Rachel Maimin, partner in Lowenstein’s White Collar Defense practice and former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, is interviewed on ABC News’ Nightline Impact about the wire fraud conviction of  Jen Shah from “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City”  for her role in a national telemarketing scheme that victimized hundreds of elderly people. Maimin recalls her own previous work prosecuting drug cartels, noting: “A lot of time criminals speak in code when they’re trying to hide what they are doing. Same thing with fraud operations…. [Shah] didn’t seem to observe any kinds of safeguards. I think she thought she was above being caught.” (subscription required to watch)

Michael B. Himmel, Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense practice, comments in Anti-Corruption Report on the deferred prosecution agreement entered into by Honeywell UOP, a U.S. subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., resolving charges of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in an alleged bribe to a former Petrobras executive. Himmel notes that the Department of Justice [DOJ] has outlined “certain suggestions that corporations should follow if they want to maximize damage control if they get caught up in criminal conduct. One of the things that [Deputy Attorney General Lisa] Monaco talked about was the notion of giving information to the DOJ, and the SEC, too, that the government is not aware of. Honeywell did that.” Honeywell UOP avoided criminal conviction and the imposition of a monitor, even though it did not voluntarily disclose.

In Human Resource Executive, Julie Levinson Werner predicts pushback to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposal to ban noncompetes, noting that for over a century this issue has been a matter of state law. “HR professionals and employers need to keep an eye on what’s going on, but legal action is virtually guaranteed,” she says. Werner compares the situation to OSHA’s COVID vaccine mandate, which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, “If OSHA, in the middle of a pandemic, doesn’t have the legal authority to impose a rule to protect public health, you have to question the degree to which the FTC would have the legal authority to say that noncompetes should be banned,” she says. Werner also speaks to BioWorld about how the proposed rule may affect the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. “With noncompetes off the table, biopharma and med-tech R&D could be at stake, because there would be nothing stopping a scientist from leaving the company and recreating something comparable while that information is still fresh.” She adds: “The inability to use a noncompete agreement for certain employees could impact proprietary sales strategies and business plans. It also could limit a biopharma or med-tech company’s ability to raise capital and affect future transactions…it could [also] dampen investment.”