WCC (1/11/21)

Assignment
• For today, you should have read pp. 1-20 (Ch.
1 – Overview)
• For next Wed., please read pp. 21-39 (Ch. 2 –
Corporate and Individual Liability)
 Issues
• Course syllabus
• Ch. 1 – Overview of WCC (pp. 1-20)
Syllabus is on Moodle
 Laptops
• You may not use a laptop.
• Please take notes with pen and paper.
 Other Technology
• All mobile devices are to be turned off and
hidden away before class and not to be
retrieved, no less turned on or looked at, until
class is over.
 Office Hours
• Mondays 1:15-3:15 PM (and by appointment).
 Current WCC News
• https://www.law360.com/whitecollar
• https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/blogs/
• http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollar
crime_blog/
 Outside Reading
• Lying, Cheating, and Stealing: A Moral Theory of
White-Collar Crime by Stuart P. Green (Oxford,
2006).
• Lucian E. Dervan & Ellen S. Podgor, “‘White-
Collar Crime’: Still Hazy After All These Years,”
50 Ga. L. Rev. 709 (2016).
• Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump,
and an Epic Trail of Destruction by David Enrich
(HarperCollins, 2020)
 Grading and Class Participation
• Your grade for the course will be determined
primarily by your final exam, which will be a
take-home.
• You are expected to come to class prepared to
discuss the assigned readings.
• I will call on every student at least once during
the semester to explain and discuss a case.
• In this respect, this course will be run very
much like a 1L class.
• Up to .3 points will be awarded to students
who make comments and ask questions that
contribute meaningfully to the class’s
understanding of the material.
• Conversely, poor participation will bump your final
grade down .1 to .3 points.
• “Poor participation” means not being prepared to
discuss a case – whether or not you have read it.
• So saying, for example, that you read the case two
weeks ago and forgot it will not help you any more
than saying that you did not read the case at all.
• (Again, you will not be penalized if you fail to
volunteer.)
 Class Attendance
• LSU Law’s attendance policy allows you to
miss *7* classes without being penalized.
• 8 or more absences will result in your either
failing, or having to withdraw from, this
course.
• (Please be aware that these numbers are
different for your other courses.)
 Don’t Use Old Outlines
• Try to find one from last year or just make
your own.
• Definitely don’t use if it says:
– “fraud came to pass” for conspiracy
– “required mens rea” for extortion
 Rule of Thumb for This Course
• 2 sides to every issue.
• And whatever the cases say, they could have
said something else.
• It is not important to memorize all of this.
• Instead, it is important to understand
– what they have said
– how they have justified their decisions
– how to apply all of this information to new
cases/hypos.
What Is WCC?
 Street Crimes
• WCC generally distinguished from “common”
or “street” crime and crimes that are assigned
to special agencies
– Crimes that necessarily involve physical harm or
threat of physical harm (assault or battery)
– Common theft
– “Vice” crimes (gambling, pornography,
prostitution)
– Drug-related crimes, which are generally assigned
to U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
• But money laundering and tax offenses that focus on
illegal proceeds of drug crimes are still WCC. (p. 3)
– Organized crime, which is generally violent and
assigned to specialized law enforcement agencies.
– Policy-related crimes (e.g., immigration and civil
rights), which are generally assigned to specialized
law enforcement agencies.
 Definitions of WCC (pp. 1, 3-4)
• Nonviolent offenses that cause either:
– economic harm
or
– harm to the government's ability to function effectively and
without conflicts of interest.
________________________________________
• “non-violent illegal activities that principally use deceit,
deception, concealment, fraud, or misrepresentation to
obtain money, property, or some other advantage, or to
conceal or cover up other wrongdoing.”
– Randall Eliason (p. 3)
Three Basic Kinds of WCC (pp. 1, 3-4)
 1. Political Corruption
• Act done with an intent to give some
advantage inconsistent with official duty and
the rights of others.
• It includes bribery but is more
comprehensive.
• Undermines public's trust in government
 State and Federal Public Officials
• trump and much of his administration
• Chris Christie? (Bridgegate)
• Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (used office to
extract bribes)
• Scooter Libby (obstructed investigation into
leak of identity of covert CIA agent)
• Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (mail fraud)
 Louisiana Public Officials
• Governor Edwin Edwards
• U.S. Congressman Bill Jefferson
• New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
• Mayors Grace, Nelson, Lewis, and Brown
• Baton Rouge Senior City Prosecutor Flitcher
Bell
 2. Corporate and Financial Fraud
• Hurts employees and investors
• Can hurt economy (e.g., bursting of a bubble
(tech, housing, etc.))
• Can be committed by lower-level employees
 Examples
• 2007 housing market collapse
• Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia (securities fraud,
accounting fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, filing false
reports with regulators, making false statements to
auditors, insider trading) (pp. 48-49)
– Jeff Skilling (Enron)
– Ken Lay (Enron)
– Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom)
• Arthur Andersen (accounting fraud)
• Bernie Madoff (Ponzi scheme that cost
investors $65 billion)
• Martha Stewart (cover-up in connection with
securities fraud investigation)
• Wesley Snipes (tax evasion)
• Michael Milken (insider trading)
• Ivan Boesky (insider trading)
• Charles Keating (savings & loan fraud )
 Bernie Madoff
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3sHrVOdd
w
(The Madoff Hustle – start at 4:45)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s68FR1MXT8
Q
(60 Minutes – 13.5 mins.)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTl9ULcowhc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YRQ3ifFFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DFj-i6aOWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XefQcz1vfW
E
Not All, or Even Most, White Collar Criminals
Are Rich and Famous
• “Many white collar offenses, maybe even
most of them, are committed by pedestrian
hucksters, scam artists, cheaters, and liars.”
– Samuel W. Buell, “Is the White Collar Offender
Privileged?”, 63 Duke L.J. 823, 830-31 (2014).
 3. Interfering with Government
Administration
• Main examples:
– False statements
– Perjury
– Obstruction of justice
Potential Problems with WCC (pp. 6-13)
 Double Standard for WCC Defendants? (pp.
10-11)
• Government often fails to prosecute the rich
and powerful.
• Greater resources available to corporations,
their agents, and their employees for the best
defense attorneys.
• Deferred and non-prosecution agreements.
– See also p. 41
Sen. Warren Grilling Fed. Reserve (3/8/13)

• https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4377250/sen
-warren-banking
(skip to 1:34:05)
 Sen. Warren Grilling OMB Director Mick
Mulvaney (4/13/18)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNaXtJ
Qu7M
(start at 1:45)
 Some Takeaways
• Lot of anger = Wall Street vs. Main Street.
• Hard to determine whether crimes
committed.
• But whether or not they commit crimes, rich
and powerful get away with much more rule-
bending/breaking than the rest of us.