In the first half of 2024, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued several fines and suspensions against participants in the municipal market, including for violations of its registration, reporting,...more
7/26/2024
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
MSRB ,
Municipal Securities Market ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
Summary -
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently announced settlements with a number of companies whose separation agreements or internal policies the SEC viewed as impeding employees’ participation in the...more
10/5/2023
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Former Employee ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Separation Agreement ,
Settlement ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
Summary -
The SEC’s pursuit of the crypto industry continues with its second-ever settlement of a non-fungible token (NFT) enforcement action. The SEC settled with Stoner Cats 2 LLC (SC2), which sought to finance an...more
Summary -
The SEC’s focus on the crypto industry expanded this week to include non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In its first NFT-enforcement action, the SEC settled with Impact Theory, a media and entertainment company, over...more
9/5/2023
/ Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Howey ,
Investment Contract ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Offerings ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Securities Violations ,
Unregistered Securities
Summary -
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly nearing a settlement with a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) over its failure to preserve certain credit-ratings...more
Summary -
Just when it looked like a victory for the crypto industry in SEC v. Ripple, a mere two weeks later, a different judge in the Southern District of New York disagreed with Ripple’s holding, introducing greater...more
Summary -
Two more broker-dealers became the latest financial institutions to settle with the SEC for failing to maintain and preserve electronic communications. What distinguishes these settlements from the 17 prior...more
Summary -
The past week was a busy one in the cryptocurrency sphere: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) proposed new standards for crypto assets, and the SEC released an alert urging investors to remain...more
Summary -
The recently unsealed indictment of health care company Ontrak for insider trading marks the first criminal prosecution alleging an executive’s fraudulent use of a 10b5-1 trading plan to facilitate unlawful...more
Summary -
A proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend Rule 10b5-1, as well as recent enforcement activity relating to these plans, suggest that the SEC is concerned that the rule has been used as cover...more
Summary -
The SEC this week adopted new rules that will require publicly traded companies to “claw back” incentive-based executive compensation that a company awarded to the executive based on materially misreported...more
Summary -
Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) governs the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC or the Commission) whistleblower program, which pays awards to eligible whistleblowers...more
Summary -
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week published its 2022 Examination Priorities report. This year, the SEC’s Division of Examinations plans to prioritize scrutiny of Private Funds; Environmental,...more
Summary -
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week released its annual Congressional Budget Justification. The agency is seeking a budget of $2.15 billion for FY 2023, which is almost $240 million more than...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought actions against SpaceX engineer James Roland Jones for selling insider information on what’s known as the dark web....more
Today, the SEC sent a very clear signal about one of its chief enforcement priorities by announcing the creation of a Climate and ESG Task Force within the Division of Enforcement. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and...more
Summary -
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced today that it has settled its case against The Cheesecake Factory charging the national restaurant chain with providing misleading disclosures in filings—the...more
In an historic move this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) executed the first-ever memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two agencies. ...more
The stock markets’ volatility in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the virus’ largest impacts. With that in mind, the SEC recently made clear that timely disclosure of significant financial and non-financial issues...more
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced yesterday, August 20, 2019, that it charged TherapeuticsMD, Inc., a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with violations of...more
8/21/2019
/ Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FDA Approval ,
Financial Markets ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Insider Trading ,
Non-Public Information ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation FD ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Stock Prices
For the first time, a broker-dealer, Central States Capital Markets, LLC (Central States), has been prosecuted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). ...more
1/4/2019
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Customer Identification Program (CIP) ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Money Laundering ,
Native American Issues ,
Payday Loans ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Usury
For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has aggressively utilized its own administrative law judges to adjudicate enforcement proceedings, prompting critics to argue that this strategy gives the SEC a decided...more
6/25/2018
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Appeals ,
Appointments Clause ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Final Written Decisions ,
Lucia v SEC ,
Officers of the United States ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Special Trial Judges (STJs)
As we previously have blogged, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) became one of the first regulators to wade into the regulation of cryptocurrency when it released interpretive guidance in March 2013 stating...more
3/9/2018
/ AML/CFT ,
Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Broker-Dealer ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Instruments ,
Financial Markets ,
FinCEN ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Interpretive Rule ,
Money Services Business ,
Money Transmitter ,
Mutual Funds ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales ,
Virtual Currency
Wednesday, the SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced its 2018 examination priorities, released in order to “improve compliance, prevent fraud, monitor risk, and inform policy.” ...more
2/9/2018
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Money Laundering ,
NEP ,
OCIE ,
Retail Investors ,
SEC Examination Priorities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
The following joint statement was issued this last week from the Enforcement Directors of the Securities Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission...more
1/22/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Virtual Currency