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Tag Archives: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
A Response to Commissioner Wright’s Proposed Policy Statement Regarding Unfair Methods of Competition
Maurice E. Stucke
Federal Trade Commissioner Joshua Wright recently proposed a new legal standard to evaluate “unfair methods of competition” under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 45(a) (2012).
This essay raises several concerns. First, Wright’s proposed legal standard does not go as far as Congress intended. Moreover it conflates unfair methods of competition with acts and practices that significantly harm consumer welfare. A second concern is that the proposed legal standard goes the other direction and permits conduct that is otherwise illegal under the Sherman and Clayton Acts. Third, the proposed standard reduces accuracy, is hard to administer in connection with the traditional antitrust standards, and increases the risk of inconsistent outcomes for behavior outside the well-forged antitrust case law, but within the Sherman and Clayton Acts’ reach.
Three Former Broker-dealer Employees Plead Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to Bribery of Foreign Officials, Money Laundering and Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice
Three employees of a New York-based U.S. broker-dealer have pleaded guilty for their roles in bribery schemes involving two state economic development banks in Venezuela.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York and Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos of the New York Office of the FBI made the announcement.
Ernesto Lujan, Jose Alejandro Hurtado and Tomas Alberto Clarke Bethancourt pleaded guilty in New York federal court to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), to violate the Travel Act and to commit money laundering, as well as substantive counts of these offenses. These charges relate to a scheme to bribe a foreign official named Maria de los Angeles Gonzalez de Hernandez at Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Venezuela (BANDES), a state economic development bank in Venezuela, in exchange for receiving trading business from BANDES. Lujan, Hurtado and Clarke each also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of conspiring to violate the FCPA in connection with a similar scheme to bribe a foreign official employed by Banfoandes (the “Banfoandes Foreign Official”), another state economic development bank in Venezuela, and to conspiring to obstruct an examination by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the New York-based broker-dealer (the “Broker-Dealer”) where all three defendants had worked, to conceal the true facts of the Broker-Dealer’s relationship with BANDES.
Lujan, 50, and Clarke, 43, entered their guilty pleas yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV, and Hurtado, 38, pleaded guilty today, also before Judge Francis. The men each pleaded guilty to the same six offenses and face a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count except money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Sentencing for Lujan and Clarke is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe. Hurtado is scheduled for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. on March 6, 2014.
According to the informations filed against Lujan, Hurtado and Clarke this week, the criminal complaints previously filed, and statements made during the plea proceedings, Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado worked or were associated with the Broker-Dealer, principally through its Miami offices. In 2008, the Broker-Dealer established a group called the Global Markets Group, which included Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado, and which offered fixed income trading services to institutional clients.
One of the Broker-Dealer’s clients was BANDES, which operated under the direction of the Venezuelan Ministry of Finance. The Venezuelan government had a majority ownership interest in BANDES and provided it with substantial funding. Gonzalez was an official at BANDES and oversaw the development bank’s overseas trading activity. At her direction, BANDES conducted substantial trading through the Broker-Dealer. Most of the trades executed by the Broker-Dealer on behalf of BANDES involved fixed-income investments for which the Broker-Dealer charged the bank a mark-up on purchases and a mark-down on sales.
The Broker-Dealer also conducted business with Banfoandes, another state development bank in Venezuela that, along with its 2009 successor Banco Bicentenario, operated under the direction of the Venezuelan Ministry of Finance. Banfoandes acted as a financial agent of the Venezuelan government in order to promote economic and social development by, among other things, offering credit to low-income Venezuelans. The Banfoandes Foreign Official was responsible for some of Banfoandes’s foreign investments.
