Internal Investigations Based on our experience in white collar criminal and civil fraud matters, we are often engaged to conduct internal investigations and to monitor corruption on behalf of public and private institutional clients. The purpose of the investigations is to ferret out potential wrongdoing, to resolve allegations of misconduct, and to make recommendations regarding new policies and procedures that will serve to prevent any violations of the law in the future. In October 1994, our partner Ronald DePetris was appointed by United States District Judge Eugene Nickerson to the position of Independent Supervisor in connection with a Consent Decree obtained by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. His mandate as Independent Supervisor was to investigate and eliminate any corruption within Local 851 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Consent Decree authorized him to retain legal, investigative, accounting, and other assistance in the discharge of his responsibilities. Our firm served as legal counsel to the Independent Supervisor. Investigations were supervised by our senior attorney Seth Kaufman, who had supervised many complex corruption investigations in his twelve years with the New York City Department of Investigation, where he helped formulate solutions to systemic problems of inefficiency and corruption, served as a legal advisor and consultant on several corruption prevention projects, and, in his role as Deputy Director of the Inspector General Liaison Unit, helped oversee and direct the work of the Offices of Inspector General in various city agencies. The Office of the Independent Supervisor brought a number of disciplinary proceedings against members of Local 851 to eliminate any traces of corruption. Several proceedings resulted in the termination of the charged individual’s membership in the Local and a lifetime bar to Teamster membership. In the latter part of 2001, it was determined that the union was ready to conduct fair elections of officers. The election process was supervised by the Office of the Independent Supervisor. The results of the first democratic election for officers in the history of the Local were certified to the Court in June 2001. Pursuant to an amendment to the Consent Decree, the term of the Independent Supervisor was extended until after the next regularly scheduled election for Local 851 officers, to be held after the completion of an investigation and screening of the prospective candidates by the Office of the Independent Supervisor. Our firm also served as legal counsel to the Independent Supervisor in two RICO cases brought on behalf of the union against two employers of Local 851 members in order to recover damages caused by the employers’ participation in unlawful labor payoffs to union officers. In both cases, we recovered multi-million dollar awards for the union, which rectified the serious financial injury caused by the prior corrupt conduct and enabled the union to restore its financial health. We have also conducted internal investigations on behalf of corporate and institutional clients, including a large commuter railroad, a major charitable organization, and a number of businesses and corporations.