Ed. Note: Jim McGrath was a great friend and a trusted colleague who passed away in 2014. As a tribute to McGrath and for Christmas this year, I submit for your enjoyment the post below, which originally appeared on McGrath’s Internal Investigations Blog on December 24, 2012.

The allegations being investigated surround gifts given by individual businessmen to the family of an Israeli government official a number of years ago. These businessmen—Mr. Balthasar, Mr. Gaspar, and Mr. Melchior—supposedly provided a family in the royal line of King David with significant gifts, including gold, frankincense, and myrrh, in return for favorable consideration of an as-yet undetermined project in the Middle East.

The three men are believed to be third-party intermediaries for many Christian church organizations within the United States, and if verified, any jurisdictional nexus would seem to be predicated on this fact.

Whether any family member who received the gifts was or is a “government official”—as that term has come to be expansively defined by the DOJ—is unverified but likely. While Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index does not reference them in its yearly rosters, a large volume of other source material seemingly establishes one or more of them as related to the ruling family in Israel.

Regardless of the strength of the government’s case in these regards, there is still the hurdle presented by the age of the alleged violations.  They are reported to have occurred approximately 2,012 years ago.  The DOJ could be expected to assert that the clock did not begin to run until the government recently became aware of Balthazar’s, Gaspar’s, and Melchior’s conduct. However, there appears to be a strong argument that voluntary self-disclosure was made some time ago, thus commencing the statutory period’s running – and expiration –.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Holiday Season and Merry Christmas.