Court records state that from early 2009 through 2012, Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado participated in a bribery scheme in which Gonzalez allegedly directed trading business she controlled at BANDES to the Broker-Dealer, and in return, agents and employees of the Broker-Dealer split the revenue the Broker-Dealer generated from this trading business with Gonzalez. During this time period, the Broker-Dealer generated over $60 million in mark-ups and mark-downs from trades with BANDES. Agents and employees of the Broker-Dealer, including Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado, devised a split with Gonzalez of the commissions paid by BANDES to the Broker-Dealer. Emails, account records and other documents collected from the Broker-Dealer and other sources reveal that Gonzalez allegedly received a substantial share of the revenue generated by the Broker-Dealer for BANDES-related trades. Specifically, Gonzalez allegedly received kickbacks and payments from Broker-Dealer agents and employees that were frequently in six-figure amounts.
To further conceal the scheme, the kickbacks to Gonzalez were often paid using intermediary corporations and offshore accounts that she held in Switzerland, among other places. For instance, Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado used accounts they controlled in Switzerland to transfer funds to an account Gonzalez allegedly controlled in Switzerland. Additionally, Hurtado and his spouse received substantial compensation from the Broker-Dealer, portions of which Hurtado transferred to an account allegedly held by Gonzalez in Miami and to an account held by an associate of Gonzalez in Switzerland. Hurtado also sought and allegedly received reimbursement from Gonzalez for the U.S. income taxes he had paid on money that he used to make kickback payments to Gonzalez. Lujan and Clarke also derived substantial profit from their roles in the bribery scheme.
According to court records, beginning in or about November 2010, the SEC commenced a periodic examination of the Broker-Dealer, and from November 2010 through March 2011 the SEC’s examination staff made several visits to the Broker-Dealer’s offices in Manhattan. In early 2011, Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado discussed their concern that the SEC was examining the Broker-Dealer’s relationship with BANDES and asking questions regarding certain emails and other information that the SEC examination staff had discovered. Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado agreed that they would take steps to conceal the true facts of the Broker-Dealer’s relationship with BANDES, including deleting emails. Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado then, in fact, deleted emails. Additionally as part of this effort to obstruct the SEC examination, Clarke lied to SEC examination staff in response to an interview question about his relationship to an individual who had received purported foreign associate payments relating to BANDES.
In a related scheme, from 2008 through mid-2009, Lujan, Clarke and Hurtado paid bribes to the Banfoandes Foreign Official, who, in exchange, directed Banfoandes trading business to the Broker-Dealer.
Gonzalez was charged in a criminal complaint and arrested on May 3, 2013, in connection with the BANDES bribery scheme. The charges against Gonzalez are merely accusations, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the FBI, with assistance from the SEC and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.
Assistant Chief James Koukios and Trial Attorneys Maria Gonzalez Calvet and Aisling O’Shea of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harry A. Chernoff and Jason H. Cowley of the Southern District of New York’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force are in charge of the prosecution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolina Fornos is responsible for the forfeiture aspects of the case.
GeyerGorey LLP Issues Updated Representative Matters List; Experience is Wide and Deep
Representative Matters
Our attorneys have led and participated in some of the highest profile matters in the past decade, both while in the government and in private practice. We have been involved in the most significant criminal cartel cases, the most important mergers, the most notable civil antitrust investigations, the largest procurement fraud cases, and game-changing antitrust cases that reached the United States Supreme Court. Our collective experience stands as a testament to our work ethic, our drive for excellence, and the trust and responsibility we have been given by our clients and the government.
