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Tommy Tobin

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Thomas Tobin’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and class action matters involving statutory, constitutional, and regulatory issues in a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and cannabis. In the food and beverage sector, Tommy has experience defending false advertising claims and consumer protection claims for well-known international corporations.

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On October 18, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a guilty plea by Lafarge, S.A., a French building materials company, and its Syria-based subsidiary, for providing material support to designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The case represents the first criminal prosecution of a company for providing material support to terrorism and demonstrates that the agency is putting teeth behind its recent pronouncements that that it will prioritize national security-related investigations.

Last year, the DOJ announced that one of the agency’s top priorities was fighting corporate crime, with an enhanced focus on national security issues.  As Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco explained, “[c]orporate crime has an increasing national security dimension — from the new role of sanctions and export control cases to cyber vulnerabilities that open companies up to foreign attacks.” In September 2022, the DOJ updated its enforcement guidance, notably confirming that misconduct posing a grave threat to national security will be an aggravating factor in deciding whether to take enforcement action in corporate criminal matters. The Lafarge case and other recent enforcement actions highlight the DOJ’s commitment to these principles and portend heightened focus on prosecuting corporations whose compliance and oversight missteps result in threats to U.S. national security.…

Continue Reading DOJ Continues to Prioritize National Security-Related Cases with First Corporate Terrorism Support Prosecution

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a new policy statement expanding its criminal referral policy. While the FTC’s authority is limited to civil enforcement, the agency aims to enhance its efforts to address misconduct the FTC uncovers that may trigger criminal sanctions for companies and individuals and make referrals to law enforcement when appropriate. The agency aims to deter potential criminal activity in both its consumer protection and competition arms.

In announcing its new policy statement, the FTC pointed to its existing efforts regarding criminal referrals, including 36 referrals this year to prosecutors from the FTC’s Criminal Liaison Unit and 840 formal requests for cooperation from criminal law enforcement partners over the past five years. The FTC reported that prosecutors relied on FTC information and support to charge 228 new defendants and obtained 283 new pleas or convictions over a five-year period.

On a going forward basis, the FTC has signaled that it will continue to prioritize the referral of potential criminal conduct and take steps to facilitate uptake of those cases by appropriate authorities. Specifically, the FTC pointed to four practices to forward the goals of the new policy statement:

  • Developing guidelines to ensure criminal law violations — particularly by major corporations and their executives — are identified by staff and promptly referred to criminal law enforcement agencies;
  • Convening regular meetings with federal, state, and local criminal authorities to facilitate coordination with FTC and law enforcement;
  • Offering further trainings for all law enforcement regarding the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel database system, which offers access to, and analysis of, millions of consumer complaints and fraud allegations submitted to the FTC; and
  • Publicly reporting the agency’s criminal referral efforts at regular intervals to highlight criminal prosecutions. The FTC will begin issuing regular public reports on its work detailing the number of referrals, the general nature of the alleged conduct involved, and, when appropriate, more detailed information concerning criminal enforcement actions that stem from Commission actions and investigations.

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Continue Reading FTC Issues Policy Statement Aimed at Increasing Criminal Referrals for Corporations & Executives

On July 28, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused six individuals and their companies with securities fraud in connection with two cannabis-related businesses in California that raised $25 million in an unregistered securities offering.  The SEC’s complaint was filed in the Central District of California and seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten…