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 the post below for your enjoyment, which initially appeared on McGrath’s Internal Investigations Blog on December 24, 2012.

The allegations under investigation involve gifts given by individual businessmen to the family of an Israeli government official several 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 in the United States, and, if verified, any jurisdictional nexus would appear to be based on this fact.

Whether any family member who received the gifts was or is a “government official”—as the DOJ has expansively defined that term—is unverified but likely. While Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index does not list them in its annual rankings, a large body of other sources appears to establish one or more of them as linked to the ruling family in Israel.

Regardless of the strength of the government’s case in these respects, there remains the hurdle posed 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 occurred some time ago, thereby commencing the statutory period’s running and its expiration.

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