New Standards in the PCAOB

Posted by Kimberly Culcay. In the article, “What the PCAOB’s new related-party standard means for auditors,” Maria L. Murphy captures the new standard put in place by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The new standard will require auditors to perform specific procedures that are intended to strengthen auditor performance in high-risk areas, such …

Prevalence of Health Care Fraud

Posted by Sabrina Gilliam Formey. Health care fraud may be more extensive than fraud in other industries because deception branches from an assorted group of players; those players being insurance companies, pharmacists, providers, suppliers, health care vendors, health care provider employees, physicians, specialists, and patients.  To compound the problem, some of those players are not only …

Sacramento Kings Limited Partnership LP v. M-F Athletic Co. Inc.

Posted by Abigail Hofmann. Francisco Garcia of the Sacramento Kings was lifting weights on a Ledraplastic exercise ball on October 9th, 2009. The 195 pound player was lifting two 80 pound weights while on the ball when it suddenly burst beneath him. This supposed “burst resistant” ball advertised its ability to withstand weight up to …

Default Judgement Against BofA for $1 Million

Bank of America must pay a Florida couple for failing to answer a harassment complaint.  The couple received relentless phone calls from the bank regarding past due payments on a mortgage. BofA alleged the calls “were not to collect debt, but help the couple avoid foreclosure.”  The couple, however, claimed they received about 700 calls over a four year …

NY Fed Whistleblower Could Prompt Congressional Investigation

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has come under fire recently with the release of secret tapes supposedly of regulators planning to “go soft” on Goldman Sachs.  Carmen Segarra, a former employee who was assigned to Goldman, claims in a lawsuit that she was under pressure by her superiors to overlook certain findings she made concerning the …

Bad “Yelp” Reviews Should be Protected by the First Amendment

Posted by Jen Suarez. To what extent is defamation? From my last blog article, I defined defamation as “malicious and damaging misrepresentation,” where an organization was falsely accused of rape. However, can anyone play to the “defamation card” if they don’t like what other’s have to say? For example, Yelp.com is a website where consumers …

Cyber Attacks on Corporations – The “New War”

Hacking into computer systems is nothing new, and government and businesses alike have always been aware that they must be one step ahead of computer criminals. But the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment was more than that. It was a shot across the bow in what appears to be a potentially rampant future form of warfare. As …

Dewey & LeBoeuf’s Fraud

Posted by Bridget Uribe. During the month of March of 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged three executives: Chairman Steven Davis, Executive Director Stephen DiCarmine, and Chief Financial Officer Joel Sanders of Dewey & LeBoeuf, the international law firm, with facilitating a $150 million fraudulent bond offerings. The SEC alleged that the three …

District Court Archives – Blog Business Law – a resource for business law students

Posted by Aitana Robinson. The battle between Spirit and Led Zeppelin continues in the copyright infringement case over “Stairway to Heaven.” This past July 8th the District Court of California- Western Division, found in favor of the defendants, Zeppelin.  On the 15th of March, Attorney Francis Malfoy filled in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals representing Michael …