Category: Criminal Law

In Effort to Extradite UK Man in Piracy Case, DOJ Is Overreaching

The National Law Review recently published an article by Sarah Coffey of Ifrah Law regarding Copyright Piracy:

 

 

A current anti-piracy case demonstrates the U.S. government’s intent to enforce its copyright laws not just beyond national borders, but beyond the extent of logic. The U.S. Department of Justice has issued an arrest warrant and extradition order for a 24-year-old college student in England who ran a website that contained links to independent websites that hosted pirated television shows and movies. By holding a mere intermediary accountable for allegedly pirated content offered on other websites, the department has set an alarming precedent with major free speech implications.

Richard O’Dwyer, who has never left the United Kingdom, is at the center of a heated debate regarding U.S. laws related to copyright, free speech, and jurisdiction. O’Dwyer ‘s website, TvShack.net, is registered in the United States, thereby giving the U.S. government a claim to exert jurisdiction over it and its owner even though the servers hosting the website are not U.S.-based. The website allowed users to search for and link to other websites; the government alleges that some of those links led to pirated movies and television shows. The government seized the domain on June 30, 2010, for “violations of federal criminal copyright infringement laws.” O’Dwyer has been charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal infringement of copyright.

The government’s case against O’Dwyer raises a number of important issues. First, O’Dwyer himself did not host the allegedly infringing material. His website allowed users to run searches that returned links to both legal and allegedly illegal content on external websites. If O’Dwyer can be criminally prosecuted for the dissemination of copyrighted content that he did not host, where would the chain of liability for such content end? Would search engines linking to such websites bear responsibility for their content? Would anyone sending a link to that website face criminal prosecution, even someone who actually download or view the content? There is no telling how far the DOJ intends to push this issue, but O’Dwyer’s case is a good indication that the DOJ seeks to extend the limits as far as the courts will allow.

O’Dwyer’s status as a British subject raises less novel but no less compelling questions about the United States’ jurisdiction to extradite and prosecute individuals on copyright infringement charges. O’Dwyer’s extradition has been approved by the British courts as well as the British home secretary, but many still believe that any trial should take place in Britain since O’Dwyer has never set foot in the United States and the servers hosting the website were also not on our shores.

O’Dwyer is currently appealing the extradition. Last month, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, in a rare political intervention, called upon British Home Secretary Theresa May to stop the extradition efforts.

The circumstances of this case are reminiscent of the high-profile Megaupload case, in which the U.S. government issued an extradition order for Kim Dotcom in New Zealand. Dotcom ran an internet “lockbox,” in which users could upload content, including video and music, to a website and then share access with other users. Factually, these cases differ in that Megaupload hosted the content that was uploaded by users, whereas O’Dwyer only provided links to other websites. New Zealand also appears less willing to approve extradition, having pushed a hearing on the matter to March 2013, while Dotcom remains free on bail.

In instances of intermediary liability, the need to protect copyrighted works is outweighed by an individual’s interest in remaining free from criminal prosecution for the acts of another. The remedy, if one is justified, is better addressed through civil penalties rather than criminal prosecution.

© 2012 Ifrah PLLC

What Does One Need to ‘Know’ to Commit a Federal Crime?

The National Law Review recently featured an article by Sarah Coffey of Ifrah Law regarding Federal Crimes:

On July 2, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit tackled an interesting question of statutory interpretation that centered on the precise usage by Congress of the word “knowingly” in a federal criminal law that prohibits luring people under 18 years old into prostitution.

In United States v. Daniels, the appeals court was reviewing the conviction of Robert Daniels, a pimp who had induced a 14-year-old girl to become a prostitute. One of Daniels’ arguments was that he didn’t know the girl was under 18 and thus could not be convicted under the wording of the statute.

