Any sanctions could have a major impact on the way white-collar criminal cases are handled in the future.

At the time, prosecutors did not seek an indictment against him - the typical move in such white-collar cases.

At the same time, white-collar criminal cases can be difficult, paper intensive and hard to explain to juries.

After that you went back to the firm and spent your career defending white-collar cases.

Such a move is rarely seen in white-collar cases, where defendants do everything possible to comply with court orders.

And in white-collar cases, the lower-level people are no longer street dealers.

Defense lawyers say his ruling is part of a trend to question the government's approach to white-collar cases.

Any revision to the guidelines would change the way the government pursues white-collar cases.

But that doesn't fully explain the bigger issue: most white-collar cases, by their very nature, are political footballs.

The filing of the charges was among the fastest ever in a white-collar case.