The purpose of this paper is to explore situations in which US Federal Courts may impose severe fines and sanctions to compel the disclosure of information maintained outside the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore situations in which US Federal Courts may impose severe fines and sanctions to compel the disclosure of information maintained outside the territorial limits of the USA by enforcing either a grand jury subpoena or an Internal Revenue Service administrative summons.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a memorandum of law summarizing and analyzing relevant US legal precedents, including In Re Grand Jury Proceedings (Bank of Nova Scotia), 740 F.2d 817 (11th Cir. 1984), a case that has come to be eponymous for any US judicial process calling for the production of foreign records: “Bank of Nova Scotia subpoenas.”
Findings
The paper finds that, in appropriate circumstances, US Federal Courts have been willing to impose coercive fines and sanctions on individuals or entities that have failed to produce records and other information that is outside the territorial jurisdiction of the USA.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis is focused on two US legal precedents that exemplify the factors considered by US Federal Courts in arriving at a decision. Many other cases are cited but not examined in depth.
Practical implications
The paper is of interest to anyone engaging in cross‐border activities with the USA, particularly multi‐national financial organizations.
Originality/value
The paper provides an insight into the US law enforcement tools that may be deployed against multi‐national organizations.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to Section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which deals with “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to Section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which deals with “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations” and is popularly known as the “RICO” statute.
Design/methodology/approach
RICO was designed to protect legitimate enterprises from infiltration by organized crime. The paper discusses one case in which a bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), was found to have violated RICO by engaging in prohibited racketeering activities and a second case in which another bank, UBS AG, engaged in activities criminal under US law. The paper then details some of the activities of the two banks and explores the remedies available under RICO.
Findings
Following the failure of BCCI, the US filed a criminal information against the bank that included a forfeiture allegation under Section 1963 of RICO. In February of 2009, UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank, entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the US Department of Justice, under the terms of which the bank agreed to waive indictment and consented to the filing of an information charging the bank with participating in a conspiracy to defraud the USA and its agency, the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of 18 USC 371.
Originality/value
BCCI may be something of an extreme case in terms of the breadth and scope of the illegal activities in which it engaged. But, it is not the only example of a bank gone wrong. Unfortunately, abuses can and do continue, although not every case may end with RICO forfeiture. Indeed, in a recent case with faint echoes of BCCI, RICO did not come into play at all.
Details
Keywords
Nicholas A. Conzelmann, Lovro Gorjan, Fateme Sarraf, Lily D. Poulikakos, Manfred N. Partl, Christoph R. Müller and Frank J. Clemens
This study aims to fabricate complex ceramic tetrahedron structures, which are challenging to produce by more conventional methods such as injection molding. To achieve this aim…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to fabricate complex ceramic tetrahedron structures, which are challenging to produce by more conventional methods such as injection molding. To achieve this aim, thermoplastic-ceramic composite filaments were developed and printed with unmodified, consumer-grade, fused deposition modelling (FDM) printers instead.
Design/methodology/approach
Al2O3 ceramic powder was mixed with ethylene vinyl acetate polymer as a binder (50 Vol.- per cent) to form a filament with a constant diameter of 1.75 mm. After the printing and thermal treatment stages, the shrinkage and mechanical properties of cuboid and tetrahedron structures were investigated.
Findings
The shrinkage of the parts was found to be anisotropic, depending on the orientation of the printing pattern, with an increase of 2.4 per cent in the (vertical) printing direction compared to the (horizontal) printing layer direction. The alignment of the ceramic particle orientations introduced by FDM printing was identified as a potential cause of the anisotropy. This study further demonstrates that using a powder bed during the thermal debinding process yields sintered structures that can withstand twice the compressive force.
Originality/value
Ceramic FDM had previously been used primarily for simple scaffold structures. In this study, the applicability of ceramic FDM was extended from simple scaffolds to more complex geometries such as hollow tetrahedra. The structures produced in this study contain dense parts printed from multiple contiguous layers, as compared to the open structures usually found in scaffolds. The mechanical properties of the complex ceramic parts made by using this FDM technique were also subjected to investigation.