Latest news with #AntitrustDivision
CNBC
a day ago
- Business
- CNBC
Can President Trump fire Powell? Inside the process to fire a Fed Chair
CNBC's Steve Liesman and Jonathan Kanter, former Assistant Attorney General for Justice Department's Antitrust Division, join 'Squawk Box' to discuss the escalating feud between President Trump and Fed Chair Powell, how Trump could fire Powell, and more.
Business Wire
7 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Kirby McInerney LLP Announces Creation of DOJ Antitrust Whistleblower Practice
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP is pleased to announce that it has created a new practice group focused on supporting whistleblowers under the newly-announced U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division Whistleblower Rewards Program. The DOJ Antitrust Division's Whistleblower Rewards Program offers rewards for individuals who report antitrust crimes and related offenses that harm consumers, taxpayers, and free market competition. Under the program rules, whistleblowers who voluntarily report original information about antitrust and related offenses that result in criminal fines or other recoveries of at least $1 million may be eligible to receive a whistleblower reward. Subject to the discretion of the Antitrust Division, if a whistleblower is eligible for an award the presumptive award amount will be between 15 and 30% of the amount of the criminal fine or recovery. 'Kirby McInerney has developed one of the leading whistleblower practices in recent years. The Firm also has decades of experience litigating some of the most cutting-edge areas of antitrust and market manipulation cases,' said David E. Kovel, Co-Managing Partner, will lead the Firm's new practice. Mr. Kovel added, 'Kirby McInerney looks forward to bringing these experiences together to represent whistleblowers under the new DOJ Antitrust Whistleblower Program.' Kirby McInerney's extensive antitrust experience prosecuting cases against corporations for violations of the full breadth of antitrust laws: illegal price fixing, unlawful monopolization, monopoly leveraging, illegal tying arrangements, illegal mergers or acquisitions, unfair competition, exclusive dealing, and refusals to deal. In the whistleblower context, Kirby McInerney represented the whistleblower who received the largest CFTC whistleblower award ever and the second largest whistleblower award arising under the Dodd-Frank and IRS whistleblower programs. That whistleblower received nearly $200 million in connection with recoveries by the CFTC and other regulators of billions of dollars from global banks who were alleged to have manipulated benchmark interest rates to illegally enrich itself to the detriment of other market participants. If you are aware of potential violations of antitrust laws and would like to discuss them with a member of Kirby McInerney's DOJ Antitrust Whistleblower Rewards Program team, please contact us at our dedicated whistleblower line, 212-699-1160, or by filling out this form. Kirby McInerney LLP is a New York-based law firm concentrating in securities, antitrust, whistleblower, and consumer litigation. Additional information about the firm can be found at Kirby McInerney LLP's website. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
New York Post
03-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
DOJ Antitrust chief is betting American tech will beat China
Gail Slater, Donald Trump's head of antitrust, is tasked with a formidable agenda that requires precision: Foster a business-friendly environment that lets tech companies stay big enough to compete with China while ensuring they don't become excessively dominant. 'It's about enforcing antitrust robustly in a way that works for all Americans … that's my starting point,' Slater, 53, told me in her first interview since taking on her role as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice a little over 100 days ago. Slater took over a serious docket of cases that includes suits against Google, in regards to search and ad tech; Apple, for its smartphone market dominance; Visa, in relation to debit card payment processing; and Live Nation/Ticketmaster and its live entertainment business. 4 Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Gail Slater tells me the crux of her job is 'enforcing antitrust robustly in a way that works for all Americans.' Bloomberg via Getty Images While she won't comment on the status of those cases, she's been a key advisor urging Trump to stay the course on antitrust enforcement — despite tech companies' efforts to sway him. (When I asked how frequently she discusses agenda with President Trump, she told me, 'We get a lot of signals from the White House in the form of Executive Orders.') Slater is deeply committed and believes aggressive antitrust enforcement can benefit consumers in countless ways — even on seemingly unrelated issues. 'Speech and the censorship of speech can be downstream of [tech companies] market power,' she noted. Not everyone on the right agrees with her. Some Republicans, like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), believe the US government should tread lightly with tech companies. They worry that too much regulation could unintentionally give China a dangerous advantage when it comes to artificial intelligence. 4 While tech titans, like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg (far left) and Google's Sundar Pichai (center in glasses) have cozied up to the Trump Administration, they aren't immune to regulation. AP But Slater feels antitrust efforts could actually give the US a leg-up. 'Companies competing against one another innovate. That's the free market at its finest,' she explained. 'We can win the AI race against the Chinese without becoming like China… we will win the global race to AI the American way.' Bringing cases against massive companies can cost millions, making Slater's job — at a time when everyone in the federal government is under the gun to cut costs — especially challenging. 'The big tech cases alone are a huge, huge lift, both from a human resource standpoint, a scale standpoint when it comes to documents and experts and how we put those cases on a trial,' Slater said. This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC's power players (and those who aspire to be). Her efforts, she said, have to be 'low resource, high return on investment things.' And even though she is focused on ending unfair monopolies, she's also trying to implement as many pro-business policies as she can. On the front end, Slater is now allowing early terminations to the (previously) mandatory 30-day waiting period for mergers to close on deals the DOJ deems benign. Since taking the helm, she has granted 58 of 322 filings, worth $71 billion. 