Want to know more about the latest trends in white collar crime affecting businesses? There may not be an app for that yet, but there is a newsletter from the American Bar Association.

The White Collar Crime Committee, part of the ABA’s Business Law section, is planning to publish three issues a year. It sent out its first issue last week [PDF].

The committee and the newsletter focus on those aspects of white collar criminal law that impact squarely on businesses and executives. The effort is chaired by David Rosenfield, counsel in Herrick, Feinstein’s white collar defense practice in New York.

Rosenfield, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, is an ex-federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey, and a former staff attorney in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division. His committee is made up of some 270 attorneys, and includes several former U.S. Attorneys, many current and former assistant USAs, and leading outside counsel in the field.

The first issue of the newsletter contains items on:

  • The increase in healthcare fraud—2011 saw a record number of cases, with a nearly 69 percent increase over 2010; GlaxoSmithKline’s $3 billion pending settlement with U.S. Department of Justice over off-label marketing of drugs; and GE Healthcare Inc.’s $30 million settlement in a whistleblower suit that alleged overbilling of Medicare by a company that GE acquired.
  • Cases pursued under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, involving Bridgestone Corporation, Aon Corporation, and the December indictments of eight former Siemens AG executives.
  • The cyberfraud indictment of two Russians accused of stealing identifies, accessing victims’ brokerage accounts, and executing trades in order to manipulate stock prices.
  • Securities fraud, including the Galleon Group insider trading scandal.
  • Major stories involving financial institutions, including government probes of the MF Global, Ltd., collapse; and details of U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff’s criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. case.

In addition, the newsletter offers a longer article discussing the new whistleblower rules promulgated by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

For more on this and other ABA newsletters, visit their publications page.