The latest blow to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's efforts to criminally prosecute "no-poach" agreements came this May 19 when U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden of the District of Connecticut granted the defendants' joint motion for a judgment of acquittal in United States v. Patel. This decision represents the DOJ's fourth significant defeat in just the past two years—the effects of which are discussed more broadly below.