Crisis Response
Investigations and
White-Collar Defense
Aurelian’s Chambers-ranked investigations and crisis response practice:
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Some situations require truly independent counsel. Aurelian’s lawyers work with Boards, Audit Committees, Special Committees, and government entities to conduct investigations independent of management or others under scrutiny. We investigate facts, assess legal implications, and provide robust recommendations. We then work with clients to mitigate legal, financial, and reputational risks.
We created Aurelian, in large part, to be better placed to provide independent counsel to clients. As a boutique, we have many fewer conflicts than larger law firms. That empowers us to give advice that organizations and their regulators can trust, without worrying that counsel is biased by its prior relationships with management.
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Aurelian works regularly with organizations to investigate serious problems, including potential violations of criminal and civil fraud laws. We have more than a decade of experience working with health care entities, colleges and universities, non-profits, financial entities, public and private businesses, and governments to investigate such matters.
Our lawyers take a broad-based approach to problems. While we bring analytical clarity to legal issues, we also help clients think through the collateral consequences of their legal problems. Legal problems are not one-size-fits-all. We tailor solutions to clients’ values.
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White-collar investigations present difficult challenges to organizations. Aurelian’s lawyers represent organizations facing investigations by federal and state agencies.
We have successfully resolved organizational matters with the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Education, Federal Trade Commission, New York State Attorney General, New York State Department of Health, and New York State Education Department, among others.
Our lawyers have obtained declinations – the holy grail of a defense – from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the Office of the New York State Attorney General (including its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for organizations, executives, and healthcare professionals in various matters, including criminal, securities fraud, civil fraud, and False Claims Act investigations.
When declinations are not possible, we have frequently resolved criminal, regulatory, and civil matters for our clients through favorable settlements.
Experience
Illustrative experiences of Aurelian attorneys, including from prior representations before founding Aurelian Law:
Independent Investigations
Public company Special Committee investigation of Board Chair and CEO. Investigated allegations of serious misconduct by a public company’s Board Chair and CEO, after which the Board implemented leadership and governance changes.
Healthcare Board investigation of former officer. Investigated allegations that a former officer engaged in financial misconduct; handled a self-disclosure with a no-penalty regulatory resolution.
Nonprofit Board investigation of officer. Investigated allegations of wrongdoing by executive director, after which Board implemented leadership changes and other remediation.
Nonprofit Board investigation of Board member. Investigated alleged Board member wrongdoing and conflicts, after which Board membership changed.
Municipal entity investigation of leadership. Investigated, on behalf of municipal governing body, alleged misconduct, ultimately clearing municipal leadership.
Nonprofit Special Committee investigation of Board member. Investigated, on behalf of a Special Committee, allegations of misappropriation by former Board member. Guided organization through remediation. Made multiple self-disclosures with regulators, and obtained declinations from all regulators. Recovered significant misappropriated funds for nonprofit organization.
Internal Investigations
Healthcare investigations and self-disclosures. Worked with a wide range of healthcare entities, large and small, to assess potential criminal, regulatory, and False Claims Act exposure. Helped clients understand self-reporting obligations and strategies, and negotiated resolutions with the U.S. Department of Justice, the New York Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), and healthcare agencies including CMS.
College and university investigations. Assisted colleges and universities in assessing their exposure under the False Claims Act, including in matters involving potential grant mismanagement or fraud, as well as student financial aid, incentive compensation, and the terms of program participation agreements. Helped clients with appropriate self-disclosures.
Nonprofit investigations. Investigated financial misconduct by a former leader at a large non-profit foundation. Made multiple self-disclosures with highly favorable resolutions with regulators; and cooperated with law enforcement to secure successful prosecution of the bad actor.
Government client investigation with multiple disclosures. Guided government client through an investigation identifying fraud by a series of counter-parties. Navigated self-disclosures to criminal and civil agencies at the federal and state levels. Obtained significant restitution.
White Collar Defense
Secured unprecedentedly favorable SEC settlement. Obtained an unprecedented no-fine, no-monitor resolution of an SEC enforcement action against a city and its former finance director.
Obtained SEC declination of major disclosure fraud investigations. Led Fortune 500 company through a multi-year SEC investigation into alleged disclosure fraud, working to teach the SEC Staff that no case was warranted. The SEC ultimately took no action.
Reversed MFCU healthcare felony charging decision. Overturned felony charging decisions presented to a healthcare client as a fait accompli by the Office of the New York Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), going up the chain of command at MFCU to persuade the office that no charges were warranted.
Overcame DOJ proposed False Claims Act claims against a financial services client. Persuaded trial attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice and Assistant U.S. Attorneys at a New York U.S. Attorney’s Office to walk away from proposed False Claims Act charges against their financial services sector client. The claims were declined and the matter ended.
Obtained multiple other declinations. Obtained additional declinations from federal and state law enforcement agencies for organizations and individuals in the healthcare, education, and financial services sectors.