George Newhouse, Partner

George Newhouse is a senior attorney in Richards Carrington’s Los Angeles Office. George’s practice focuses on white collar defense, general criminal defense, securities defense, and government investigations along with complex civil litigation. George has tried nearly 40 criminal, civil and arbitration cases to verdict and handled more than 40 appellate cases in federal and state courts. He represents clients in a wide range of cases involving antitrust, environment, health care, public corruption, securities, fraud, tax and qui tam (false claims act) cases. George is a skilled trial lawyer and currently has perfect record in criminal trials as a defense lawyer, with his most recent victory being on behalf of a federal agent accused by the County of Riverside of brandishing his firearm in a trial concluded in November 2019.

Mr. Newhouse has broad and deep experience in government prior to entering private practice, including having served as an assistant United States attorney for the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for 12 years, Central District of California. Mr. Newhouse has taught Criminal Justice at the University of Southern California, Dornsife College since 1998 as a Adjunct Professor of the Practice.

Prior to joining Richards Carrington, Mr. Newhouse was a Partner at Dentons and Thelen Reid & Priest LLP among other firms.

Some of his successes include:

Government Fraud/Corruption Investigations

• Represented a defense government contractor in a false billing claims and related qui tam action brought by a civil plaintiff.
• Negotiated the resolution of an investigation involving self-disclosures in connection with Stark Act and potential anti-kickback issues on behalf of Ventura County Hospital.
• Defended and prosecuted numerous government fraud cases involving a major defense contractor and their employees.

Internal Investigations

• Conducted internal investigation on behalf of a Fortune 500 corporation involving inquiries to the audit committee and in response to an investigation of labor fraud by the US attorney in Los Angeles.
• Directed internal investigations related to health care fraud, health care compliance issues and general corporate governance issues. Directed internal investigation of multinational corporations involved in potential Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.

Competition and Antitrust

• Represented a company in an international cartel investigation of the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry, and handled plea negotiations with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division.
• Represented individual executives involved in a DOJ investigation of price fixing in the airline cargo industry. Represented individual executives involved in a DOJ investigation of aftermarket car lights.

Securities Fraud

• Represented officers of publicly traded companies against allegations of securities fraud, insider trading and financial statement fraud.
• Successfully defended financial commentator Courtney Smith against accusations of violations of section 17(a) of the Securities Act, and obtained acquittal after a criminal trial in a US district court in Los Angeles, as well as in a civil case which followed involving the Securities and Exchange Commission, with the client being fully exonerated.
• Successfully defended former National Football League star and Olympian Willie Gault against accusations of violations of 10(b) of the Securities Act arising from his employment by a publicly traded company.
• Defended an executive of GenesisIntermedia, Inc., against allegations of securities fraud and stock irregularities in cause, leading to largest Securities Investor Protection Corporation bailout in history. Obtained a “declination” letter from the DOJ, which was followed by the reversal of a US$57 million fraud judgment on appeal in Eighth Circuit.

Environmental and Maritime

• Successfully defended both individual executives and corporations in various Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act prosecutions for unlawful disposal of hazardous waste.
• Successfully defended an executive of an oil pipeline company charged with regulatory violations following 2015 Oil Spill in Santa Barbara County.
• Responded on numerous occasions to maritime incidents involving claims of pollution of the high seas. Successfully defended executive of oil pipeline company involved in 2015 oil spill in Santa Barbara.

Tax

• Represented numerous individuals and corporations in federal and state tax investigations and prosecutions involving tax evasion, US Internal Revenue Service seizures, criminal tax defense and failure to file.

Regulatory Fraud and Other White-Collar Violations

• Represented a top-ranking executive at Space Systems Loral in an investigation of potential Export Act violations involving the exchange of technical data relating to a Chinese missile launch.
• Represented individual executives and corporations involved in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations and prosecutions.

Public Corruption

• Defended a Fortune 50 waste disposal company involving corruption investigation by the DOJ.
• Successfully defended elected city officials involving charges of waste spill by a municipal treatment facility.
• Participated in a federal criminal investigation involving several members of law enforcement and pertaining to public corruption in the performance of duties.
• Represented an executive at a large international conglomerate shipping company involved in a “pay to play” prosecution by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Other/Civil Litigation

• Prosecuted and defended theft of intellectual property and patent cases.

• George Newhouse discusses Supreme Court arguments over whether police can enter a home without a warrant in order to check on the safety or health of the residents.
• George Newhouse of Richards Carrington, discusses the Supreme Court decision bolstering the protection of the home from police search.
• George Newhouse of Richards Carrington discusses the Supreme Court ruling that police can’t automatically pursue fleeing misdemeanor suspects into homes without warrants.