News

On April 15, 2010, Justin Sher participated on a panel hosted by the New York American Inn of Court entitled, “Does a New Era of Ponzi Scheme Fraud Necessitate Heightened Regulation?”  Mr. Sher discussed proposals made by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to subject investment advisers such as hedge funds to greater regulation.  A transcript of testimony by FINRA’s chairman before Congress on this topic can be found here.

On April 9, 2010, Justin Sher filed a civil RICO lawsuit on behalf of a Taiwanese entertainment firm against a booking agency based in South Carolina.  The high profile lawsuit alleges that the booking agency falsely claimed to represent premier hop-hop artists and caused Mr. Sher’s client hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.  Read a news article about the case here.

On March 9, 2010, Justin Sher, working in conjunction with lawyers from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, successfully petitioned two federal judges in the Southern District of New York for a Monsanto hearing.  The court’s order required the government to demonstrate that it had the authority to continue to freeze certain assets belonging to Justin Sher’s client.  The groundbreaking decision allowed Mr. Sher’s client to use previously frozen assets to exercise his constitutional right to counsel of his choice.  Read the decision here.

On February 3, 2010, Justin Sher achieved a victory in the Commercial Division of the New York County Supreme Court on behalf of an executive of an entertainment company.  The plaintiff sought to hold the executive in contempt for failing to comply with certain discovery requests.  Mr. Sher argued successfully before Judge Yates that the executive had adequately complied with the plaintiff’s discovery requests and that any outstanding requests were irrelevant and unreasonable.

On December 15, 2009, in a high profile enforcement action pending in the Southern District of New York,  Justin Sher defeated motions by the SEC and the CFTC which sought to hold an investment advisor in contempt and to require him to turn over funds.  Read the decision here.

On November 23, 2009, the New York Federal Criminal Practice blog featured an article by Justin Sher relating to the criminal cases against Joseph Bruno, the former majority leader of the New York State Senate, and Bernard Kerik, the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department.  Both cases involved allegations of “honest services” fraud, a controversial federal crime that will be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the upcoming term.  A link to the article may be found here.

Justin Sher is defending the former co-owner of the New York Islanders in a high-profile enforcement action brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  A recent news article relating to the case may be found here.

On October 28, 2009, Justin Sher participated in a presentation on honest services fraud for the New York American Inn of Court called, “Honest Services Fraud:  A Thin Line Between Innocent Conduct and Criminal Conduct.”  The presentation included a discussion of the issues that were addressed by the United States Supreme Court in its review of United States v. Skilling, United States v. Weyhrauch and United States v. Black.

On March 26, 2009, Justin M. Sher spoke about “mark-to-market” accounting and short-sale regulations on a panel hosted by the New York American Inn of Court entitled, ”The Future of Securities Regulation Under the Obama Administration.”

Mr. Sher authored an article concerning conflicts of interest in criminal cases for the New York Federal Criminal Practice Blog.  A link to that article can be found here.