent years, last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden on August 16,… More

Key Takeaways:

• A faculty member at a research university was convicted of making false statements to the federal government, a felony, for failing to disclose an outside engagement with a Chinese institution on his university’s conflict of interest disclosure form.
• When faced with conflicts of interest disclosure obligations, university faculty with federal funding for research should disclose all engagements that may raise questions of conflict of commitment or interest.…

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On July 13, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the whistleblower protections contained in Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) do not apply to employees who report potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The ruling in Baker v. Smith & Wesson, Inc., 40 F.4th 43 (1st Cir. 2022) is the second recent decision narrowing the important whistleblower protections of the Act,… More

This is the third post in this year’s series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations. Our previous post discussed trends in anti-corruption. Up next: State AG enforcement trends.

• While the volume of IRS enforcement actions has waned, it may soon increase.
• Even at current relatively low audit and investigation levels, the IRS remains aggressive in the cases it does pursue.…

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This is the first post in this year’s series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations. Join us in the weeks ahead as we provide updates on new developments and emerging trends in a number of white collar spaces. Up next: trends in anti-corruption.

A perennial focus of regulators, health care fraud enforcement remained active in 2021 and is expected to continue in the year ahead.… More

In a long-awaited decision on January 27, 2022, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the convictions of Deutsche Bank (DB) derivatives traders Matthew Connolly and Gavin Black in a fraud case arising from the alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). In United States v. Connolly,[1] the two traders were charged with pressuring the DB department responsible for submitting estimates of interest rates used to calculate LIBOR to benefit the bank’s trading positions.… More

In the past two weeks, the federal government has charged several individuals in Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud schemes.  The allegations have ranged from applying for loans for non-operating businesses to using loan funds to buy cars and jewelry.  Charges announced this week showed a whole new level of creativity.  A Texas man, Samuel Yates, allegedly used an online name generator to make up the names of hundreds of employees in an effort to obtain a $5 million loan. … More

In yet another sign that the federal government is following through on its warnings about PPP loan fraud, the Department of Justice, according to reports from Reuters, has issued grand jury subpoenas to several Wall Street banks related to an investigation into PPP loans.  The subpoenas were reportedly issued by the DOJ’s Fraud Section.  The issuance of the subpoenas does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing by the banks. … More