On Friday, the Ninth Circuit, in United States v. Stringer, reversed a district court ruling that limited the use of financial records submitted to the SEC, as part of a civil suit, in a parallel criminal proceeding. The district court held criminal indictments were to be dismissed, and that subpoena responses from SEC response could not be used in a criminal trial against defendants because the government had engaged in deceitful conduct by using a civil investigation to develop the criminal investigation, in violation of the defendant’s due process rights.
The Ninth Circuit vacated the dismissal because the standard forms sent to the defendant by the SEC disclosed the fact that the information provided in the response could be used in a criminal proceeding. Judge Schroeder, writing for the Circuit, stated “[t]here is nothing improper about the government undertaking simultaneous criminal and civil investigations, and nothing in the government’s actual conduct of those investigations amounted to deceit.”
The case is not yet published, but is available on Westlaw at 2008 WL 901563.
Written by Benson Varghese. ♦ Contact Benson.♦ Have Res Ipsa Blog delivered to you.
