In the wake of the stock market implosion of 2008, public
companies are being subjected to the highest level of scrutiny by
government regulators and prosecutors in recent memory. Thanks to
political grandstanding and the populist urge to identify
scapegoats, any public company senior executive caught in the glare
of public anger directed toward "Wall Street" runs the
risk of having a multi-decade career ended in one twenty-four hour
news cycle. Just ask Rick Wagoner, the recently deposed Chairman
and CEO of General Motors.
Regulators and prosecutors alike have been armed with new
weapons and increased budgets to battle perceived corporate
corruption, both domestic and global. The result has been a record
number of civil penalties against corporations and individuals
imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the
Department of Justice in recent years, relying on decades-old
statutes as the legal basis for liability, including the aggressive
use of the long
