Episode 381 -- Cadence Design Pays $140 Million to Settle Trade Violations
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 61 - A Call to Service: From Public Duty to Spiritual Advocacy
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 53 - Diagnosis: Innocent – A Doctor’s Journey to Acquittal
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 52 - Engineered for Injustice: How Coerced Pleas Trap the Innocent
The Justice Insiders Podcast: Crime & Punishment - Part 2
The Justice Insiders: FIFA Corruption Trial – Will the Feds Score Another Goal?
Episode 119 -- The Ericsson FCPA Settlement
Episode 116 -- Alstom Executive Convicted of FCPA and Money Laundering Offenses
What happens when a company tries to outsmart the system - and gets caught red-handed by the DOJ in a $140 million export control scheme tied to Chinese military supercomputers? In this episode, Michael dives into the DOJ’s...more
On July 28, 2025, the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), announced parallel criminal and civil-administrative export...more
The United States Attorney’s Office, Western District of Pennsylvania issued a June 20th news release stating that Erie Coke Corporation (“ECC”) has pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts related to alleged criminal...more
Sina Gholinejad, an Iranian hacker involved in the 2019 international extortion scheme against the City of Baltimore using the Robbinhood ransomware, pleaded guilty to computer fraud and wire fraud charges on Tuesday, May 27,...more
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts has charged a student at Assumption University with hacking into two U.S.-based companies’ systems and demanding a ransom....more
Family International, a Florida real estate company, and its U.S. owner, Roman Sinyavsky, settled with OFAC for $1.07 million for 73 violations of the Russia Sanctions program. In a separate criminal case, Roman Sinyavsky...more
For six and a half years, Dr. Muhamad Aly Rifai, a physician from Easton, PA, lived in fear and anxiety that life as he knew it was over. A leader in telehealth psychiatric services since the early 2000s, Dr. Rifai was...more
Rodney Roberts was given a total of 25 minutes to make a life-altering decision. In custody, isolated from family and advised by a public defender to plead guilty to lesser charges in a crime he did not commit, Rodney...more
Every parent remembers when their child learns the meaning of the word “no.” That moment often comes as a shock because, up until that moment, most children are models of obedience and unconditional trust. When children learn...more
On September 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that Frank Richard Ahlgren III pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return underreporting gains from selling $3.7 million in Bitcoin. As we discussed...more
“By making its services convenient for criminals, TD Bank became one,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. TD Bank joins the list of dysfunctional companies — add them to Wells Fargo, Wirecard, Volkswagen, General Motors,...more
In yet another reminder of the scope of Justice Department enforcement powers, and an important demonstration of the risks of non-compliance, the Justice Department and relevant banking agencies announced a $3 billion...more
Last week, representatives of the US government announced one of the largest sets of fines and penalties for failures in anti-money laundering ever laid down. It involved TD Bank N.A. and TD Bank US Holding Company. It was...more
Sigma-Aldrich, Inc., d/b/a MilliporeSigma (“MilliporeSigma”), a U.S. life sciences company based in Massachusetts, escaped criminal charges for export control violations, despite a former sales person’s scheme to illegally...more
Former NBA player Glen “Big Baby” Davis was sentenced to 40 months in prison after being convicted for his role in a scheme to defraud the NBA healthcare plan. Davis’ sentence comes almost a year after the scheme’s...more
Defendants often face a tough choice — challenge the government’s evidence and if convicted, face significant jail time. On the flip side, defendants who plead guilty and cooperate can earn significant sentencing reductions,...more
On the heels of the Gunvor FCPA settlement for $661 million, DOJ announced its settlement with Trafigura, the latest commodities trading company to fall under DOJ’s FCPA Sweep against the industry. Trafigura joined the list...more
You have to give the Justice Department credit — after two slow enforcement years, DOJ is starting off 2024 with a relative “bang;” first, DOJ reached a large settlement with SAP in January, and now, DOJ has reached a...more
In March 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the resolution of a FCPA enforcement action involving the Swiss trading firm Gunvor S.A. The enforcement action comes in with a $661 million penalty against the...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has been very active in the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) / Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) space, as reflected by a recent series of individual prosecutions and corporate non-prosecution agreements...more
On November 21, 2023, The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced settlement agreements with Binance Holdings Limited (“Binance”), the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and Changpeng Zhao (affectionally known as...more
A no contest plea in criminal court means that you accept the conviction but avoid a factual admission of guilt. People often use the terms "guilty plea" and "no contest plea" interchangeably, but they can mean different...more
In February 2022, we blogged on the seizure of a record $3.6 billion in stolen Bitcoin (“BTC”) and an accompanying criminal complaint, charging husband and wife Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan with...more
Polsinelli’s Government Investigations and Tax attorneys continue to follow the well-known Fisher case, the Department of Justice’s ("DOJ") first criminal indictment related to syndicated conservation easements. Walter...more
First of Two Blog Posts in a Series Pertaining to Attorneys Convicted of Money Laundering - In February, we blogged on the indictment of Vladimir Voronchenko (“Voronchenko”) in the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”),...more