Law Flashcards
To be effective, securities regulation must balance the legitimate needs of businesses to raise capital against the need _____________. In addition
need to protect investors.
In addition,
Fostering an active and competitive market
Maintaining market confidence
Reducing financial crime
Discouraging behavior that might harm
World Bank Principles for Effective Insolvency and Creditor / Debtor Regimes (World Bank Principles) recommends that the administrator have broad powers, including:
- the right to cancel fraudulent contracts or transactions entered into by the debtor.
- the power to collect preserve, and dispose of the debtor’s property
- The ability to intervene with contracts to meet the objectives of the insolvency process
- The power to examine the debtor, the debtor’s agents, or other people with knowledge of the debtor’s affairs and compel them to provide relevant information.
If a subject has purchased a large of number of bearer instruments, each for less than the jurisdiction’s threshold for mandatory reports on currency transactions, this could be an indication of:
structuring scheme
Structuring occurs when a deposit or other transfer is made using a method that is specifically designed to avoid regulatory reporting requirements or an institution’s internal controls.
Two basic categories of admissible evidence:
direct evidence and circumstantial evidence
Direct evidence - evidence that tends to prove or disprove or disprove a fact in issue directly (EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY or a CONFESSION)
Circumstantial evidence - evidence that tends to prove or disprove facts in issue indirectly, by inference.
To recover for defamation, the plaintiff must generally prove all the following elements:
- the defendant made an untrue statement of fact
- the statement was communicated to third parties
- the statement was made on an unprivileged occasion
- the statement damaged the subject’s reputation
Burden of proof
the evidence one party must present to prove each element of a cause of crime.
Common law - beyond measurable doubt
Civil law - “conviction in time” or “inner conviction of the judge.
- Means that the fact finder needs to be convicted at the inner deep seated level.
- less certain beyond a reasonable doubt.
In most common law countries, a criminal appellate court is generally permitted to make its own legal conclusions but not its own factual determinations when reviewing a case.
True
appeals in common law systems are typically limited to issues of law.
Unlike the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Bribery Act makes it a crime to bribe a foreign public official in connection with international business transactions.
False
Both the UK Bribery Act and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) make it a crime to offer foreign public officials bribes or to accept bribes from them in connection with international business transactions, and their prohibitions on bribing foreign government officials are broadly comparable.
Which of the following would be an example of a narrative question that an attorney might ask an expert witness during direct examination in an adversarial system?
“Could you please describe the steps you took during your examination? “
Narrative Questions - broad open-ended questions that allow experts to state their opinions in their own words with minimal prompting.
Direct examination is the initial questioning of a witness by the party that called the witness or the judge.
Pretrial written examination for discovery
a method of pretrial civil discovery.
Deposition
- a list of questions that the party, usually through a lawyer, is required to answer in writing.
Criminal income and wealth tax evasion:
Failing to submit a report
Intentionally misrepresenting one’s income or wealth
Pretending to transfer assets to another person or entity to lower tax liability
Intentionally failing to withhold the taxable portion of an employee’s income, if so required
Failing to report foreign bank accounts or other taxable assets, if required
Falsely claiming income was earned in another jurisdiction to lower tax liability
Fraudulent conveyance
a transfer is a fraudulent conveyance if the purpose of the transfer is to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor.
What is the civil wrong that occurs when one party makes public statements about another party’s private life that are not of public concern?
Public disclosure of private facts
Public disclosure of private facts occurs when one party makes public statements about another party’s private life that are not of public concern.
Abel, a fraud examiner, interviewed Beta, a fraud suspect. No other people were present at the interview. During the interview, Abel accused Beta of committing fraud. This accusation later turned out to be erroneous, and Beta sued Abel for damages.
If Beta sued Abel for slander, ________
Beta would not recover damages because Abel did not publish the accusation to a third party.
In common law jurisdictions, the litigation privilege applies only to documents and things prepared in anticipation of litigation
True
To recover for defamation, the plaintiff must generally prove all of the following elements:
- the defendant made an untrue statement of fact.
- the statement was communicated (published) to third parties.
- the statement was made on an unprivileged occasion.
- the statement damaged the subject’s reputation.
Consumption taxes examples:
- Sales taxes - tax on goods or services, usually assess at the consumer level and collected by the retailer or seller at the point of sales.
- value added taxes - a system that imposes a tax on an item that is assessed incrementally based on its increase in clue at each point along a supply chain, from manufacture, to wholesale, to retailer, to consumer.
- Excise taxes - a tax on a narrow class of goods
redemption scheme -
a money launderer purchases life insurance or a similar policy with a redemption provision and redeems the policy with the intent to make the income appear legitimate.
DNFBPs - designated nonfinancial businesses and professions
- casinos
- real estate agents
- dealers in precious metals and stones
- legal professions at professional firms
- trust and company service providers.
Perjury
- the defendant made a false statement
- the defendant made the false statement while under oath
- the false statement was material or relevant to the proceeding
- the defendant made the statement with the knowledge of its falsity.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations advise that countries should require financial institutions to keep certain records and establish anti-money laundering (AML) policies.
True / False
True
For a conflict of interest claim to be actionable, the conflict must be undisclosed.
True / False
True
Bars, restaurants, and nightclubs are favorite businesses through which to launder funds because:
sales are generally in cash.
Three stages of money laundering:
PLACEMENT - launderer introduces their illegal profits into the financial system. Incremental deposits.
LAYERING - create additional transfers and fake loans involving foreign entities
Integration - money is integrated back into the economy in a way that makes it appear to be part of a legitimate business transaction.
AML Program requirements -
- the development of internal procedures and controls, including adequate screening procedures to ensure high standards in employee hiring
- ongoing employee training programs on money laundering risks
- an independent audit function to test the effectiveness of the programs
- the designation of a compliance officer at the management level.
