Breaking News: Lawyers to benefit from misdeeds of corporate executives, public officials

Here is a small but rather interesting article concerning white collar crime from Crain's Detroit Business:
"Criminal defense lawyers, even those representing white-collar defendants, once were mostly trial specialists and usually practiced solo or in small firms.

Their reputations earned them major clients and cases, often referred from large firms that wanted to keep the stigma of criminal litigation away from their business clients.
But times have changed.

Stakes are higher as federal investigations increasingly target companies and top corporate officials. And such cases generate major revenue."

FCPA: China to Bankroll Attorney For US, Canada

This is from the Proivincea newspaper in British Columbia, Canada, but I am certain the topic applies to American companies as well. If this article is accurate, and FCPA investigations continue at the pace they are, expect to see many more FCPA cases in the future.

"Corruption has become part of China's "business ethic," and B.C.'s Asian-trade boom puts pressure on companies here to commit white-collar crime, the province's top fraud cop warns.

But B.C. Mounties are ill-equipped even for the battle against existing levels of commercial crime, RCMP Supt. Gordon McRae says.

McRae made the comments at an anti-fraud conference in Vancouver this week.
He cited the Chinese business principle of guanxi, an exchange of favours that can include "tit-for-tat" commercial exchanges illegal in Canada.

He used as an example the hypothetical scenario of a Canadian businessman securing a contract by purchasing a house so "some executive's son" can go to the University of B.C.

"Our business people are going to get these pressures," McRae said. "The temptations are there."

China isn't the only country with unpalatable business practices, McRae said, noting that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto was fined for bribing an Indonesian official in 2002."

White Collar Crime: Monster.com finding innovative ways to find work for Lawyers

From CFO.com

"The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former controller and the former president of Monster Worldwide Inc. for their alleged roles in a multiyear scheme to secretly backdate stock options for thousands of Monster officers, directors, and employees.

The SEC complaint alleges that former Monster president and chief operating officer James J. Treacy, along with former controller Anthony Bonica, participated in a scheme that began in 1997. The company stock options were fraudulently backdated to coincide with the dates of low closing prices for the New York-based company's shares, the SEC said."