Subject Matter :
Bernard Madoff. AIG. Alan Stanford. These are just three of the financial scandals capturing headlines all over the world. In the wake of the Enron scandal, Congress passed new legislation strengthening criminal sanctions for financial fraud and the President established a corporate fraud task force. As a result, the number of white collar criminal prosecutions in the United States increased dramatically. Between 2002 and 2007, the corporate fraud task force obtained over 1,200 convictions and forfeited over $1,000,000 in assets. The current financial crisis can only be expected to generate more regulatory oversight and enforcement actions. As a result, familiarity with the basic law of white collar and corporate crime is an essential part of any American legal or business education.
American law, especially in the area of white collar crime, is becoming more and more important for foreign lawyers. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act establishes criminal penalties in the United States for acts of bribery committed overseas, thus requiring lawyers who serve as local counsel to U.S. corporations to understand its provisions. Bilateral extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties often raise questions of “dual criminality,” the resolution of which requires a sophisticated understanding of the criminal law of both countries. Moreover, U.S. law relating to white collar crime often serves as a model for other countries developing their regulatory framework. For example, money laundering laws throughout the world are almost all modeled on U.S. law.
Knowledge of U.S. criminal law is especially important for Russian lawyers. For example, a $22 billion lawsuit against the Bank of New York, currently pending in the Moscow Arbitrazh Court, has raised the question of whether the U.S. RICO law can be applied in a proceeding in Russia. Meanwhile, prominent Russian companies and individuals, including Russian Aluminum and Oleg Deripaska, have been sued in the United States under the RICO law. Finally, others, including Semyon Mogilyevich and former Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeniy Adamov, have been criminally indicted in the United States for fraud. Regardless of their merits, all of these cases have required Russian lawyers to master the intricacies of the U.S. law of white collar crime.
This course will provide an introduction to the most important legal issues in white collar and corporate crime. It will meet in eight three-hour sessions, each focusing on a different issue or set of issues, including corporate criminal liability, fraud, insider trading, extortion, bribery, obstruction of justice, money laundering, RICO, and antitrust and environmental crimes.
Textbook:
The course text will be Corporate and White Collar Crime, Kathleen Brickey, 4th ed. However, the textbook will be supplemented by additional readings including court documents from significant cases and newspaper articles.
Grading:
Grading will be based on class participation (25%), a final exam (50%) and a course paper (25%) in which students will be asked to write an essay analyzing the legal issues in a particular case. Class participation will be evaluated based on attendance, preparation and contribution, in equal parts.