To prove that a defendant committed criminal perjury, the government prosecutor must show that the defendant while in the court of law, knowingly made a false statement that influenced the jury’s decision.
True / False -
False -
no need to say it in the the court of law.
Perjury - The defendant made a false statement.
The defendant made the false statement while under oath.
The false statement was material or relevant to the proceeding.
The defendant made the statement with knowledge of its falsity.
To criminalize perjury, however, do not require that the false statement be given in a court of law or that the false statement influence a jury’s decision.
Churning
the excessive trading of a customer account to generate commissions while disregarding the customer’s interests. Specifically, churning occurs when an investment professional excessively trades an account for the purpose of increasing their commissions instead of furthering the customer’s investment goals.
International Organization of Securities Commissions Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation (IOSCO) is based on the following objectives
- protection of investors
- ensuring that the markets are fair, efficient, and transparent
- reduction of systematic risk.
In Common Law jurisdictions, courts are bound by two sources of substantive law -
- law from statues (including codes or other laws passed by legislatures)
- judge-made law based on previous court decisions.
Common defenses to tax evasion:
- No tax deficiency / no tax liability
- Lack of willfulness: a good faith belief that one is not violating the tax law
- avoidance, not evasion:
- reliance on an attorney or accountant
Investment contract provides that a contract, transaction, or scheme is an investment contract if all of the following four elements are met:
- There is an investment of money or other asset.
- the investment is in a common enterprise
- the investment was made with expectations of making a profit.
- the profits are to come solely from the efforts of people other than the investor.
Walters is the mayor of a mid-size town. Because he is well-known and liked in the town, the prosecutor wants to move the trial to another town in which Walters is not known. The prosecution believes that such a move will ensure a more unbiased verdict. If the prosecution wishes to move the trial to a different city, it must request which of the following?
Change of venue.
Rules of venue can be based on a mixture of factors, including convenience to the parties (e.g., where they reside) and where the acts that underlie the case occurred. In some instances, there will be multiple courts that have jurisdiction over a case, and the parties that believe they are subject to prejudice in a court will seek to change the venue to a court more favorable to themselves.
relevant evidence -
evidence that tends to make some fact at issue more or less likely that it would be without the evidence.
To recover for intentional infliction of emotional distress
the plaintiff must prove all of the following elements:
- The defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct.
- The defendant acted intentionally or recklessly (i.e., the defendant intended that their conduct would cause severe emotional distress, or they acted recklessly with regard to whether their actions would cause severe emotional distress).
- The victim actually did suffer emotional or mental distress as a result of the defendant’s conduct.
In most common law jurisdictions, for a document to be admitted into evidence, it must be properly __________; that is, the party offering the document must produce some evidence to show it is, in fact, what the party says it is.
authenticated
Which of the following would be an example of direct evidence?
A. In an embezzlement trial, expert testimony regarding the defendant’s mental functioning and drug addiction
B. In a misappropriation trial, eyewitness testimony of someone saying that they saw the defendant steal items from the inventory of the defendant’s employer
C. In an embezzlement trial, witness testimony about a suspicious situation in which the defendant was involved
D. In a misappropriation trial, testimony that the defendant deposited $2,000 into their account and that, on the same day, $2,000 was stolen from the defendant’s employer
B. in a misappropriation trial eyewitness testimony of someone saying that they say the defendant steel items from the inventory of the defendant’s employer.
Direct evidence - evidence that tends to prove or disprove a fact in issue directly, such as eyewitness testimony or a confession.
To determine whether authorization (e.g., a search warrant) by a judicial officer or other sanctioned official is required to conduct a search in a jurisdiction with laws granting people the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure by authorities, it is necessary to first determine whether or not _____________ is/are involved in the search.
Government authorities.
Which of the following is a common law invasion of privacy civil wrong that occurs when an individual intentionally encroaches into an area where another individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy and the encroachment would be highly offensive or objectionable to a reasonable person?
Intrusion into an individual’s private matters
The purpose of the authentication requirement in most common law systems is to ensure ______
that evidence is what it purports to be and is genuine, not a forgery.
Myopic vision
a tactic primarily used against expert witnesses, entails getting the expert witness to admit excessive time being spent on a specific matter, and then selecting an area to highlight in which the witness is unsure or has not done much work. This area might not be central to the issues in the case or to the conclusions reached.
Then, the questioning party will make a large issue of it and suggest that the witness’s vision is myopic in that the work was limited in extent or scope and, as such, substandard.
Purposes of opposing counsel during the cross-examination of a witness:
- Dismiss the importance of the witness’s testimony
- Discredit the witness’s testimony itself
- to make the witness contradict former statements the witness made during the litigation process.
Generally before allowing an expert to testify before a jury in an adversarial jurisdiction, a judge will make three determinations:
- Is the person qualified as an expert witness?
- Will the expertise of the witness assist the jury in understanding the evidence or determining a fact at issue? In other words, is the proposed testimony relevant to the facts of the case?
- Is the testimony reliable?
To recover for defamation, the plaintiff must generally prove all of the following elements:
- the defendant made an untrue statement of fact.
- the statement was communicated (published) to third parties
- the statement was made on an unprivileged occasion.
- the statement damaged the subject’s reputation.
Difference between the appointment of expert witnesses in most adversarial and inquisitorial jurisdictions:
Experts in inquisitorial jurisdictions are primarily appointed and presented by the court, whereas the parties usually select and present experts in adversarial jurisdictions.
Items that can affect the rights that employees may have during an internal investigation
- existence of a collective bargaining agreement
- existence of an employment contract
- existence of a union contract.