Major Wall Street banks have taken part in a more than decadelong, multibillion-dollar scheme to manipulate the benchmark prices used to value credit default swap contracts at settlement, New Mexico's State Investment Council has alleged in a new proposed antitrust class action.  
 

Did you know there is more than one False Claims Act? States all across the country passed their own versions, with some being even more robust than the original law!

On today’s Fraud in America, we examined New York’s False Claims Act, which has a provision allowing whistleblowers to alert the state to tax frauds. Randy Fox and David Koenigsberg are two lawyers who’ve won big tax cases, recovering millions of dollars for the state. They discuss how the New York False Claims Act works, how these cases are different from typical False Claims Act cases, and whether this law could work at a federal level.

The New York Legislature passed a bill that would expand the state's False Claims Act to hold taxpayers liable for failing to file state returns, as opposed to only for providing false records.

Maryland residents who suspect tax fraud would be able to tip off the state tax agency and receive a monetary reward if the agency recovered money, in an IRS-like program approved by state lawmakers and sent to the state's governor.

In 2010, New York amended its False Claims Act to enable whistleblowers to sue individual and corporate defendants with a net income or sales exceeding $1 million that cheated on their taxes in excess of $350,000. Other states are considering similar legislation. Randall Fox of Kirby McInerney LLP debunks some common fallacies regarding the New York law.

New York’s record $105 million fraud settlement against a hedge fund billionaire is sparking renewed interest in aggressive state whistleblower laws to bust tax cheats and replenish coffers emptied by the pandemic.

New York state is going after businesses that help their clients and customers avoid taxes using the state’s False Claims Act. The targets include such esteemed businesses as Sotheby’s and its wealthy clients. Randall Fox of Kirby McInerney tells how Sotheby’s allegedly ran afoul of the Act and explains how the state is pursuing facilitators of tax fraud.

A New York federal judge on Friday consolidated seven proposed class actions alleging JPMorgan Chase has been illegally spoofing the futures market since 2009 and appointed Lowey Dannenberg PC and Kirby McInerney LLP as interim lead co-counsel.

A Manhattan federal judge appointed law firms Lowey Dannenberg and Kirby McInerney as lead counsel for proposed class action litigation accusing JP Morgan of deceptive trading in the treasury futures markets.  In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer cited the two firms’ experience litigating large commodities lawsuits, implicitly rejecting an argument by competitors Nussbaum Law Group (NLG) and Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check that such an appointment would allow “repeat players” to dominate, which has been identified as a problem by some courts.

A Spanish attorney and officials with an international legal nonprofit told a D.C. federal court on Friday they struck a deal to settle claims that board members blocked him from assuming his duties as the organization's president after he was elected.

The exchange-based investor class, represented by attorneys at Kirby McInerney LLP and Lovell Stewart Halebian Jacobson LLP, won initial approval of a $187 million settlement with Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and five other big banks in a complex, multidistrict case claiming that the banks rigged the London Interbank Offered Rate benchmark.

Kirby McInerney Partner Randall Fox was quoted in this Bloomberg Tax article about tax-related false claims suits. California, Michigan, and the District of Columbia are considering bills that add tax code violations to the list of actionable frauds coming under their false claims laws. Mr. Fox notes that New York’s tax whistleblower law has resulted in “very stong and important cases.”

Kirby McInerney filed a response in support of interim lead counsel motion highlighting the firm’s experience and rigorous investigation regarding the direct impact on proposed class members in both the bitcoin and bitcoin related futures markets.

Unclaimed property operations and compliance managers at US financial firms will soon find out that the task is more difficult than they thought should JP Morgan Chase lose its appeal of a New York civil court judge’s ruling about the bank’s required interest payment on unclaimed accounts reported late to New York State.

Kirby McInerney Partner Meghan Summers recently presented a report before the Chief Justice of Ireland. The report, which Ms. Summers co-authored, focuses on how class actions could be implemented in Ireland.

One of the biggest names in crypto has joined in an ongoing argument about who will lead the class-action suit against Bitfinex and its affiliates over alleged market manipulation leading to Bitcoin’s 2017 bull run. 

Kirby McInerney filed a motion for interim lead counsel in the recently consolidated case in the Southern District of New York, highlighting the firm’s in-depth pre-filing investigation of market participants in consultation with experienced experts.

The Southern District of New York consolidated a case brought by Kirby McInerney and three others that all concern the manipulation of Bitcoin prices by cryptocurrency companies, costing investors hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Moody’s has reached a settlement with New York-based law firm Kirby McInerney after it was accused of underpaying New York State and New York City business taxes between 2002 and 2014. Moody’s is alleged to have mischaracterised its income as premiums to its captive, Moody’s Assurance Company (MAC).

Christopher Studebaker, Partner, and Yasuo Inada, Foreign Attorney, co-authored this article that provides a brief overview of discovery under federal law and outlines steps that the legal/IT departments in Japanese companies should undertake to ensure compliance with federal discovery obligations both before and during litigation.  The article is published (in Japanese) in a Japanese newspaper.

Christopher Studebaker, Partner, and Sawa Nagano, Of Counsel, co-authored this article discussing recent trends in ADR issuances and post-Morrison cases involving ADRs.  The article is published (in Japanese) in a leading Japanese legal news service.