International Cartels:
- Led investigation and prosecution of marine contractors engaged in conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition to install deep sea oil platforms
- Led investigation and prosecution of international freight forwarders engaged in conspiracy to fix prices on international air cargo shipments
- Led investigation and prosecution of household-goods moving contractors engaged in conspiracy to fix prices for international moving services provided to Department of Defense
- Investigation and prosecution of graphite electrodes manufacturers
- Investigation and prosecution of ocean shipping companies
- Investigation and prosecution of a FTSE 250 engineering company that resulted in the indictment, extradition and conviction of its former chief executive
- Defended foreign construction company in investigation and prosecution of alleged billion-dollar bid rigging scheme, in related qui tam litigation, and in other related matters
- Defended foreign vitamin manufacturers in investigations and prosecutions of alleged international price-fixing agreements
- Defended foreign specialty chemical manufacturers in investigations and prosecutions of alleged international price-fixing agreements
- Defended U.S.-based executive of foreign company in criminal and civil litigation related to his alleged role in an international cartel to fix prices in the marine supply industry
- Defended foreign executive of foreign company in criminal and civil litigation related to his alleged role in the conspiracy to fix air cargo rates around the world
- Defended international freight forwarder in criminal litigation related to its alleged role in an international conspiracy to rig bids on U.S. military shipping contracts
- Investigation and subsequent prosecution of foreign vitamin manufacturers for price fixing conspiracy
Domestic Price Fixing and Bid Rigging:
- Defended electrical products manufacturer in first felony prosecution under the Sherman Act and in civil treble damage litigation
- Represented a class of nurses in litigation against a hospital association and a number of Arizona hospitals
- Represented the State of Ohio against a number of dairies for allegedly rigging bids of school milk
- Investigation and prosecution of highway paving contractors in multiple districts for bid rigging
- Investigation and prosecution of military insignia providers supplying the Army Air Force Exchange System with over 4,000 items of insignia
- Represented metal drum manufacturer in prosecution for price fixing
- Investigation of polypropylene bag manufacturers and that resulted in the prosecution of a manufacturer for Buy American Act violations and conspiracy to defraud
- Investigation and prosecution of nearly 40 cases against paving contractors for conspiring to rig bids in connection with federal and state highway and airport contracts
- Investigation and prosecution of an auction rigging conspiracy involving auto parts to by the Department of Defense at Defense Reutilization Marketing Offices (DRMO)
- Investigation and prosecution of multiple electrical construction contractors for conspiring to rig bids for major power wiring contracts associated with steel mills and waste water treatment plants
- Investigation and prosecution of multiple wholesale grocery companies and bid managers for rigging bids to school districts, hospitals and jails in southern Texas
- Investigation and prosecution of multiple dairies for rigging bids for school milk sold to districts in Louisiana
- Investigation and prosecution of crawfish processors for fixing prices paid to crawfish farmers and fishermen
- Investigation and prosecution of bribery conspiracy involving the reconstruction of the New Orleans levee system after Hurricane Katrina
- Investigation and prosecution of fire protective services company and its president
- Investigation and prosecution of an Iraq-based general construction bid rigging scheme
- Investigation and prosecution of conspiracy to solicit kickback scheme involving security services on a US Agency for International Development contract
- Investigation and prosecution of fuel theft from an overseas United States military facility
- Investigation and prosecution of a Europe-based scheme to defraud the Iraqi government by facilitating the fraudulent claim for payment of armored vehicles that were never delivered
- Represented individual accused of defrauding government defense agency out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money
- Represented company accused of defrauding government by failing to supply vitamin-enriched food products with the proper level of enrichment
- Represented large computer software company in internal investigation of improper influence on government contracting process
General Criminal:
- Defended CEO and three closely-held companies in a multi-state racketeering and tax fraud prosecution
- Investigation and prosecution of multiple labor racketeering cases ranging from prosecutions of United Mine Worker Union officials for theft of union funds used to pay for the murder of a political opponent of the union president to the prosecution of two Boston-based racketeers for actions associated with their travel to California in connection with a union organizing effort at a San Rafael newspaper
