February 27, 2018 | BloombergBNA White Collar Crime Report

The 11th Circuit Upholds Longest Sentences Ever Imposed In Food Safety Prosecution—What Can We Learn from the Case?

1 min

"The 11th Circuit Upholds Longest Sentences Ever Imposed In Food Safety Prosecution—What Can We Learn from the Case?" article by Venable partner, Michael Blume, and associate, Nicholas Mongelluzzo, was published in BloombergBNA White Collar Crime Report on February 27, 2018. Here is an excerpt:

There are many lessons to be learned from the PCA case. Here, we suggest three. First, the government will be aggressive in prosecuting food safety cases. The message sent by a 28-year prison sentence is unmistakable. Second, courts maintain firm confidence in the jury system and have a deep trust that jurors will decide cases on the facts presented to them, without bias. This trust holds even in highly publicized cases about which jurors may have some background knowledge. Third, anyone interacting with government investigators, of any type, must take extreme care. A false answer to an investigator's question puts corporate employees at extreme risk.