(Reuters Legal) - It's the latest litigation tactic in the online age: U.S. lawyers are trying to mine the private zones of Facebook and other social-media sites for photos, comments, status updates and other tidbits that might contradict what their opponents are saying in court. And increasingly, judges in civil cases are granting access to online caches that had formerly been considered off-limits
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Thursday, February 3, 2011
Grand jury probes what Edwards knew about spending
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal criminal investigation targeting John Edwards is examining how much the two-time presidential candidate knew about money used to cover up his extramarital affair and out-of-wedlock child and whether other practices of his violated campaign finance laws, people involved in the case have told The Associated Press.
A federal grand jury in Raleigh, N.C., is sifting records and testimony involving several political organizations and individuals connected to Edwards to determine if the former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee broke any laws. A recently issued subpoena focuses on a web of these Edwards-affiliated groups, according to subpoena details provided to the AP that offer a glimpse behind the closed doors of the investigation.
The case largely stems from money spent to keep Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, in hiding along with former campaign aide Andrew Young, who initially claimed paternity so Edwards could continue pursuing the White House without the taint of the affair.
Investigators are looking chiefly at whether funds paid to Hunter and Young — from outside political groups and Edwards' political donors — should have been considered campaign donations since they arguably aided his presidential bid, according to several people involved in the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe. They're also looking closely at whether any entities linked to Edwards operated illegally.
While it could not be learned if prosecutors have found violations of a specific statute, federal election laws require disclosure of the money spent on campaigns for federal offices, limit the amounts of such donations and prohibit the conversion of campaign funds to personal use.
Edwards' attorney Wade Smith would not discuss specifics but said, "We do not believe there is evidence that John has violated any election laws."
The investigation has been led for nearly two years by George Holding, the U.S. attorney in Raleigh appointed by President George W. Bush, with help from FBI and IRS agents and Justice Department attorneys from Washington. North Carolina's senators have asked President Barack Obama not to replace Holding until he finishes this probe.
Several people interviewed by investigators said the questions focused on Edwards' knowledge of campaign finance law, going as far back as whether he used his Senate office to conduct political business in violation of congressional rules. Subpoenas issued in the case request e-mails, records and other material related to more than two dozen individuals and organizations connected to Edwards and his allies throughout his political career
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A federal grand jury in Raleigh, N.C., is sifting records and testimony involving several political organizations and individuals connected to Edwards to determine if the former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee broke any laws. A recently issued subpoena focuses on a web of these Edwards-affiliated groups, according to subpoena details provided to the AP that offer a glimpse behind the closed doors of the investigation.
The case largely stems from money spent to keep Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, in hiding along with former campaign aide Andrew Young, who initially claimed paternity so Edwards could continue pursuing the White House without the taint of the affair.
Investigators are looking chiefly at whether funds paid to Hunter and Young — from outside political groups and Edwards' political donors — should have been considered campaign donations since they arguably aided his presidential bid, according to several people involved in the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe. They're also looking closely at whether any entities linked to Edwards operated illegally.
While it could not be learned if prosecutors have found violations of a specific statute, federal election laws require disclosure of the money spent on campaigns for federal offices, limit the amounts of such donations and prohibit the conversion of campaign funds to personal use.
Edwards' attorney Wade Smith would not discuss specifics but said, "We do not believe there is evidence that John has violated any election laws."
The investigation has been led for nearly two years by George Holding, the U.S. attorney in Raleigh appointed by President George W. Bush, with help from FBI and IRS agents and Justice Department attorneys from Washington. North Carolina's senators have asked President Barack Obama not to replace Holding until he finishes this probe.
Several people interviewed by investigators said the questions focused on Edwards' knowledge of campaign finance law, going as far back as whether he used his Senate office to conduct political business in violation of congressional rules. Subpoenas issued in the case request e-mails, records and other material related to more than two dozen individuals and organizations connected to Edwards and his allies throughout his political career
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Civil Justice Reform - Law Firms - E-Discovery Takes A Turn - Charting The Course To Discovery
Conclusion:
Social networks are a relatively untapped discovery source that can contain a wealth of useful information. Because unsophisticated users of social networks will likely have difficulty preserving such data, the best source for discovery is to seek the production directly from the SNPs subscribed to by the user. For compliance with the SCA, counsel will be required to secure consent from the user, which can be compelled by a court. With the service of a subpoena and authorization from the user, counsel can begin the process of obtaining production from the SNPs.
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Social networks are a relatively untapped discovery source that can contain a wealth of useful information. Because unsophisticated users of social networks will likely have difficulty preserving such data, the best source for discovery is to seek the production directly from the SNPs subscribed to by the user. For compliance with the SCA, counsel will be required to secure consent from the user, which can be compelled by a court. With the service of a subpoena and authorization from the user, counsel can begin the process of obtaining production from the SNPs.
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Lawyer Faces New Steps for Chevron's Subpoena
(CN) - A lawyer who may be withholding documents subpoenaed by Chevron, which is challenging a $113 billion environmental lawsuit in Ecuador, must turn over mirror images of his hard drive, a federal judge ordered.
Over the last few months, New York courts have repeatedly ordered Steven Donziger to comply with Chevron's subpoenas. Donziger is an American lawyer who organized the multibillion dollar litigation that Chevron claims has been tainted by judicial misconduct.
"There is reason to believe that Donziger has not complied full and promptly with the subpoenas served upon him and with this court's orders that he do so," U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote on Jan. 21.
A spokeswoman for the Ecuadorians suing Chevron denied the allegation, stating that Donziger has fully complied by producing thousands of documents and sitting for aggressive deposition.
"There comes a time when efforts to get information crosses the line to harassment and abuse of the litigation process," spokeswoman Karen Hinton said in an e-mail.
Donziger had challenged the subpoena by claiming his files are protected by attorney-client privilege, but the courts have found that the lawyer in large part waived that privilege and must turn over a substantial amount of material responsive to the subpoeana.
A spokesman for Chevron praised Kaplan's steps to ensure that Donziger complies with the subpoena.
"The notion that Mr. Donziger has been cooperative is defied by the factual record," Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said in an e-mail.
Kaplan noted that Donziger first turned over just 20,000 files followed by another 87,080 documents, though the lawyer had told the court that enforcing the subpoena would require him to turn over 200,000 documents.
"Despite the belated additional production, there is evidence that at least suggests that Donziger may have erased or is withholding still other responsive documents," Kaplan wrote.
The Ecuadorians' spokeswoman noted that this too was inaccurate.
"Mr. Donziger has turned over the entire case file from this 17-year litigation, including thousands of documents and emails that normally is considered privileged," Hinton said. "He also sat for 11 days of depositions and testimony during which time he has been subject to tag team questioning by four different lawyers."
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Over the last few months, New York courts have repeatedly ordered Steven Donziger to comply with Chevron's subpoenas. Donziger is an American lawyer who organized the multibillion dollar litigation that Chevron claims has been tainted by judicial misconduct.
"There is reason to believe that Donziger has not complied full and promptly with the subpoenas served upon him and with this court's orders that he do so," U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote on Jan. 21.
A spokeswoman for the Ecuadorians suing Chevron denied the allegation, stating that Donziger has fully complied by producing thousands of documents and sitting for aggressive deposition.
"There comes a time when efforts to get information crosses the line to harassment and abuse of the litigation process," spokeswoman Karen Hinton said in an e-mail.
Donziger had challenged the subpoena by claiming his files are protected by attorney-client privilege, but the courts have found that the lawyer in large part waived that privilege and must turn over a substantial amount of material responsive to the subpoeana.
A spokesman for Chevron praised Kaplan's steps to ensure that Donziger complies with the subpoena.
"The notion that Mr. Donziger has been cooperative is defied by the factual record," Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said in an e-mail.
Kaplan noted that Donziger first turned over just 20,000 files followed by another 87,080 documents, though the lawyer had told the court that enforcing the subpoena would require him to turn over 200,000 documents.
"Despite the belated additional production, there is evidence that at least suggests that Donziger may have erased or is withholding still other responsive documents," Kaplan wrote.
The Ecuadorians' spokeswoman noted that this too was inaccurate.
"Mr. Donziger has turned over the entire case file from this 17-year litigation, including thousands of documents and emails that normally is considered privileged," Hinton said. "He also sat for 11 days of depositions and testimony during which time he has been subject to tag team questioning by four different lawyers."
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Special counsel named to help in Tim Cahill probe
BOSTON — State Treasurer Steven Grossman says he has appointed a special counsel experienced in securities law enforcement to handle a federal investigation into Goldman Sachs Group’s dealings with his predecessor, Timothy P. Cahill and Cahill’s former aides.
Grossman told The Associated Press Sunday he has hired Ian D. Roffman, a former senior trial counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission and now a partner at a Boston law firm.
Grossman has been served with a subpoena seeking documents such as e-mails, phone records, schedules, files and memos dating to June 1, 2008
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Grossman told The Associated Press Sunday he has hired Ian D. Roffman, a former senior trial counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission and now a partner at a Boston law firm.
Grossman has been served with a subpoena seeking documents such as e-mails, phone records, schedules, files and memos dating to June 1, 2008
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SEC looks at Cahill, Goldman Sachs link
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has delivered subpoenas to the state treasurer’s office in a wide-ranging request for documents concerning dealings between investment banking giant Goldman Sachs and former treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, onetime top staff members, and former campaign aides, according to an official briefed on the document request.
The agency’s subpoenas, which seek e-mails, phone records, schedules, files, and memorandums, come just over a month after Goldman Sachs removed itself from two state bond deals in Massachusetts following the disclosure that a vice president at the firm, Neil Morrison, was active in Cahill’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, which could violate federal securities regulations. Morrison had previously served as a top deputy to Cahill in the treasurer’s office.
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The agency’s subpoenas, which seek e-mails, phone records, schedules, files, and memorandums, come just over a month after Goldman Sachs removed itself from two state bond deals in Massachusetts following the disclosure that a vice president at the firm, Neil Morrison, was active in Cahill’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, which could violate federal securities regulations. Morrison had previously served as a top deputy to Cahill in the treasurer’s office.
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Federal investigators seek Birmingham City Hall records on bingo
Federal investigators have ordered the city of Birmingham to turn over records related to a 2009 ordinance on electronic bingo and to a City Council member who pressed to legalize the games.
The U.S. Attorney's Office subpoenaed City Council voting records on the electronic bingo ordinance along with phone records, telephone messages and e-mails from former Councilman Joel Montgomery's office relating to the issue.
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The U.S. Attorney's Office subpoenaed City Council voting records on the electronic bingo ordinance along with phone records, telephone messages and e-mails from former Councilman Joel Montgomery's office relating to the issue.
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News International finds 'lost' emails that could provide evidence in phone-hacking case
A "lost" hoard of emails sent by senior executives in Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire at the height of the phone-hacking scandal has been found, The Independent has learnt.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are now expected to examine the database of emails in their renewed search for News of the World journalists who may have hacked into mobile phone messages or hired private detectives to do so in breach of privacy laws.
Consolidated RICO Class Action Against BP Contains a Litany of Damning Allegations
NEW ORLEANS (CN) - A newly consolidated RICO class action claims BP's "cocksure behavior," its history of safety violations, disregard for federal regulations and failure to inspect and maintain equipment all contributed to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon. The class claims that BP conducted itself with an "underlying 'unconscious mind,'" and that its practice of putting profit before safety created the catastrophe.
The federal complaint adds that the relative newness of offshore drilling, the difficult geography of the Macondo well site, and the fact that BP was drilling at depths that exceeded its federal permit also contributed to the disaster.
The class claims the oil giant gambled with worker and environmental safety by cutting corners, misrepresenting intentions, using shoddy material and failing to run crucial safety inspections.
Ultimately, all those factors combined with the No. 1 cause of the disaster: that for BP, profit came before safety, according to the 91-page complaint.
The class claims BP was behind schedule and was spending $1 million a day to keep drilling the difficult Macondo well when the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
"Despite this history of catastrophes and close calls, BP has been chronically unable or unwilling to learn from its many mistakes or to give up its regular way of doing business," the complaint states. "The company's dismal safety record and disregard for prudent risk management are the results of a corporate safety culture that has been repeatedly called into question by government regulators."
The class action, released Monday, was consolidated under U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier's court as part of the oil spill multidistrict litigation. More than 300 oil spill-related lawsuits pending in Barbier's court are to be divided and consolidated into "bundles," depending on their causes of action.
On April 20, 2010, BP workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost control of the subsea well they had almost completed. When highly pressurized hydrocarbons leaked into the well, the vessel's emergency equipment failed to stop the oil and gas from blowing out of the well, which led to explosions and a fire on the Deepwater Horizon, and ultimately to the sinking of the vessel. Eleven people died and gas and oil gushed into the water unchecked for 12 weeks.
"Meanwhile, BP downplayed the severity of the spill and was, contrary to their prior claims to regulators, unprepared for the massive cleanup effort required," according to the complaint.
On May 21, President Obama established the National Oil Spill Commission on the BP Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, to examine facts and circumstances surrounding the explosion.
"A key finding of the commission was that BP repeatedly placed profits over safety, implementing procedures that greatly increased risk, primarily in order to avoid the expense of delay," according to the complaint.
According to the chairman of the investigation, "All the evidence of BP's misguided priorities and imprudent decisions regarding the Macondo well and the Deepwater Horizon described above is part of a pattern of cocksure behavior -a 'culture of complacency,'" according to the complaint.
Deepwater offshore drilling is an "immensely complex, technical process, and a relatively new one that has only developed over the last five years," the complaint states.
In emails weeks before the blowout, BP employees referred to the Macondo well as a "crazy," "nightmare" well, and indicated a sense of resignation about safety procedures, the class claims. It cites an email from BP official Brett Cocales in which he admits using less equipment than was necessary: "'who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine.'"
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The federal complaint adds that the relative newness of offshore drilling, the difficult geography of the Macondo well site, and the fact that BP was drilling at depths that exceeded its federal permit also contributed to the disaster.
The class claims the oil giant gambled with worker and environmental safety by cutting corners, misrepresenting intentions, using shoddy material and failing to run crucial safety inspections.
Ultimately, all those factors combined with the No. 1 cause of the disaster: that for BP, profit came before safety, according to the 91-page complaint.
The class claims BP was behind schedule and was spending $1 million a day to keep drilling the difficult Macondo well when the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
"Despite this history of catastrophes and close calls, BP has been chronically unable or unwilling to learn from its many mistakes or to give up its regular way of doing business," the complaint states. "The company's dismal safety record and disregard for prudent risk management are the results of a corporate safety culture that has been repeatedly called into question by government regulators."
The class action, released Monday, was consolidated under U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier's court as part of the oil spill multidistrict litigation. More than 300 oil spill-related lawsuits pending in Barbier's court are to be divided and consolidated into "bundles," depending on their causes of action.
On April 20, 2010, BP workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost control of the subsea well they had almost completed. When highly pressurized hydrocarbons leaked into the well, the vessel's emergency equipment failed to stop the oil and gas from blowing out of the well, which led to explosions and a fire on the Deepwater Horizon, and ultimately to the sinking of the vessel. Eleven people died and gas and oil gushed into the water unchecked for 12 weeks.
"Meanwhile, BP downplayed the severity of the spill and was, contrary to their prior claims to regulators, unprepared for the massive cleanup effort required," according to the complaint.
On May 21, President Obama established the National Oil Spill Commission on the BP Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, to examine facts and circumstances surrounding the explosion.
"A key finding of the commission was that BP repeatedly placed profits over safety, implementing procedures that greatly increased risk, primarily in order to avoid the expense of delay," according to the complaint.
According to the chairman of the investigation, "All the evidence of BP's misguided priorities and imprudent decisions regarding the Macondo well and the Deepwater Horizon described above is part of a pattern of cocksure behavior -a 'culture of complacency,'" according to the complaint.
Deepwater offshore drilling is an "immensely complex, technical process, and a relatively new one that has only developed over the last five years," the complaint states.
In emails weeks before the blowout, BP employees referred to the Macondo well as a "crazy," "nightmare" well, and indicated a sense of resignation about safety procedures, the class claims. It cites an email from BP official Brett Cocales in which he admits using less equipment than was necessary: "'who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine.'"
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Prosecutors: New Detail in Galleon Case .
NEW YORK—An unidentified banker at Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley allegedly leaked details of a merger involving Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in 2006, according a court filing in a closely watched insider-trading case.
The banker allegedly leaked details of AMD's bid to acquire ATI Technologies Inc. in May 2006 and the information was allegedly later passed to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, according to a letter federal prosecutors wrote to Mr. Rajaratnam's lawyers on Thursday. The banker's name and the person who allegedly provided the tip to Mr. Rajaratnam are redacted from the letter
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan had previously alleged that Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant, also provided details of the AMD-ATI tie-up to Mr. Rajaratnam.
Mr. Kumar, who has previously pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors, has told the government that he was paid $2 million for providing tips to Mr. Rajaratnam. Mr. Rajaratnam has denied paying the money.
The letter was filed Friday as an exhibit in connection with a request by Mr. Rajaratnam's lawyers to quash a new subpoena to Galleon seeking additional information on trading by Mr. Rajaratnam, as well as emails regarding certain stocks.
"We have placed the banker on leave and we are fully cooperating with the government's investigation," a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said in a statement.
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The banker allegedly leaked details of AMD's bid to acquire ATI Technologies Inc. in May 2006 and the information was allegedly later passed to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, according to a letter federal prosecutors wrote to Mr. Rajaratnam's lawyers on Thursday. The banker's name and the person who allegedly provided the tip to Mr. Rajaratnam are redacted from the letter
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan had previously alleged that Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant, also provided details of the AMD-ATI tie-up to Mr. Rajaratnam.
Mr. Kumar, who has previously pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors, has told the government that he was paid $2 million for providing tips to Mr. Rajaratnam. Mr. Rajaratnam has denied paying the money.
The letter was filed Friday as an exhibit in connection with a request by Mr. Rajaratnam's lawyers to quash a new subpoena to Galleon seeking additional information on trading by Mr. Rajaratnam, as well as emails regarding certain stocks.
"We have placed the banker on leave and we are fully cooperating with the government's investigation," a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said in a statement.
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