The statute provides that anyone who “knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense” can be convicted of a federal crime. The question before the court was whether the adverb “knowingly” applies to the age of the person lured into prostitution, or only to the persuading, inducing, enticing or coercing. In other words, in order for someone to be guilty of the crime, does he have to know that the prostitute was under age?

The court ruled that in order to sustain a conviction, the prosecution does not have to prove that the perpetrator knew the prostitute was under 18.

The court reasoned that although in general, criminal law applies a presumption that a knowledge requirement “applies to every element in a statute,” it is also the case that laws “concerned with the protection of minors are within a special context, where that presumption is rebutted.” The goal, the court wrote, is to honor “the congressional goal of protecting minors victimized by sexual crimes.”

Delicate issues relating to the meaning of a statute are not limited to questions relating to prostitutes and pimps, of course. In statutes defining white-collar crimes such as fraud or illegal gaming, or setting forth the punishments for such crimes, there are often ambiguous terms or complicated sentence structures.

One thing that we can learn from the Daniels opinion in the 11th Circuit is that appeals courts don’t always follow strict rules of interpretation based on the placement of an adverb or of a comma. They often look at the broad purpose of the statute and the goals that Congress sought to achieve in passing it and creating the crime. It will be interesting to see how the Daniels opinion and similar cases will be applied in the white-collar context.

© 2012 Ifrah PLLC

After Gupta’s Insider-Trading Conviction, What’s Next?

An article by David Deitch of Ifrah Law, After Gupta’s Insider-Trading Conviction, What’s Next?, published in The National Law Review:

Yet another shoe has dropped in the long-running investigation and the series of prosecutions arising from allegations of insider trading in the stocks of Goldman Sachs and other companies. In May 2011, Raj Rajaratnam was convicted of insider trading and ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison. On June 15, 2012, Rajat Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs, was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on four of six counts of an indictment that charged him with a conspiracy that included feeding inside tips to Rajaratnam in September and October 2008 about developments at Goldman Sachs.

As with the trial of Rajaratnam, the key pieces of evidence against Gupta appear to have been wiretapped conversations. The four charges on which Gupta was convicted all related to trades in support of which the government presented recorded conversations as evidence (though the government played only three recordings in the Gupta trial). The jury acquitted Gupta of two charges arising from other trades for which the government presented no such evidence. The jury clearly was influenced by hearing Rajaratnam on the recordings referring to his source on the Goldman Sachs board – powerful evidence that gave increased persuasive power to the government’s reliance on phone records showing substantial contacts between the two men.

Rajaratnam has appealed his conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and one significant issue he has raised is whether the government improperly sought authority to wiretap the conversations that were the cornerstone of his conviction. That ruling will be very significant, both because a decision in Rajaratnam’s favor is likely to result in a reversal of Gupta’s conviction as well, and because the Second Circuit’s ruling may have a major impact on the future ability of prosecutors to continue to use wiretaps against white-collar targets.

While Gupta is likely to receive a prison sentence for his conviction, it seems likely that he will receive a lower sentence that Rajaratnam, who engaged in the trades in question and reaped the benefits of those trades – estimated at trial to have generated $16 million in gains or in avoided losses from Rajaratnam’s fund. While prosecutors may seek a higher sentence based on acquitted conduct, Gupta’s advisory range calculated under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines may be as much as eight years in prison. There is also a significant question whether Judge Jed Rakoff, who has expressed frustration with what he calls “the guidelines’ fetish with abstract arithmetic,” will sentence Gupta to a shorter term than the one calculated under the Guidelines.

© 2012 Ifrah PLLC

NY City Bar White Collar Crime Institute

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the inaugural White Collar Crime Institute, on Monday, May 14, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New York City, NY.

This excellent review of developments in criminal and regulatory enforcement has been organized by our White Collar Criminal Law Committee, chaired John F. Savarese of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Our program will feature keynote addresses by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Eric Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York. The panels on key legal and strategic issues will include senior government officials, federal judges, academics, general counsel of leading New York based corporations and financial institutions, and top practitioners in the field. We have crafted the program to maximize their value for white collar practitioners and corporate counsel.

