Our partner Marvin G. Pickholz recently co-authored Recent Federal Court Decisions Revitalize the Government's Civil Enforcement Power Under FIRREA, which appeared in the July/August issue of the Financial Fraud Law Report.
Marvin comments in the article that in its latest wave of civil actions, the Department of Justice has resurrected an old weapon to wield in a new way: the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). Consistent with Congress's tendency to pass ill-defined legislation and then leave it to the courts to later flush out and shape the law, FIRREA was passed in a sweeping flurry of legislation aimed at addressing a pressing issue, and then lay dormant for many years. Similar to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, over two decades after its creation, FIRREA has now resurfaced in federal cases involving financial fraud and is likely to create more disincentives for a company or individual to litigate against the government. Click here to read the rest of the article.
While the article discusses FIRREA, the concepts therein potentially apply to cases brought by the SEC or DOJ in securities litigation.
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