Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Andrea Kay Smith, who kept the books for the bribes paid to surgeons at the now defunct Forest Park Medical Center, was sentenced Wednesday in a Dallas federal court. Smith testified about the scheme as part of a plea bargain with federal prosecutors. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso reports.
Federal prosecutors filed a 179-page brief this week challenging demands for a new trial by seven defendants convicted in the Forest Park Medical Center bribery and kickback scheme. Suffice it to say: they are against any new proceedings. Mark Curriden has the details.
Judge Alexandra Smoots-Thomas has been removed from her bench without pay after she was indicted on federal wire fraud charges for allegedly misspending campaign donations.
A Harris County judge is facing federal charges that accuse her of using campaign donations for personal expenses, including for mortgage payments, private school tuition and travel.
Houston-based cell tower company Crown Castle has received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requesting certain documents from 2015 through the present, primarily related to accounting policies
The new head of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office says there are changes upon us. Cryptocurrency fraud is all the rage, oil and gas offering fraud is blase. SEC enforcement lawyers are getting more aggressive with witnesses and targets earlier in cases. Whistleblowers with evidence of corporate fraud are being more warmly welcomed. And a new, but not nearly as funny, Twitter feed is in the works.
Companies that experience major environmental and workplace incidents are facing increasing scrutiny, including criminal investigations, according to lawyers who represent corporations involved in crisis situations. Baker Botts partners Greg Dillard and Scott Elliott say that public repercussions for businesses experiencing serious environmental, health and safety issues has expanded significantly, especially those involving workplace deaths.
Plano-based AdvoCare International and its former chief executive officer will pay $150 million to settle charges that the company operated as an illegal pyramid scheme, the Federal Trade Commission announced
Four physicians convicted earlier this year in the Forest Park Medical Center bribery and kickback trial have been suspended by the Texas Medical Board. The suspensions are not final, but they are mandatory while the convictions are being appealed. Bruce Tomaso has the details.
HOUSTON - Nine men and three women found Houston attorney Jack Stephen Pursley guilty of three counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States late Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
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