Tag Archives: Robertson Park

Experts Discuss the Implications of the Supreme Court’s Recent Expansion of Federal Fraud Liability

Editor’s Note: PCCE has been following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kousisis v. United States, which, unlike recent cases narrowing the scope of white collar crimes, appears to have expanded the reach of the federal mail and wire fraud statutes. In this post, PCCE invited leading white collar practitioners to discuss the implications of the Court’s decision.

Left to right: Robertston Park, Alexandra Marinzel, Helen Cantwell, Winston Paes, and Mark Krotoski (photos courtesy of the authors)

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White Collar Experts Discuss New DOJ Criminal Enforcement Priorities (Part II)

Editor’s Note: PCCE has been following the Trump Administration’s new approach to corporate criminal enforcement. In this post, which is the second in a 2-part series, PCCE invited leading white collar practitioners to discuss the new enforcement priorities and revisions to the DOJ Criminal Division’s Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (CEP) outlined by Matthew Galeotti, Head of the Criminal Division for the DOJ, in a speech at the SIFMA Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Conference on May 12, 2025.

Left to right: Robertson Park, Elizabeth Roper, and Maria Piontkovska (photos courtesy of the authors)

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The Trump Administration’s Changes to White Collar Enforcement Are Transformative, Not Cyclical

by Robertson Park

Photo courtesy of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

When Administrations change, it is inevitable that there will be new leadership and priorities which inform their actions. This applies across governmental functions, and the Department of Justice has never been exempted. I served in the Department — both in the USAO (DC) and in Main Justice (Fraud) — under Presidents Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, and Obama. My wife served for almost 20 years in the Public Integrity Section under similarly diverse leadership. Joseph DiGenova was my US Attorney, and AG Edwin Meese signed my Criminal Division Appointment. I worked under Attorneys General as diverse as Edwin Meese, Bill Barr, Janet Reno, and Eric Holder. Sometimes the changes in the Department were substantial, and at others they were more nuanced. But the impact on traditional white-collar investigations and enforcement was generally reflected in shifts toward new initiatives and away from others, while not altering the fundamental landscape of white-collar enforcement. In those years, white-collar practice moved through procurement fraud, the Savings and Loan Crisis, invigoration of foreign bribery enforcement, health care, and more sophisticated forms of financial and market fraud.

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Reflections from the 2025 ABA White Collar Crime Conference: Evaluating the Implications of the New Administration’s Enforcement Priorities

by Robertson Park

Photo courtesy of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

The 2025 ABA White Collar Crime Conference in Miami drew a large audience of more than 1,300 lawyers and another several hundred attending the evening’s events — and yet there was not a single DOJ representative. This reflects the amorphous and challenged state of DOJ leadership. I have not enough fingers to count the close generational friends and senior DOJ leaders who have been terminated, transferred, or forced out. Natural questions about who is leading and where, and how they propose to get there were unanswered. The White-Collar Bar have become advocates for those who have been our foils. The “Regulators Speak” presentation reflected the fraught state of affairs. The new CFTC Director of Enforcement and the Acting SEC Associate Director of Enforcement spoke and certainly professed that while certain priorities may shift the fundamental effort to protect market integrity would continue, though the SEC representative confirmed that they will be abiding by the FCPA stand-down. This presentation was met by an individual audience member who took the microphone to cast a broadside against the new Administration.

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Crypto Experts React to Recent SDNY Ethereum Fraud Indictment

The NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) is following the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York’s recent indictment of two individuals for allegedly attacking and stealing $25 million from the Ethereum blockchain. The indictment in the case, United States v. Peraire-Bueno, 24 Cr. 293 (SDNY), is available here. Below, several crypto experts and former prosecutors provide their reactions to the case.

Left to right: Maria Vullo, Daniel Payne, Elizabeth Roper, Usman Sheikh, Justin Herring, and Robertson Park (photos courtesy of the authors)

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Former CFTC Enforcement Officials Comment on the CFTC’s New Enforcement Advisory

Left to Right: Panelists David Meister, Douglas Yatter, Elizabeth Davis, Jennifer Arlen (moderator), and James McDonald (©Myaskovsky: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau)

On October 17, 2023, the NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) hosted Ian McGinley, the Director of Enforcement for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to announce updated enforcement guidance to CFTC staff on penalties, monitors, and admissions. Director McGinley’s remarks (available here) were followed by a fireside chat and moderated Q&A with questions from the audience, and later by a moderated panel of former CFTC enforcement directors and senior enforcement counsel. The updated staff guidance is available here. In this post, the panelists from the event offer additional commentary on the guidance.

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SEC Settles Ransomware Disclosure Charges for $3 Million

by Michael T. Borgia, Alexander Sisto, and Robertson Park

From left to right: Michael T. Borgia, Robertson Park, and Alexander Sisto. (Photos courtesy of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) has ordered Blackbaud, Inc. (“Blackbaud”) to pay $3 million to resolve claims that it made materially misleading statements about a 2020 ransomware attack and failed to maintain adequate disclosure controls related to cybersecurity. The SEC’s March 9, 2023 order and accompanying press release focuses on three allegedly material misstatements: Blackbaud’s failure to correct a statement on its website that the attack did not compromise bank account information or Social Security numbers—even after Blackbaud personnel investigating the attack found clear information to the contrary; the company’s failure to disclose the compromise of that sensitive data in a Form 10-K; and the company’s cybersecurity risk statement in its Form 10-Q characterizing the risk of sensitive data exfiltration as merely hypothetical, despite knowing that exfiltration of unencrypted bank account information, Social Security numbers, and usernames and/or passwords had occurred as a result of the ransomware attack.

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Regulatory Priorities at the ABA White Collar Conference: Market Protection, Crypto, and ESG

Editor’s Note: the NYU Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement is publishing reactions to the American Bar Association’s annual White Collar Crime National Institute in Miami on March 2 and 3, 2023.

by Robertson Park

Robertson Park (photo courtesy of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)

The ABA White Collar Conference this year offered a slightly more forthcoming group of government agency representatives from the DOJ, SEC, and the CFTC. Maybe it was the lifting of the pandemic fog, and maybe it was the March heat in Miami, but it was certainly a more assertive and transparent government narrative. The arc is clearly up across the enforcement and regulatory landscape. The enforcement panel reminded me of the movie The Graduate, where Dustin Hoffman is presented the distilled single word of advice –“Plastics.” The enforcers weren’t focused on one word of advice, but equally focused on several — “protect markets” — “Crypto”— and “ESG.” The first two are already apparent in ongoing and recent investigations and prosecutions. The latter presents a more troubling landscape for companies.

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Former Federal Prosecutors React to Changes in the DOJ Criminal Division’s Corporate Enforcement Policy

Editor’s Note: The NYU School of Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) is following the recently announced changes to the Corporate Enforcement Policy of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Criminal Division. In this post, several former federal prosecutors provide their reactions.

The image provides photos of the authors

Top row from left to right: Andrew Weissmann, Glen McGorty, Rebecca Ricigliano, and Steven Feldman
Bottom row from left to right: Lara Burke, Robertson Park, and Kristy Greenberg

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