Christopher Studebaker, Partner, and Sawa Nagano, Of Counsel, co-authored this article discussing recent trends in ADR issuances and post-Morrison cases involving ADRs.  The article is published (in Japanese) in a leading Japanese legal news service.

Kirby McInerney and Glancy Prongay & Murray asked a California federal court Thursday for roughly $2 million in fees for their efforts securing a tentative $8 million from data storage company Quantum Corp. to resolve a shareholder lawsuit over its accounting practices.

Kirby McInerney Partner Randall Fox represents a whistleblower client in a case against JPMorgan Chase alleging that Chase held $60 million worth of unclaimed assets longer than it should have, depriving the state of about $12 million in interest income over roughly two years.

The Third Circuit on Thursday revived fraud claims brought under state law by investors that opted out of class actions involving Merck & Co. Inc.’s statements about cholesterol drugs. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co. could be on the hook for millions in unpaid interest and penalties for delaying transfers of unclaimed property to the state of New York following a first-of-a-kind state court ruling.

A Minnesota federal court ruled Wednesday that some of the country’s largest meatpacking companies, including Tyson and Cargill, will now face consolidated allegations of colluding to drive down prices of cattle used for beef production.

Up next on Judge Buchwald’s docket is the distribution agreement of $182 million worth of deals the exchange-based plaintiffs struck with Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JP Morgan.

Charles Schwab Corp. and investors in financial instruments tied to the London Interbank Offered Rate on Friday urged the Second Circuit to reinstate claims against a slew of banks over their alleged manipulation of the benchmark, arguing they have proper antitrust standing and that the litigation belongs in U.S. federal courts.

A Manhattan federal judge on Friday approved a $182.5 million settlement between JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup and investors who accuse the two megabanks of rigging a key euro rate, signing off also on a roughly $36 million haul for plaintiffs’ firms that brought the antitrust class action.

Three Nassau residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against the county on behalf of non-white property owners who they contend were forced to bear the property tax burden of wealthier, white communities due to county policies beginning in 2010.  Kirby McInerney represents the plaintiffs.

Mobile giant Sprint Corp. will pay $330 million to resolve a New York False Claims Act suit that accused the company of shirking $100 million in state taxes, with almost $63 million of that sum going to a whistleblower, the state attorney general said Friday.

Settling with the state, Spa Castle is going to pay $2.5 million in civil damages and criminal restitution over a tax fraud scheme, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood and Acting Department of Taxation and Finance Commissioner Nonie Manion announced last Thursday.  “This is a case where tax cheaters would have stayed under the radar had it not been for a brave whistleblower reporting on the fraud,” Randall Fox of Kirby McInerney LLP, one of the two attorneys who represented the source.

Kirby McInerney Partner Mark Strauss is quoted in this article about the Third Circuit’s recent decision that banks can’t push clients out of FINRA arbitration.

A Third Circuit panel ruled Tuesday that J.P. Morgan Securities must arbitrate a Pennsylvania health system’s claims over several pre-2008 auction rate securities offerings, finding the system hadn’t waived its right to arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority by signing on to agreements with clauses pegging New York’s Southern District as the forum for any disputes.

Kirby McInerney Partner Meghan Summers authored an article published in Law360 about the erosion of American Pipe tolling of the statute of limitations.

Thanks to 2010 amendments to New York’s False Claims Act, whistleblowers can receive incentive awards of 15 to 30 percent of the government's recovery for bringing actions — called “qui tam” actions — on behalf of the government to help recover tax monies lost by fraud.

The suit was filed last week in Brooklyn state court by several small New York distributors of cigarettes and other candy store items — Amsterdam Tobacco, Donohue Candy, Kingston Candy, Mountain Candy and Sunrise Candy — claiming that bigger out-of-state distributors for years have been allegedly giving kickbacks to stores that buy cigarettes from them.

A lawsuit filed this week accuses five of the state’s largest tobacco wholesalers of giving secret rebates to customers to drive down competition as part of an alleged scheme which may have violated state laws that set minimum prices on cigarettes.

A recently leaked memo setting out circumstances for when U.S. Department of Justice attorneys should use its rarely invoked authority to ask for “meritless” qui tam False Claims Act cases to be dismissed could foreshadow a more aggressive DOJ approach to dismissals, but proof will only come from seeing its future actions, attorneys said.

Kirby McInerney Partner Mark Strauss authored this article on a whistleblower lawsuit involving customs fraud.  Federal prosecutors in New York recently announced the settlement of a remarkable lawsuit relating to a scheme to evade import duties.  The case involved an importer’s undervaluation of apparel to pay less duties than were really owed.

A recent, little-noticed decision in the New York Supreme Court has confirmed that the tax provisions of New York’s False Claims Act apply not only to persons and companies that cheat on the tax returns they submit, but also to those who knowingly skirt their obligations by entirely failing to file any New York Tax returns.

Fraud-related claims usually must be pled with particularity. But in a little-noticed provision at the end of New York’s False Claims Act, Sec.192(1-a), the New York legislature provided for a lower pleading hurdle when asserting violations of New York’s FCA in state court.

Kirby McInerney Partner Mark Strauss published an article in Supply and Demand Chain Executive regarding the use of U.S. Whistleblower laws under the current administration.

Kirby McInerney Partner Mark Strauss authored the attached editorial for Global Trade Magazine regarding whistleblower law under the current administration.