- Investigation and prosecution of the mayor of a New Jersey town for taking bribes in connection with the permitting of a tank farm at the terminus point of a major Gulf Coast to East Coast pipeline
- Investigation and prosecution of the most prolific serial bank robber in United States history
- Investigation and prosecution of the murder for hire of a government witness and one of the largest cocaine importation conspiracies East of the Mississippi River
- Investigation and prosecution of numerous gun, drug and false identity cases
- Investigation and prosecution of multiple obstructions of justice, contempt, false statement, witness tampering and perjury cases arising out of grand jury investigations
- Investigation and prosecution of bank fraud cases
- Represented individuals before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in appeals from criminal convictions (more than a dozen cases)
- Defended individual in intelligence community in investigation by DCIS for alleged violations of public corruption statutes (18 U.S.C §§ 207 & 208)
- Defended individual in criminal investigation by Inspector General of NASA
- Defended individual in federal bribery investigation
- Defended government contractor in investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Agriculture
- Defended several regional hospitals in various unrelated federal investigations of allegedly fraudulent billing practices, Stark violations
- Represented hospital CEO in investigation of alleged Stark violations
- Represented pathology laboratory in healthcare fraud investigation
- Represented national healthcare company in investigation of allegedly criminal off-label marketing
- Represented various individuals in applications for presidential pardons
Mergers and Acquisitions:
- Represented Warner Music in connection with the proposed acquisition of EMI by Universal Music
- Represented DISH Network in opposition to the proposed acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T
- Represented Merck in connection with its acquisition of Schering Plough
- Represented Simon Properties in connection with its acquisition of Prime Outlets
- Obtained antitrust clearance in the acquisition of Liquid Container by Graham Packaging
- Obtained consent decree against nuclear engineering firm which had acquired another firm with the same engineering specialty
- Represented major home healthcare provider in acquisition valued in excess of $500 million
- Represented pathology laboratory in merger valued in excess of $100 million
- Represented foreign mining company in acquisition of US coal mines valued over $1 billion
- Represented hospital management company in acquisition valued in excess of $500 million
- Represented individual in several acquisitions of stock each valued in excess of $100 million
- Represented major over-the-counter pharmaceutical company in four different acquisitions over several years whose values ranged from over $100 million to over $500 million
- Represented national restaurant chain in acquisition valued at about $1 billion
- Represented regional hospital chain in acquisition of a hospital valued above $50 million
- Represented hospital valued in excess of $100 million in sale to state hospital system
Civil Antitrust Matters:.
- Defended large telecommunications provider in three week trial for alleged exclusionary conduct directed towards telecom services resellers.
- Represented large telecommunications provider as plaintiff in case alleging monopolization of market for telecom switch software.
- Represented leading music copyright licensing organization in a decade-long investigation by the Department of Justice
- Led the investigation of Ticketmaster at the Department of Justice
- Led major, successful prosecution by United States Department of Justice of conspiracy among twenty-four leading market-makers in NASDAQ stocks, including Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J. P. Morgan Securities, Inc. who had conspired to maintain spreads between buying and selling prices of NASDAQ stocks
- Defended large telecommunications provider in multi-year litigation brought by competitive telecom carrier alleging monopolization of market for high speed data services
- Led successful investigation and prosecution of Salomon Bros Inc. and two hedge funds, Caxton Corporation and Steinhardt Partners, LP, to limit the supply of two-year Treasury notes to the “repo,” or “repurchase agreement,” market
- Successfully brought the Reagan Administrations ‘s first challenge to a merger (brewing industry)
- Successfully represented the United States in a litigated matter challenging field of use restrictions in patent licensing agreement in specialty chemicals
- Successfully represented the United States in challenge to professional rules of conduct limiting competition among accountants in Texas
- Successfully represented the United States in challenge to acquisition by Texaco, Inc. of an independent oil refining company
- Represented high-tech electronic service provider with respect to antitrust issues in a bet-the-company patent infringement case
- Represented sporting goods manufacturer in vacating a consent decree