'In particular, we are taking settlements in merger cases where the previous administration took none,' she said. 4 Gail Slater is now allowing early terminations to the (previously) mandatory 30-day waiting period for mergers to close on deals the DOJ deems benign REUTERS At the back end of deals, she has embraced the use of consent decrees — allowing parties to resolve competitive overlaps by divesting assets to qualified buyers, a practice the prior administration largely avoided. 'We listened hard to concerns that Wall Street and others had about the policy of the prior administration on deal flow,' she told me of efforts to simplify rules where she can. 'We inherited a historic docket and we want to be responsible stewards of that, But we're also setting [the agenda] by fixing the merger review process to make it more transparent, to make work better for deal makers.' Slater, who is soft-spoken, jokes 'this is me raising my voice' when talking about the efforts they've already made to cut over-regulation. She has also teamed up with the Federal Trade Commission to eradicate what she describes as 'useless' regulations. 'We opened up a docket and we said to anybody interested with expertise in the area, tell us the regulations that you're aware that are hindering competition — and the ways in which that could be fixed. Because we want to support free market competition,' Slater said. 'That's the goal here.' 4 In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump made it clear that fighting Big Tech is a key priority for Slater. Donald J. Trump / Truth Social Another tool is using amicus briefs to strategically influence federal court cases, like they have done in Texas v. BlackRock — a high-profile antitrust lawsuit where states allege major investors like BlackRock colluded to reduce coal production, raising energy prices. She said it is a way of supporting American companies and administration policies with relatively inexpensive but high-impact interventions. Slater, who was born in Dublin and studied at Oxford, moved to the US in 2003 and worked as a trial attorney at the FTC for a decade. She held positions at the Internet Association, Fox Corporation, Roku and, during the first Trump administration, the National Economic Council, before advising JD Vance on antitrust issues while he was an Ohio senator. She's excited moving beyond the cases left to her by her predecessor. 'A priority for me is health care,' she told me. 'We're looking to set a positive agenda around drug pricing and health care more broadly. Send NYNext a tip: nynextlydia@
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOJ to require Safran to divest assets to proceed with RTX asset acquisition
The Justice Department's Antitrust Division announced that it will require Safran, S.A. and Safran USA Inc. (SAFRY) to divest its North American actuation business and related assets to resolve antitrust concerns arising from its proposed $1.8B acquisition of Collins Aerospace's actuation and flight control business from RTX Corporation (RTX). The divestiture resolves concerns that the transaction would recombine assets that were divested as part of the Division's settlement of United Technologies Corporation's acquisition of Rockwell Collins in 2018. UTC merged with Raytheon Company in 2020, forming Raytheon Technologies. The Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction. At the same time, the Division filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the Division's competitive concerns. 'Today's settlement is a structural solution to an acquisition that would have harmed competition for important aircraft components that are critical to passenger safety. The proposed divestiture to Woodward, an established provider in the aerospace industry, ensures that American customers will continue to benefit from competition, and the incentives of Woodward, the merging parties, and their customer base are aligned with the remedy's success,' said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See today's best-performing stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on RTX: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Safran, Collins concessions accepted by U.K.'s CMA Boeing, Lockheed see getting big share of Golden Dome project, Reuters says RTX's Pratt & Whitney to collaborate with ATR on propulsion technology RTX's Pratt & Whitney secures contract from Dynetics Powell Faces Tough Fed Call as Oil Surges and Middle East Conflict Escalates Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former U.S. prosecutor Hetal Doshi announces bid for Colorado attorney general
Hetal Doshi is a 2026 Democratic candidate for Colorado attorney general. (Courtesy of Hetal Doshi campaign) Hetal Doshi, a former assistant U.S. attorney for Colorado, on Thursday joined the Democratic primary to be Colorado's next attorney general. Doshi served as deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division under the Biden administration after more than 10 years as a federal prosecutor in Colorado. In that role, she challenged various corporate mergers as well as tech corporations like Google, Apple and Ticketmaster. 'As the daughter of immigrants, fighting for our rights is personal to me. That's why I've spent my career taking on the powerful to protect the American Dream for working families across Colorado,' Doshi said in a statement announcing her candidacy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is term-limited and announced he will run for Colorado governor in 2026. The Democrat has joined a growing number of legal challenges to Trump administration policies. Other Democrats running for attorney general include Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty, former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives Crisanta Duran and worker and consumer rights attorney David Seligman. Conner Pennington is the only Republican candidate to file paperwork in the race so far. Doshi's campaign website says she will focus on defending Colorado from actions from the Trump administration, fighting for a fair economy and protecting Colorado's rights, values and public safety. 'Right now, the rule of law is under attack by those who have abandoned patriotism for power. Colorado's next Attorney General must have a proven record of taking on the toughest fights — and winning,' Doshi said. 'I've taken on powerful executives in boardrooms and corrupt officials in government, and I'm ready to defend the rights and freedoms of every Coloradan.' The attorney general heads the Colorado Department of Law and oversees enforcement of consumer protection and antitrust laws, defends state laws in legal challenges, and advocates for law enforcement and community safety. Primary elections to decide party nominees for state offices will be held in June 2026. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
