Investigations

Today’s corporations are subject to civil enforcement and criminal prosecution under a wide-array of federal and state laws. Wildman Harrold’s Investigations Practice represents both individuals and organizations promptly and with discretion in significant matters throughout the country. Our attorneys have defended investigations brought by federal, state, and local authorities, including the Department of Justice, the SEC, the FTC, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Attorneys and Attorneys General, and various municipal authorities. We have conducted internal investigations for corporate clients involving subjects as diverse as defense contracting, antitrust, accounting, health care, executive misconduct, corporate theft, and environmental and other regulatory matters. Recent experience includes the following:

• We were retained to investigate a series of complex international financial transactions by a multinational corporation to determine the legality of the transactions and advise on both the exposure and the appropriate form of transactions.
• We conducted an internal investigation into alleged improprieties by a large government contractor engaged in the rebuilding of Iraq following the second Gulf War and counseled our client through a voluntary disclosure and subsequent criminal investigation.
• We were retained by a special committee of a large investment bank to conduct an investigation into alleged widespread gender and racial bias, with the unusual feature that the purported whistleblower was also a shareholder of the company and had threatened to bring a derivative action as well as personal claims.
• For an electronics conglomerate we were retained by the Audit Committee to conduct an investigation into alleged improprieties by senior management. We were subsequently retained by a special committee of the Board to advise on a possible tender offer by senior management, and we ultimately issued a report which led to the dismissal of three members of senior management, who were subsequently indicted and convicted for their improper actions.
• We served as counsel to a special committee of the Board of a publicly held company in the advertising and marketing industry. The matter involved the investigation of alleged fraud, including Sarbanes-Oxley violations by an officer of a wholly owned subsidiary. We advised as to the results of the investigation, including Sarbanes-Oxley infractions.
• We represented one of the world’s leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services in separate internal investigations of threats made to a customer’s executives by an anonymous employee, and the obtaining by an employee of improper loans from certain vendors. Each confidential investigation was successfully completed: an important customer relationship was salvaged; arguable appearances of impropriety were eliminated; and appropriate controls to prevent future occurrences were implemented.
• We defended an aerospace and defense manufacturer in a False Claim Act action, unsealed after a three-year grand jury investigation, resulting in both a declination and a decision by the government not to intervene in the FCA case. When new allegations surfaced, two more grand juries were empanelled to investigate document destruction claims and allegations of mischarging. The government filed a new civil complaint on the expanded allegations. After 16 years, our client resolved all claims through a civil settlement with the government.