- Represented leading music copyright pool in civil antitrust investigation leading to vacating of an earlier consent decree and modification of another consent decree
- Represented hospital CEO in litigation arising from denial of physician staff privileges
Antitrust Compliance Counseling:
- Advised large telecommunications provider on its price and product bundling
- Advised large telecom provider in connection with a joint venture of three carriers to entire the mobile payments market with mobile phones
- Advised major manufacturer of household appliances on antitrust compliance
- Advised major manufacturer of high-end kitchen appliances on antitrust compliance
- Advised major manufacturer of over-the-counter pharmaceutical on antitrust compliance
- Advised regional airport on state action doctrine and compliance with antitrust laws
- Advised national trade association on antitrust compliance and Noerr-Pennington doctrine
- Advised international shipping company on compliance regarding competition, fraud, and foreign corrupt practices
- Advised African government on contracting and anti-fraud and anti-corruption best practices
Other Civil Litigation:
- Represented Haiti in multinational investigation and litigation leading to the recovery of money stolen by its former president Jean-Claude Duvalier
- Represented developers in multiple appeals involving alleged illegal cooperative conversion terms
- Defended law firm in $10 million professional malpractice action
- Defended various healthcare providers in numerous different federal investigations of alleged fraud, related qui tam cases, and related whistleblower termination actions
- Defended CMS contractor in qui tam case
- Represented regional Medicare Advantage organization in suit against the U.S. Government
- Defended book distributor and publisher in defamation case
- Defended author in defamation case
- Represented gaming company in civil rights action relating to state gaming regulations
- Defended copyright and trademark owner in intellectual property litigation
- Defended local retailer of gray market goods in trademark infringement litigation
- Represented major multinational corporation in suit seeking refund of local corporate franchise tax
- Represented government contractor in appeal of denial of security clearance
- Defended employers in cases alleging violation of wage-and-hour statute
- Represented developers in multiple appeals involving alleged illegal cooperative conversion terms
- Defended employer in case alleging employment discrimination
- Defended employer in case alleging sexual harassment
- Defended employers in cases alleging unlawful discharge
Experience by Industry:
- Air Cargo
- Aircraft Parts (Domestic)
- Airlines
- Airport Contracts
- Automobile Dealers (Domestic)
- Airlines
- Asset Forfeiture
- Auction Rigging (Multiple Industries)
- Banking (International)
- Baked Goods (Domestic)
- Baking Soda
- Book Publishing
- Bridge Construction
- Carbon Products
- Caustic Soda
- Cell Towers (Domestic)
- Chemicals (Multiple Products, Domestic and International)
- Clothing and Textiles (Multiple Products, Domestic and International)
- Computer Software
- Construction (Domestic and International)
- Copyright and Trademark
- Dairy Products
- Deep sea Oil Platforms
- Democratization Programs
- Electrical Products
- Embassy Construction
- Engineering
- Export-Import Bank Clients (Multiple Industries, International)
- Food Service Contracts (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Financial Institutions (Domestic and International)
- Fire Protection Services
- Freight Forwarding (Domestic and International)
- Fuel Supply (Domestic and International)
- General Construction (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Government Contracts (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Graphite Electrodes
- Highway Construction
- Hospitals
- Housing Foreclosure Auctions (Domestic)
- Information Technology (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Industrial Gases (Domestic and Multiple Products)
- LIBOR
- Marine Contractors
- Medical Products (Multiple Products, Domestic and International)
- Metal Drums
- Military Insignia (International)
- Military Moving and Storage
- Mining and Related Products (Multiple Industries, Domestic)
- Motor Vehicles (Domestic)
- Municipal Bonds (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Nursing
- Ocean Shipping (International)
- Oilfield Supplies
- Pharmaceuticals (Multiple Products, Domestic and International)
- Polypropylene bags
- Rock Salt
- Seafood
- Security Contracts
- School District Contracts (Multiple Industries)
- Soda Ash
- Shipping (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Slag Removal
- Telecommunications
- Tobacco
- Translation Services
- Trucking
- US Agency for International Development Contractors and Grant Recipients
- Vitamins
- Warzone
- Waste Hauling
- Wholesale Groceries
- Wireless
- World Bank Contractors and Grant Recipients (International)
- Vitamins
Experience by Subject Matter:
- Antitrust (Civil and Criminal)
- Auction Rigging
- Bank Robberies (Domestic)
- Bank Fraud
- Bid-Rigging
- Bribery
- Buy American Act Violations
- Capital Crimes
- Cartels (Multiple Products, Domestic and International)
- Cash Smuggling (International, multiple procurements by multiple governments)
- Civil Merger and Non-Merger Cases (Multiple Products, Multiple Industries Domestic and International)
- Civil Rights Actions
- Competition Advocacy
- Contempt
- Contracting Fraud
- Corporate Defense (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Criminal Conspiracies
- Defamation
- Disaster Fraud
- Drug Cartels and Trafficking
- Embezzlement
- Employment Law
- False Claims
- False Statements
- Federal Trade Commission Matters
- Firearms and Weapons Offenses (Domestic and International)
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (Multiple Industries)
- Forgery
- Fuel Theft
- Grant Fraud (Multiple Industries, Multiple Agencies, Domestic and International)
- Hart-Scott-Rodino Pre-Merger Notification
- Health Care Fraud (Compliance, Organizational Defense, Whistleblowers)
- Kickbacks
- Identity Theft
- Intellectual Property
- Mail Fraud
- Market Allocation
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Money Laundering (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Monopolies (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Murder for Hire
- Non-governmental Organizations (International)
- Obstruction of Justice
- Overseas Contingency Operations
- Perjury
- Presidential Pardons
- Price Fixing
- Procurement Fraud (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Professional Malpractice Defense
- Public Corruption
- Qui Tam Matters
- Racketeering
- Securities Fraud
- Stark Violations
- Tax Fraud (International, Domestic and State)
- Territorial Allocation
- Webb-Pomerene Organizations (International)
- Weapons Offenses (Domestic and International)
- Whistleblowers (Multiple Industries, Domestic and International)
- Wire Fraud
- Witness Tampering
“Upstart Start-Up” GeyerGorey LLP Opens Dallas Office
“Rocketing from two to eleven attorneys in eight months, GeyerGorey LLP sports over 200 years of cross-disciplinary prosecutorial experience involving a host of domestic and international industries where each of its attorneys has worked on internal investigations and high stakes cases for an average of more than 20 years.”
For more, click the link below:
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Law360: GeyerGorey Opens In Dallas With Former DOJ Antitrust Ace
Law360: GeyerGorey Opens In Dallas With Former DOJ Antitrust Ace
By Alex Lawson
Law360, New York (August 07, 2013, 3:34 PM ET) — GeyerGorey LLP established its presence in Texas with a splash this week, securing the services of a former U.S. Department of Justice antitrust prosecutor to open its Dallas office, the firm announced Tuesday.
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Marshall added that the firm has a strong Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance program that she hopes to be heavily involved in.
While Marshall carries experience across a wide variety of industry sectors, senior partner Hays Gorey Jr. said her work in the energy sector will be of critical importance to the firm’s Texas operations.
“We are thrilled that Joan has decided to join us,” Gorey said. “She adds deep experience with numerous enforcement agencies and complements our experience in key industries like oil and gas exploration, not to mention the fraud piece.”
At DOJ, Marshall gained notoriety for her work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when she led the Antitrust Division’s bribery prosecutions centering on the construction of the levees surrounding New Orleans. She also served on the agency’s Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force, which was eventually rolled into the broader-reaching Disaster Fraud Task Force.
Firm co-founder Brad Geyer said Marshall’s work in the disaster fraud arena would dovetail nicely with the firm’s existing portfolio.
“We are very involved in servicing the government contractor and the nonprofit and nongovernmental organization community and we are excited to roll in Joan’s disaster fraud experience into our overall product offerings,” Geyer said. “It is also unusual to have career prosecutors in one firm that worked on the highest profile matters on both the criminal and civil worlds.”
Marshall received her law degree from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of North Texas.
–Editing by Katherine Rautenberg.
MainJustice.Com “Former Prosecutor from Shuttered Antitrust Division Office Joins White Collar Firm”
Noted Antitrust and Disaster Fraud Prosecutor Joan E. Marshall Joins GeyerGorey LLP
Joan Marshall who prosecuted the worldwide vitamins cartel and brought a series of fraud cases in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, has joined the firm as a partner. Previously, Ms. Marshall was with the US DOJ Antitrust Division in the Dallas Field Office. She is the tenth former DOJ prosecutor to join the new boutique law firm in less than a year.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Aug. 6, 2013 – WASHINGTON, D.C. — GeyerGorey LLP is pleased to announce that Joan E. Marshall, a former Department of Justice prosecutor, has joined the firm as partner. Ms. Marshall will open a new office for the firm, in Dallas, where she will be resident.
