White Collar Roundup, February 2011

It's PATRIOTic.

Legislation has been introduced in the Senate and the House to extend portions of the USA PATRIOT Act that are to expire on February 28, 2011. The bills seek to extend the provisions that relate to allowing the FBI to seek FISA warrants to force businesses to turn over customer records and allowing "roving wiretaps" (wiretaps for any device a person uses instead of one particular device).

But Everyone Else Was Doing It.

It doesn't matter that the government chose not to prosecute a coconspirator for engaging in the same fraud scheme. According to the Seventh Circuit, a sentencing judge can't take that fact into consideration when sentencing the fraudster who was prosecuted.