New York partner John Carney, co-leader of the firm's national White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations group, was quoted in the December 15, 2009, Compliance Week article, "Honest-Services Fraud Comes Under Fierce Attack."
According to the article, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments recently over the merits of the "honest services statute," which ostensibly requires executives to avoid corrupt activity and execute their duties in good faith. Defense lawyers, however, have long said the 21-year-old law is imprecise in its language, and lets federal prosecutors pursue public and private officials under flimsy pretenses.
Even if the court invalidates the honest-services statute, that does not mean disaster for corruption prosecutions, according to the article. In cases where the economic gain can be quantified and traced back to a defendant, "prosecutors have an array of other statutes to proceed under," said Carney, a former federal prosecutor. "In other, less clear situations, the loss of the honest-services statute could result in a significant narrowing of the types of conduct subject to prosecution."