Plenary sessions will focus on:
  • Providing perspectives of top general counsel concerning the challenges they confront in this new era of expanded corporate prosecutions
  • Discussions of the increasing importance of media coverage in these cases and its impact on prosecutorial decision-making.

Break-out sessions will address:

  • Techniques for winning trials
  • Ethical issues presented by white-collar corporate investigations
  • Trends in white-collar sentencing, and
  • The special challenges of handling cross-border investigations.

NY City Bar White Collar Crime Institute

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the inaugural White Collar Crime Institute, on Monday, May 14, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New York City, NY.

This excellent review of developments in criminal and regulatory enforcement has been organized by our White Collar Criminal Law Committee, chaired John F. Savarese of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Our program will feature keynote addresses by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Eric Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York. The panels on key legal and strategic issues will include senior government officials, federal judges, academics, general counsel of leading New York based corporations and financial institutions, and top practitioners in the field. We have crafted the program to maximize their value for white collar practitioners and corporate counsel.

Plenary sessions will focus on:
  • Providing perspectives of top general counsel concerning the challenges they confront in this new era of expanded corporate prosecutions
  • Discussions of the increasing importance of media coverage in these cases and its impact on prosecutorial decision-making.

Break-out sessions will address:

  • Techniques for winning trials
  • Ethical issues presented by white-collar corporate investigations
  • Trends in white-collar sentencing, and
  • The special challenges of handling cross-border investigations.

NY City Bar White Collar Crime Institute

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the inaugural White Collar Crime Institute, on Monday, May 14, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New York City, NY.

This excellent review of developments in criminal and regulatory enforcement has been organized by our White Collar Criminal Law Committee, chaired John F. Savarese of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Our program will feature keynote addresses by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Eric Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York. The panels on key legal and strategic issues will include senior government officials, federal judges, academics, general counsel of leading New York based corporations and financial institutions, and top practitioners in the field. We have crafted the program to maximize their value for white collar practitioners and corporate counsel.

Plenary sessions will focus on:
  • Providing perspectives of top general counsel concerning the challenges they confront in this new era of expanded corporate prosecutions
  • Discussions of the increasing importance of media coverage in these cases and its impact on prosecutorial decision-making.

Break-out sessions will address:

  • Techniques for winning trials
  • Ethical issues presented by white-collar corporate investigations
  • Trends in white-collar sentencing, and
  • The special challenges of handling cross-border investigations.

NY City Bar White Collar Crime Institute

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the inaugural White Collar Crime Institute, on Monday, May 14, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New York City, NY.

This excellent review of developments in criminal and regulatory enforcement has been organized by our White Collar Criminal Law Committee, chaired John F. Savarese of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Our program will feature keynote addresses by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Eric Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York. The panels on key legal and strategic issues will include senior government officials, federal judges, academics, general counsel of leading New York based corporations and financial institutions, and top practitioners in the field. We have crafted the program to maximize their value for white collar practitioners and corporate counsel.

Plenary sessions will focus on:
  • Providing perspectives of top general counsel concerning the challenges they confront in this new era of expanded corporate prosecutions
  • Discussions of the increasing importance of media coverage in these cases and its impact on prosecutorial decision-making.

Break-out sessions will address:

  • Techniques for winning trials
  • Ethical issues presented by white-collar corporate investigations
  • Trends in white-collar sentencing, and
  • The special challenges of handling cross-border investigations.

NY City Bar White Collar Crime Institute

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the inaugural White Collar Crime Institute, on Monday, May 14, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New York City, NY.

This excellent review of developments in criminal and regulatory enforcement has been organized by our White Collar Criminal Law Committee, chaired John F. Savarese of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Our program will feature keynote addresses by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Eric Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York. The panels on key legal and strategic issues will include senior government officials, federal judges, academics, general counsel of leading New York based corporations and financial institutions, and top practitioners in the field. We have crafted the program to maximize their value for white collar practitioners and corporate counsel.

