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Ng Files Motion To Dismiss

By on November 25, 2020 in Agency Issues, Deferred Prosecution Agreements, Due Process Issues, FCPA Trial, FCPA Trials, Goldman Sachs, Internal Controls, Internal Investigation Issues, Muzzle Clause, Roger Ng, Tim Leissner
RogerNg

As highlighted in this prior post, in November 2018 the DOJ criminally charged former Goldman Sachs executives Tim Leissner and Ng Chong Hwa (Roger Ng) (along with Low Taek Jho – Jho Low) with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offenses for paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials in connection with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s state-owned and state-controlled investment development company.

Leissner pleaded guilty and in October Goldman Sachs resolved a net $1.66 billion FCPA enforcement action based on the same conduct. (See additional posts here and here).

Ng is mounting a defense and recently filed this motion to dismiss (an entire section of which is redacted). As highlighted below, Ng argues that the DOJ’s case against him suffers from several factual errors and legal deficiencies. Ng also suggests that the DOJ scripted Leissner’s guilty plea and that Goldman’s DPA was entered into for reasons of risk aversion and otherwise compromises his ability to defend himself.

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Judge Orders New Trial For Baptiste And Boncy Based On Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel

By on March 12, 2020 in FCPA Trial, FCPA Trials, Joseph Baptiste, Roger Boncy
Judicial Decision

As highlighted in this previous post, in 2017 (in connection with an undercover string) the DOJ unsealed criminal charges against Joseph Baptiste (a retired U.S. Army Colonel, practicing dentist, and founder / president of a Maryland-based Haitian focused non-profit) for alleged Haitian bribery. As highlighted in this previous post, in 2018 the DOJ added criminal charges against Roger Boncy in connection with the same core conduct.

Unlike most individual FCPA defendants, Baptiste and Boncy put the DOJ to its burden of proof. As highlighted in this previous post, in June 2019, after a two-week jury trial, a federal jury in Boston found Baptiste guilty of one count of violating the Travel Act and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and Boncy guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and the Travel Act. Thereafter, in post-trial motions the defendants sought an acquittal or a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel. (See here).

Earlier today, in this decision, U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs (D. Mass.) granted Baptiste and Boncy a new trial.

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Judicially Ordered Acquittals In FCPA Trials

By on March 4, 2020 in FCPA Trial, FCPA Trials, Judicially Ordered Acquittals, Uncategorized
Judicial Decision

As highlighted in this post, recently a federal trial court judge granted Lawrence Hoskins’s post-trial motion for acquittal on all FCPA charges.

Obtaining a judicially ordered acquittal (whether post-trial as in the Hoskins matter or at some other stage of a trial such as after the prosecution’s case in chief) rarely happens given the high burden a defendant has in seeking such an extraordinary remedy.

Yet, as highlighted in this post, judicially ordered acquittals have happened in several other individual FCPA prosecutions. These occurrences are notable given the relative infrequency of FCPA trials.

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Hoskins Seeks Judgment Of Acquittal Or New Trial

By on December 5, 2019 in FCPA Trial, FCPA Trials, Lawrence Hoskins
Judicial Decision

As highlighted in this prior post, last month Lawrence Hoskins (a United Kingdom national and former senior vice president for the Asia region for France-based Alstom) was found guilty of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related offenses “for his role in a multi-year, multimillion-dollar foreign bribery scheme and a related money laundering scheme.”

The long-drawn out case has had many interesting twists and turns as Hoskins was charged in 2013 for conduct that occurred between 2002 and 2004. Moreover, as highlighted in prior posts, both the trial court and Second Circuit rejected the DOJ’s expansive jurisdiction enforcement theory against the foreign national. Nevertheless, the case was allowed to proceed to trial largely on the factual issue of whether Hoskins was “an agent of a domestic concern.” Continue Reading

Lambert Convicted – Appeal Likley

By on November 22, 2019 in FCPA Trial, FCPA Trials, Mark Lambert
lambert

As highlighted in this prior post, in January 2018 the DOJ announced that Mark Lambert (a former co-president of Transport Logistics International) was criminally charged with FCPA and related violations concerning the same underlying bribery scheme alleged in prior enforcement actions involving Vadim Mikerin (an alleged Russian “foreign official”) and Daren Condrey.

Earlier today, Lambert was convicted “for his role in a scheme to bribe an official at a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and on related fraud and conspiracy charges.”

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