White-Collar Crime

Orange County Business Journal, Jan 21-Jan 27, 2008 by Lee, Jessica C

Former Chief of U.S. Attorney's Office Doing Seminars for Businesses

The former chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Santa Ana plans to offer seminars on white-collar crime for businesses.

Wayne Gross, who now anchors a white-collar criminal defense practice at Snell & Wilmer LLP in Costa Mesa, is set to start the series next month.

The seminars plan to teach local companies about white-collar crime, how to prevent it and what to do if they are the subject of a criminal investigation, Gross said.

"My primary goal is to keep companies and executives out of trouble at a time when they can easily find themselves in trouble," Gross said.

One seminar is set to include Robb Adkins, current chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office, as a guest speaker. He'll offer insight on how the Justice Department investigates fraud cases and what investigators look for.

The seminars also plan to discuss various types of white-collar crimes including accounting fraud, such as stock options backdating, tax evasion, embezzlement, trade secrets and trademark infringement, he said.

Law enforcement and regulation has changed dramatically during the years in response to corporate scandals such as Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Tyco International Ltd., Gross said.

OC-home to midsize and small companies-needs to be informed about federal regulations, he said.

"It's important for the Orange County business community to know that it has not escaped the attention of federal law enforcement and the (securities and Exchange Commission)," Gross said. "That attention is not limited to large companies. Midsize and small companies can be targeted as well."

Gross has seen his fair share of crime during his time as federal prosecutor.

As the head of the U.S. Attorney's Office, he oversaw a handful of headline grabbing investigations.

Gross prosecuted cases such as the 1990s fertility scandal at University of California, Irvine, and the Katarina Witt stalker case.

He recently oversaw an investigation into stock options backdating at Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp.

Last year, Broadcom restated results for 1998 through 2005, taking a charge of $2.2 billion for options that were improperly accounted for-more than any of the some 200 companies that were investigated for options manipulation.

The investigation includes an ongoing probe of Broadcom cofounder Henry Nicholas, who left the company as chief executive in 2003.

The Nicholas probe, overseen by Gross and led by Santa Ana office deputy chief Ken Julian, so far examined civil suits by a former Nicholas personal assistant and contractors alleging he used drugs and prostitutes. No charges have been filed.

Gross couldn't comment on the Broadcom or Nicholas investigations.

He also couldn't discuss the county's most recent salacious case-allegations surrounding Sheriff Mike Carona, who is under investigation for allegedly using his office to enrich himself and friends. Carona resigned from office last week.

Gross recused himself from the investigation when he headed the office.

Private Sector

Until now, Gross' entire legal career has been centered on being a federal prosecutor. He isn't the first U.S. Attorney to make the transition to the private sector.

John Hueston, former prosecutor in the Enron case and Gross' predecessor at the U.S. Attorney's office, joined Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella LLP's Newport Beach office in 2006.

Hueston headed the U.S. Attorney's Santa Ana office until 2004 when he joined the government's Enron task force.

Practicing law in the private sector is different from working for the government, Gross said. He said he's adjusted well to the transition.

His practice at Snell & Wilmer is generating business, he said.

"I'm getting a lot of calls," he said.

The crime seminars could generate buzz for Snell & Wilmer's white-collar criminal defense practice.

But Gross said he doesn't plan to use the seminars to directly pitch his legal services.

Phoenix-based Snell & Wilmer is looking to the white-collar criminal defense practice to carve out a niche among the county's big three law firms: Costa Mesa's Rutan & Tucker LLP, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP of Irvine and Newport Beach-based Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth.

Snell & Wilmer's Costa Mesa office counts almost 70 lawyers and was No. 7 on the Business Journal's most recent law firms list, which ranks firms by the number of local attorneys.

Snell & Wilmer is sponsoring Gross' seminars. The firm still is working out a few details such as where to host them and how many seminars will be included in the series.

Gross said that number would depend on its response.