Plenary sessions will focus on:
  • Providing perspectives of top general counsel concerning the challenges they confront in this new era of expanded corporate prosecutions
  • Discussions of the increasing importance of media coverage in these cases and its impact on prosecutorial decision-making.

Break-out sessions will address:

  • Techniques for winning trials
  • Ethical issues presented by white-collar corporate investigations
  • Trends in white-collar sentencing, and
  • The special challenges of handling cross-border investigations.

The Growing Corporate Threat of Taxpayer Identity Theft Fraud

The National Law Review recently published an article by Latour “LT” Laffferty of Fowler White Boggs P.A. regarding Identity Theft:

Identity theft continues to be a growing problem nationwide, but particularly in Florida which continues to lead the nation per capita in reported incidents of identity theft according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a national clearinghouse for consumer fraud complaints. Taxpayer identity theft fraud, a subset of identity theft in general, is the most prevalent form of identity theft according to the FTC which reported that tax-related identity theft incidents increased from 51,702 in 2008 to 248,357 in 2010. This is a dramatic increase from the 35,000 instances of employment-related identity theft cases reported in 2007.

Taxpayer identity theft fraud involves not only the theft of someone’s identity but also the filing of a fraudulent tax return using the victim’s social security number to receive a tax refund often totaling more than $9,000.00. The IRS identified and prevented the issuance of more than $14 billion in fraudulent refunds in 2011. A 2008 report issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), an IRS watchdog, stated that the prevention of taxpayer identity theft fraud is an employer’s issue involving the security of their systems and data. According to TIGTA, 938,664 of the 2.1 million fraudulent tax returns filed in 2011 involved identity theft and totaled $6.5 billion. The stolen information includes the person’s name, date of birth and social security number or Medicare beneficiary number.

The latest twist, however, is that your own employees are in on the crime as law enforcement agencies are reporting that employees at many businesses that compile personal information are misappropriating and selling the information to thieves who are filing fraudulent tax returns. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Fraud Alert in February 2012 warning healthcare providers that perpetrators are misappropriating the identities of Medicare beneficiaries from “employers, schools, hospitals, and prisons” but any businesses that store personal information are at risk from current or prospective employees. Recent law enforcement arrests report finding suspects with massive quantities of tax refunds and lists of prospective employers to apply for jobs with the specific intent to steal taxpayer identities from their databases.

The reality of this emerging threat is that perpetrators are actually targeting organizations for employment so that they can specifically breach their data security and commit identity theft and aid those committing tax refund fraud. These organizations have both a fiduciary and legal duty to safeguard that personal information, but also a legal duty to notify those consumers who they can reasonably identify that their personal information has been stolen.

©2002-2012 Fowler White Boggs P.A.

NY City Bar White Collar Crime Institute

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the inaugural White Collar Crime Institute,

on Monday, May 14, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New York City, NY.

 

This excellent review of developments in criminal and regulatory enforcement has been organized by our White Collar Criminal Law Committee, chaired John F. Savarese of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Our program will feature keynote addresses by Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Eric Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New York. The panels on key legal and strategic issues will include senior government officials, federal judges, academics, general counsel of leading New York based corporations and financial institutions, and top practitioners in the field. We have crafted the program to maximize their value for white collar practitioners and corporate counsel.

Plenary sessions will focus on:
  • Providing perspectives of top general counsel concerning the challenges they confront in this new era of expanded corporate prosecutions
  • Discussions of the increasing importance of media coverage in these cases and its impact on prosecutorial decision-making.

Break-out sessions will address:

  • Techniques for winning trials
  • Ethical issues presented by white-collar corporate investigations
  • Trends in white-collar sentencing, and
  • The special challenges of handling cross-border investigations.