West Wing staffers were concerned that White House counsel Don McGahn would quit earlier this summer because of his frustration over meetings between President Donald Trump and his senior and adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is focusing on both Trump and Kushner, and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the election in his favor. Kushner invited scrutiny after he met with two Russian officials — Russia's former ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, and the head of a sanctioned Russian bank, Sergey Gorkov — during the transition period. Kushner was also present during a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top members of the Trump campaign and several Russians, including a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin who had offered compromising information on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Mueller's focus on Trump appears to center primarily around his decision to fire former FBI director James Comey in May and his motivations for doing so. The White House initially said Comey had been dismissed because of his handling of the Clinton email investigation, but Trump later told NBC's Lester Holt that "this Russia thing" was a factor in his decision. Given their proximity to the Russia probe, McGahn was reportedly concerned that the frequency with which Trump and Kushner met could be seen as an attempt to coordinate their stories, three officials familiar with the matter told The Journal. The White House counsel was so frustrated that then chief of staff Reince Priebus and then chief strategist Steve Bannon had to urge McGahn not to resign. He ultimately decided to stay after learning that Trump had hired a legal team, headed by white-collar defense attorney Ty Cobb, tasked with handling the White House's response to Mueller's investigation, according to the report. Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote on Friday that part of McGahn's concern regarding meetings between Kushner and Trump could center around the fact that both men were witness to McGahn's thought process surrounding Comey's firing. The weekend before he fired Comey on May 9, Trump put together a draft letter laying out his reasons for dismissing the FBI director at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. Kushner, who reportedly argued strongly for Comey's firing, was also at the club that weekend, as was top policy adviser Stephen Miller and Trump's daughter, Ivanka. Cobb confirmed to Business Insider earlier this month that the letter is in Mueller's possession. After the letter was drafted, McGahn reportedly advised Trump against sending it to Comey and gave Miller a marked-up copy of the letter, highlighting several sections that he believed could be problematic and needed to be struck. McGahn is one of the White House staffers Mueller is interested in interviewing, likely because of his involvement in the events leading up to Comey's firing. It's unclear what, if any, role Kushner had in crafting the letter. But if both he and Trump were witness to McGahn's thought process around Comey's firing, their statements to one another could be "fair game" for Mueller to dig into as part of his investigation, Mariotti wrote. If the president met frequently enough with Kushner, Mueller could probe into their conversations and find inconsistencies in their stories, he added. "McGahn is doing what any good defense attorney would do in these situations--create a protocol to ensure there is a 'prover' in the room for these conversations so that the third person could verify that issues relating to the investigation were never discussed," Mariotti wrote. SEE ALSO: Tillerson says the US has a 'direct line' of communication with North Korea over nuclear tests Join the conversation about this story » from http://www.businessinsider.com/don-mcgahn-almost-resigned-over-concerns-about-trump-kushner-meetings-russia-probe-2017-9
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Wells Fargo bank teller stole nearly $200000 from a customer and spent it on several vacations9/29/2017 A Wells Fargo bank teller accused of stealing $185,000 from a homeless customer has agreed to a plea deal, according to court documents cited by The Washington Post. The former employee, 29-year-old Phelon Davis, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of interstate transfer of stolen property this week after a 2014 encounter with a homeless customer who tried to deposit $185,000 in cash at a Wells Fargo branch in Washington, DC, the court documents said. The customer, who was not named but described as a homeless street vendor, had existing accounts at the bank, but he lacked the identification documents he needed to deposit the $185,000 worth of cash he had been carrying in a garbage bag. The Post said. The man was turned away. The homeless man "had a surprisingly large balance with the bank," The Post reported, citing a document related to the case. Davis was accused of forging the customer's signature to fraudulently open a Wells Fargo account in the customer's name — including an online login, an ATM card, and personal identification number, all of which Davis controlled. He funded the account with $3,000 of the homeless customer's money. The customer had no access to email or the internet, according to The Post, and thus had no knowledge of the fraudulent activity, the newspaper said. Court documents showed that, over the course of two years, Davis transferred $177,400 of that customer's money, and withdrew $185,440, taking $5,000 across state lines, the court documents said. Davis used some of the stolen cash as a down payment on his home, took several vacations, and paid some debts. Davis has been ordered to pay back the stolen money and could face up to 30 months in prison. It appears Davis fraudulently opened the accounts during the same period that covered a massive scandal at Wells Fargo, in which millions of accounts were opened in customers' names between at least 2011 and 2015. It was unclear whether Davis' activity was releated to that scandal. The problem exploded in 2016 and eventually drove then-CEO John Stumpf out of the company. The bank agreed to shell out $142 million to settle the matter. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: THE BOTTOM LINE: A lot of talk of a bitcoin bubble and a few good reasons to believe tech isn't one from http://www.businessinsider.com/wells-fargo-bank-teller-stole-185000-from-homeless-customer-2017-9 The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged a man and two companies for operating fraudulent initial coin offerings. According to a statement released Friday, the financial watchdog alleges Maksim Zaslavskiy and his two companies, REcoin Group Foundation and DRC World, defrauded investors and sold unregistered securities in two fake ICOs. REcoin, a blockchain-based real-estate company, and DRC World, a diamond membership club, issued fake tokens to investors and promised high-returns without "real operations," according to the SEC. ICOs allow startups to raise money by issuing their own cryptocurrencies. Recently, ICOs have come under scrutiny by regulators because companies can use them to raise quick money without having to disclose substantive information to investors. The SEC said REcoin misled investors, saying it had a "team of lawyers, professionals, brokers, and accountants" who would handle all real-estate investments when no such team existed. Similarly, DRC World was a shell, according to the SEC. The company falsely told investors, whom they solicited money from, that they had a inventory of diamonds when they did not. "Investors should be wary of companies touting ICOs as a way to generate outsized returns," said Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC’s New York regional office of the case. "As alleged in our complaint, Zaslavskiy lured investors with false promises of sizeable returns from novel technology." The SEC froze the personal assets of Zaslavskiy and his companies after getting an emergency court order, according to the agency. In July, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced certain ICO would be subject to regulatory scrutiny. Other countries, such as China and South Korea, have deemed initial coin offerings illegal, because of concerns of fraud. The market for ICOs has exploded this year with over $2 billion raised, according to data from Autonomous NEXT. Schwark Satyavolu, a general partner at Trinity Ventures, a venture capital firm, is a ICO skeptic who told Business Insider he thinks there's a bubble in the market. "If investments continue at the current rate, this could become the next mortgage crisis with people – including institutional investors – losing hundreds of millions of dollars when (not if) many of these companies go out of business," Satyavolu said. Still, many market-watchers are excited about the potential of ICOs, despite the bad actors. "There’s always a few bad apples out there, but on the majority, blockchain leaders and CEOs are doing great things to financial services, supply chain, logistics, healthcare, agriculture, real estate, biotech, data, retail and government operations," Perry Woodin, the CEO of Node40, a blockchain technology company, said in a statement emailed to Business Insider. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: That was the last big iPhone launch — but for Apple, there's a new hope ... from http://www.businessinsider.com/recoin-group-foundation-drc-world-ico-sec-fraud-charges-cryptocurrency-2017-9 A former executive on Friday was charged with orchestrating an elaborate insider-trading scheme that involved a kickback of over ten pounds of marijuana, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, the SEC alleges that Shane P. Fleming, a former vice president of sales at Life Time Fitness Inc., learned of a merger that would take the company private in 2015. He informed his friend, Bret J. Bershey, who enlisted two friends, Christopher M. Bonvissuto and Peter A. Kourtis, to use the information of the merger and split the profits, the SEC alleges. Kourtis then tipped off a group of traders, Alexander T. Carlucci, Dimitri A. Kandalepas, Austin C. Mansur, and Eric L. Weller, and asked them to share any profits they made from trading on the information, the complaint said. The six traders purchased 2,000 call options for share of Life Time Fitness, and sold the options for profits of $866,209 after it was reported that the company was in merger discussions with two private equity firms, the complaint said. Bonvissuto and Kourtis shared a portion of their profits with Beshey, who gave around $10,000 in cash to Fleming, the complaint said. The SEC alleges that Carlucci and Mansur also paid kickbacks to Kourtis, and that Weller gave Kourtis at least 10 pounds of marijuana as a kickback. "Beshey allegedly tried to mask his role in this scheme by recruiting others to trade on inside information rather than trading himself," Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Market Abuse Unit, said in an announcement. "Through our ever-evolving investigative tools, we were able to thwart Beshey’s efforts at concealment by uncovering trading by his immediate and downstream tippees and tracing those trades back to him." The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois also announced criminal charges against all eight defendants on Friday. Business Insider first noticed this story after a tweet from Axios reporter Dan Primack. SEE ALSO: Snoop Dogg's venture capital firm is leading an investment in a cannabis tech company Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Bitcoin's bubble swells with a new record high from http://www.businessinsider.com/life-time-fitness-exec-charged-in-insider-trading-scheme-involving-weed-kickback-2017-9 Tom Price is out at the White House here are all the casualties of the Trump administration so far9/29/2017 Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned Friday, the White House announced, becoming the latest casualty in an administration that has been full of turnover in its first months. "Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his resignation earlier today and the President accepted," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. The Trump administration has been rocked by a series of high-profile exits — including Sean Spicer as press secretary and James Comey as FBI director — since the president took office in January. Here are the top-level people who've either been fired or resigned from the Trump administration: SEE ALSO: Sean Spicer has resigned as White House press secretary Tom PricePrice had elicited bipartisan condemnation over the cost of his air travel. Price cost taxpayers more than $1 million between his use of private planes for domestic travel, and military jets for recent trips to Africa, Europe, and Asia. Sebastian GorkaA White House official confirmed Sebastian Gorka's departure from the Trump administration Friday night. The former Breitbart staffer and Steve Bannon ally served as a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump. His departure comes one week after Bannon left the administration to return to Breitbart. In his departing letter, first published on a pro-Trump website, Gorka told Trump he could better serve the president's "America First" agenda from the outside. Gorka was aligned with a once-ascendant nationalist arm of the Trump administration, occupied most prominently by Bannon and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. Bannon's departure was seen as a significant blow to other nationalist, far-right figures in the White House and Gorka implied as much in his letter, saying it was clear to him that "forces that do not support the MAGA promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House." Steve BannonWhite House officials confirmed that Trump had dismissed Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, on Friday after reports of clashes between Bannon and other members of the White House reached a fever pitch in recent days. Bannon, who was instrumental in focusing the message of Trump's 2016 campaign, was considered the main conduit between Trump and his base of far-right voters. Bannon submitted his resignation to Trump earlier in August, The New York Times reports. Matt Drudge, the conservative blogger, said Bannon might return to his former job as executive chairman of Breitbart News. See the rest of the story at Business Insider from http://www.businessinsider.com/who-has-trump-fired-so-far-james-comey-sean-spicer-michael-flynn-2017-7 President Donald Trump recently made his 100th nomination to either a lower court vacancy or an open US attorney post, blowing past the rate of nominations at which recent presidents have advanced, as he seeks to cement a substantial legacy. Following a wave of judicial nominations on Thursday, Trump has now submitted 105 individuals to vacancies on appeals courts, district courts, and US attorney positions. President Barack Obama, at the same point of his first term in 2009, had nominated a fraction of the individuals. Trump crossed the mark right as the Senate is battling over what to do with the "blue slip" practice, which has come under fire from some Republicans recently. The blue slip is a tradition in which US senators can give or withhold their blessing for a judicial nominee from their state. The process gives the party that does not control the White House leverage over the president's nominations, and some Democrats have used that power to deny a pair of Trump's nominees from moving forward in the Senate Judiciary Committee. That, in turn, makes it easier for Trump to advance nominees in states that do not have any Democratic Senate representation. With Democrats now having the ability to — in many states — prevent Trump's judicial nominees from advancing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told The New York Times recently that he thought the blue-slip practice should be scrapped for circuit-court nominations. That sparked backlash from Democrats, who said the move would be hypocritical, as Republicans staunchly defended the blue slip process while Obama was in office. While only a small portion of Trump's nominations have been confirmed so far, the confirmation rate has begun to pick up as the nominees have started to receive committee hearings. And with a massive number of vacancies on the federal bench, Trump has a real opportunity to cement a decades-long legacy on the courts. Here are Trump's nominations by the numbers:
Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Roger Stone explains what Trump has in common with Richard Nixon from http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-judge-us-attorney-nominations-list-2017-9 Political party ditches pound sign symbol The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has proudly unveiled its new logo at its annual conference in Torquay, Devon, today — but it may already look familiar to law students. The eye-catching design, which apparently received a roar of approval from conference-going UKIPers, features the words “UKIP FOR THE NATION” alongside a purple lion’s head. Given that the lion is regarded as a national symbol of England, it may be a fitting choice for UKIP. However, one Twitter-goer was quick to point out the similarities between UKIP’s new design and BPP Law School’s current logo.
So, lets compare the two (for the avoidance of doubt, BPP’s is on the right): BPP adopted its shield-shaped lion head logo in 2011 as part of a business-wide rebrand. It declined to comment on today’s news. UKIP’s new design option has also apparently upset football bigwigs at the Premier League, whose logo features a purple lion’s head. The league is understood to be “consulting” its lawyers, according to a report in The Mirror. Many on Twitter too noted the similarities between the political party’s design and the Premier League’s logo:
For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post Has UKIP taken inspiration from BPP with its new logo? appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/09/has-ukip-taken-inspiration-from-bpp-with-its-new-logo/ Rookie barristers will undertake a six-month secondment at a commercial set The London office of US law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has taken on its first trainee barrister, not solicitor, after gaining approval from the Bar Standards Board (BSB). The New York-headquartered outfit already takes on approximately four trainees a year, but has now revealed its first pupil started her training last month. This barrister move isn’t going to be a one-off; the firm is already looking to recruit a second. Its current pupil is spending her first six months under the supervision of the firm’s in-house barrister and disputes resolution partner James Kitching. When her first six is under her belt, the unnamed pupil will then spend her final six months (pupillage, unlike a training contact, is only a year long) on secondment at London’s 33 Bedford Row. Legal Cheek understands that the firm — which launched its London office in 1970, becoming one of the first US players to establish itself on European soil — is looking to eventually take on pupils for the full 12 months. So far, Fried Frank has remained tightlipped over pupil salary figures. However, an old Pupillage Gateway advertisement which closed earlier this year (screenshot below) suggests “financial support” of between £30,000 and £39,999. The advert also states that pupils will be based “primarily” in the firm’s litigation department. The BSB has confirmed to Legal Cheek that Fried received BSB pupillage training organisation (PTO) approval last December. The Gateway — which advertises pupillage opportunities across England and Wales — reopens on 28 November. Earlier this year, Legal Cheek reported that Fried Frank had brought forward its UK training contract plans to accommodate three stricken King & Wood Mallesons trainees. The scheme’s launch had originally been scheduled for 2018. For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post US law firm Fried Frank launches London pupillage programme appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/09/us-law-firm-fried-frank-launches-london-pupillage-programme/ Exclusive: As trainees top magic circle pay table Magic circle titan Clifford Chance has become the latest corporate law firm to up the pay packets of its rookie lawyers, Legal Cheek can reveal. Newly qualified (NQ) wedge at the Canary Wharf-based outfit now stands at an impressive £87,300. Given the complex performance-related bonus schemes now adopted by many top City firms, it’s somewhat difficult to calculate what this increase is in percentage terms. Last summer, Clifford Chance — which provides around 80 training contracts each year — bumped NQ pay packets to £85,000. However, this figure included a fixed bonus that, in the firm’s words, the “vast majority” of its junior talent would receive. At the time, the magic circler remained silent on whether NQ base salaries (then £70,000) had been upped. So, based on the assumption that most NQs did receive £85,000, today’s pay boost equates to a modest rise of 3% for most of its fresh faced talent. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the new £87,300 figure is described by the firm as “total compensation”. Legal Cheek understands that this improved salary still includes a performance-related bonus. Trainee remuneration at Clifford Chance has also been increased. Those in the first year of their training contract will now earn £44,800, up from £43,500, while those a year ahead will earn £50,500, up from £49,000. This equates to increases of 3% across the board. The move puts its year one rookies £1,800 ahead of their peers at Freshfields (£43,000), Linklaters (£43,000), Slaughter and May (£43,000), and £2,800 better off than their opposite numbers at Allen & Overy (£42,000). The same can be said for year two trainees. They now earn £1,500 more than their Linklaters counterparts (£49,000) and £2,500 more than those sharpening their lawyer skills over at Freshfields (£48,000) and Slaughter and May (£48,000). Year two trainees at Allen & Overy currently earn £47,000. But how does Clifford Chances’ NQ pay stack up against its magic circle rivals? Again, given the bonus set-up, it’s become increasingly difficult to draw comparisons. Last month, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer confirmed that pay — which was upped to £85,000 last year — would remain unchanged. The firm is believed not to offer a substantial NQ bonus. This contrasts with Linklaters, which Linklaters bumped junior lawyer pay to £78,500 in June, but stressed that “high performers” could pull in northwards of £90,000. Elsewhere, Slaughter and May, which confirmed it had frozen pay this summer, boosted NQ salaries to £78,000 late last year, but revealed financial sweeteners of between 9% and 16% of annual salaries were up for grabs. Finally, Allen & Overy upped pay back in 2015 to £78,500, exclusive of bonuses. For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post Clifford Chance boosts NQ pay to £87,300 appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/09/clifford-chance-boosts-nq-pay-to-87300/ Awkward The Supreme Court was left a little red-faced this week after a Legal Cheek commenter rightly pointed out it’d listed Lady Hale as a Lord in her first ever case as president. We reported yesterday that 4 October will be a historic moment for the country’s final appeal court. This is because two women, Lady Hale and Lady Black, will hear the case alongside three male colleagues, the bench’s highest ever female proportion at 40%.
Though it’s a moment to be celebrated (see barrister S Chelvan’s tweet above), one Legal Cheek commenter noticed something a little strange about the case in question’s listing. Readers will see justice Hale is listed as a Lord, not a Lady, on her president case debut (if you visit the case listing now, you’ll notice this is no longer so). The Supreme Court declined to comment. While it’s safe to assume this was not done on purpose, the commenter who spotted the error wasn’t quite so forgiving. He or she described it as “atrocious”. For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub. The post New Supreme Court president listed as ‘Lord Hale’ appeared first on Legal Cheek. from https://www.legalcheek.com/2017/09/new-supreme-court-president-listed-as-lord-hale/ |
AuthorHi I am Alana Smith 35 years old living in New York. I am working as an assistant in local law office. I like to share legal news with people to educate them. Archives
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