The recent designation of Mexican drug cartels and other criminal organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) exposes companies to criminal prosecution for providing material support under 18 U.S.C. 2339B.
This...more
3/27/2025
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Mexico ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Trump Administration ,
Venezuela
President Biden recently signed into law the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (“FEPA”), enabling federal prosecution of non-U.S. government officials who solicit or receive bribes.
FEPA complements the Foreign Corrupt...more
1/23/2024
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Biden Administration ,
Bribery ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
FEPA ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Official ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Wire Fraud
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (the “Court”) issued a major ruling against the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on August 29, 2023, holding that the SEC acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a cease-and-desist order on August 28, 2023, charging Impact Theory, LLC (“Impact Theory”) with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities in violation...more
9/8/2023
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Howey ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Tokens
In the latest decision evaluating the application of federal securities laws to the digital asset context, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) ruled in favor...more
8/23/2023
/ Cryptoassets ,
Digital Assets ,
Howey ,
Investment ,
Investment Contract ,
Liquidity ,
New York ,
Profits ,
Registration Requirement ,
Ripple ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins ,
Token Sales
On July 13, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) issued a major ruling in in a closely-followed lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”)...more
The Supreme Court yet again unanimously overturned bribery convictions based on prosecutorial overreach via the honest services wire fraud statute. The steady stream of reversals fundamentally challenges the DOJ’s approach in...more
The First Circuit applied a narrow definition of “bribery” for honest services fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1346. Payments made to the purportedly harmed party in the alleged bribery scheme—here, the universities—cannot...more
Last week, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a Compensation Incentives and Clawbacks Pilot Program (the “Pilot Program” or “Program”) that will apply to all corporate criminal resolutions with the Criminal Division...more
This week the Department of Justice rolled out its new United States Attorney’s Offices’ Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy.
The Policy, which is effective immediately, details when a company will be considered to have made...more
This week the DOJ published revisions to its Corporate Enforcement Policy designed to even further encourage companies to make voluntary self-disclosures of wrongdoing within their ranks, cooperate with investigations, and...more
1/20/2023
/ Compliance ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Corporate Fraud ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP) ,
Federal Sentencing Guidelines ,
Investigations ,
Remedial Actions ,
Securities Fraud ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements
A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held, on December 27, 2022, in United States v. Blaszczak (“Blaszczak II”) that an agency’s confidential, pre-decisional information did not count as...more
1/18/2023
/ Appeals ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Confidential Information ,
Fraud ,
Hedge Funds ,
Insider Trading ,
Kelly v United States ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Wire Fraud
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in United States v. Banks1 that under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, “loss” means only actual loss and not intended loss.
Although the term “loss” is not explicitly...more
DOJ and the SEC Enforcement Division have launched initiatives targeting executive compensation clawbacks.
The SEC is aggressively pursuing SOX 304 compensation clawbacks from Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial...more
In response to President Biden’s March 9, 2022 Executive Order on digital assets, the DOJ announced the formation of a new network of prosecutors tasked with becoming specialists in investigating and prosecuting alleged...more
9/22/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Biden Administration ,
CFTC ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Penalties ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins ,
Statute of Limitations
Late last week, the Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco, announced several new guidelines for prosecutors to use when determining how to assess and treat corporate offenders....more
9/21/2022
/ Compliance ,
Compliance Monitoring ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Individual Accountability ,
New Guidance ,
Prior Wrongful Acts ,
Recidivism ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Transparency
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on July 21, 2022, filed a complaint (the “SEC Complaint”) alleging insider trading violations against an insider, his brother, and a friend, claiming that the trio engaged in...more
8/15/2022
/ Coinbase ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Insider Trading ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Public Information ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations