Manatt's John Libby, co-chair of the firm's Corporate Investigations and White Collar Defense Practice, weighed in on white collar legal trends and updates during a roundtable discussion that was moderated by California Lawyer and published in its March 2014 issue.
Libby and his fellow roundtable participants spoke to California Lawyer about trends in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), healthcare fraud, new investigative techniques, and other developments. When asked what trends he's seeing in RMBS cases, Libby responded:
"Taking the discussion a bit broader, one of the things we're seeing is a change in the government's view of financial institutions. Banks used to be seen as victims of crime. Now, they've been deputized by the government to enforce anti-money-laundering laws, and when they don't do a good job, they end up getting prosecuted. We've seen the government obtain deferred-prosecution agreements from HSBC and other international banks to ensure that banks comply with the law, and pay for their past misconduct. Another example is Operation Choke Point, in which DOJ is using FIRREA to investigate banks that provide services to payment processors and payday lenders. In a recent settlement with a North Carolina Bank called Four Oaks, DOJ gave us a road map for how it is thinking about these cases, in which the bank allegedly allowed its customer, a payment processor, to assist payday lenders in defrauding customers. I expect this investigation to expand with additional settlements with banks and payment processors."