Ms. Marshall comes to GeyerGorey from the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, where she also served as a prosecutor on the Department’s Disaster Fraud Task Force and its predecessor, the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force. While with the Department of Justice, Ms. Marshall supervised numerous multi-agency investigations of bid rigging, price fixing, mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, bribery, perjury and obstruction of justice.
Ms. Marshall had the distinction of breaking the Dallas Field Office’s acclaimed vitamins cartel case and helped to devise, structure and carry out what became one of the most comprehensive international investigations and prosecutions of all time, resulting in more than $1 billion in collected criminal fines. She led the Antitrust Division’s bribery prosecutions involving construction of the levees surrounding New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Her experience spans investigations and prosecutions involving numerous industries including wholesale groceries, milk, seafood, medical equipment, oilfield supplies, military moving and storage, road and building construction, and municipal finance.
“We are thrilled that Joan has decided to join us,” said Hays Gorey. “She adds deep experience with numerous enforcement agencies and compliments our experience in key industries like oil and gas exploration, not to mention the fraud piece. Our corporate compliance and competition expertise is a perfect fit in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market, which has the largest concentration of corporate headquarters in the United States.”
Ms. Marshall is a frequent speaker on antitrust enforcement and fraud prevention and detection and has developed numerous training programs. She is a recipient of the United States Department of Justice, Assistant Attorney General’s Award and certificates of appreciation from the United States Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, and the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, Major Procurement Fraud Unit.
Robert Zastrow, who was Verizon’s Assistant General Counsel for 15 years before co-founding the firm in October 2012, added, “Joan’s extensive background and expertise nicely complements our firm’s unique philosophy and enriches our solid bench in the White Collar world.” Co-founder, Brad Geyer added: “We are very involved in servicing the government contractor and the non-profit and non-governmental organization community and we are excited to roll in Joan’s disaster fraud experience into our overall product offerings. It is also unusual to have career prosecutors in one firm that worked on the highest profile matters on both the criminal and civil worlds. Joan will give us a strategic presence in the Dallas market, which is home to companies in the airline, technology, energy, banking, medical and defense contracting sectors.”
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., GeyerGorey LLP specializes in white collar criminal defense, particularly investigations and cases involving allegations of economic crimes, such as violations of the federal antitrust laws (price fixing, bid rigging, territorial and customer allocation agreements), procurement fraud, securities fraud, foreign bribery (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and qui tam (False Claims Act) and other whistleblower actions. The firm also conducts internal investigations of possible criminal conduct and provides advice regarding compliance with U.S. antitrust, anti-bribery and other laws.
DLA Piper’s Robert Connolly pens MLEX article regarding “The DOJ Antitrust Division’s policy on independent compliance monitors: is it misguided?”
Friend of the Firm, Robert Connolly, former Chief of the Philadelphia Field Office of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, now resident in DLA Piper’s Philadelphia Office last week penned an important contribution for MLEX regarding DOJ’s evolving policy regarding compliance monitors: “The DOJ Antitrust Divsion’s policy on independent compliance monitors: is it misguided?”
Maurice Stucke: Looking at Monopsony in the Mirror 62 Emory L.J. 1509 (2013)
Although still a distant second to monopoly, buyer power and monopsony are hot topics in the competition community. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Competition Network (ICN), and American Antitrust Institute (AAI) have studied monopsony and buyer power recently. The U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission pay more attention to buyer power in their 2010 merger guidelines than they did in their earlier guidelines. With growing buyer concentration in commodities such as coffee, tea, and cocoa, and among retailers, buyer power is a human rights issue. (Continue Reading)
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