The Criminal Litigation Committee is concerned with the defense and prosecution of complex white-collar cases and regulatory enforcement matters. Substantive fields covered by the committee's jurisdiction include procurement fraud, banking offenses, tax fraud, securities offenses, environmental crimes, program fraud and forfeitures, economic crimes and official corruption, and civil and criminal RICO. Procedural areas include grand jury reform, government investigative procedures, and guideline sentencing.

The committee sponsors CLE programs and subcommittee luncheons with guest speakers, and it reviews and comments on proposed legislation. Geographic subcommittees are operating in Washington DC, St. Louis, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, Kansas City, Seattle, Newark, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, South Florida, Baltimore, Jackson, Phoenix, Tampa, Denver, Dallas, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

On July 9, 2008, as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee was conducting an oversight hearing on the Justice Department, Attorney General Mukasey announced that the Department of Justice is in the process of revising the Department's Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, also known as the "McNulty Memorandum."

In April 2008, the Criminal Litigation Committee sponsored two programs at the Section of Litigation Annual Conference. Both programs focused on matters of great relevance to recent developments in our criminal justice system and were widely attended. Materials from the two programs include:

» Congressional Investigations: Understanding and Surviving the Potential Pitfalls | 
» Crossing the Line: Responding to Prosecutorial Misconduct | 

On June 2, 2008, the Supreme Court decided Cuellar v. United States, narrowing the reach of the federal money laundering statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1956. At issue was the meaning of the statute's prohibition against transporting money from the United States to another country.

Each month in our Case Notes area, we highlight interesting criminal law decisions, indictments, SEC orders, and other significant criminal law announcements, providing links to the relevant documents wherever possible. The May 2008 edition is now available.

» Read May Month in Review |