On January 26, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule (Proposed Rule) amending - and significantly broadening - a rule that defines certain terms used in the statutory definition of “exchange.”...more
On January 27, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision in United States v. Connolly, overturning the 2018 fraud convictions of two former traders at a large financial institution. A...more
2/4/2022
/ Appeals ,
Bank Fraud ,
British Bankers' Association ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Statements ,
Fraud ,
Libor ,
Misleading Statements ,
Reversal ,
UK ,
Wire Fraud
On December 17, 2021, a financial institution agreed to pay $200 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Futures Trading Commission for allowing employees to discuss business on their...more
1/7/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Fines ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discovery ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Government Investigations ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Internal Controls ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
WhatsApp ,
White Collar Crimes
On October 28, 2021, Deputy Attorney General (Deputy AG) Lisa O. Monaco gave remarks explicitly warning companies that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to increase its efforts and devote additional resources to...more
11/2/2021
/ Compliance ,
Compliance Monitoring ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Government Investigations ,
Individual Accountability ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Policy Statement ,
Professional Misconduct ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Yates Memorandum
The US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has released the results of its review of economic and financial sanctions first announced in December 2020 by then President-elect Biden (Report). From that review, Treasury has...more
On September 21, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury took actions in response to the increasing prevalence and severity of ransomware attacks in the United States and address the central role that virtual currency and...more
9/27/2021
/ Currency Exchange ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) ,
Digital Currency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Ransomware ,
SDN List ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Virtual Currency
On June 30, 2021, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) provided an update on implementation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act) and issued the first government-wide priorities for anti-money...more
7/9/2021
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Biden Administration ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
Medical device manufacturer, Medtronic, began its second trial on June 14 in the US Tax Court in a $1.36 billion transfer pricing dispute with the IRS. The trial concluded on June 25 and is among the most significant transfer...more
7/6/2021
/ Affiliates ,
Business Profits ,
Foreign Profits ,
IRS ,
Medical Devices ,
Medtronic ,
Multinationals ,
Parent Corporation ,
Popular ,
Puerto Rico ,
Tax Court ,
Transfer Pricing
In a US District Court complaint filed May 26, 2021, a married couple is seeking a refund of taxes they paid on cryptocurrency tokens the husband created, asserting that current law does not permit the treatment of created...more
6/23/2021
/ Asset Tokens ,
Blockchain ,
Coinbase ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Data Mining ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Federal Taxes ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Personal Property ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Refunds ,
Token Sales
While there are efforts afoot to broaden the impact and reach of US law on hackers, particularly with the US Department of Justice (the DOJ) planning to coordinate ransomware attack investigations with similar protocols it...more
On June 3, 2021, in one of his first major China-related actions, President Biden issued an Executive Order that amends, but keeps intact the core elements of, previous orders issued by President Trump prohibiting US Persons...more
6/7/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
China ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Exemptions ,
Foreign Investment ,
Human Rights ,
Military End Use ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
SDN List ,
Technology Sector ,
Telecommunications ,
U.S. Treasury
On May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court held that the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA), section 7421(a) of the Code, does not preclude a pre-enforcement challenge to an IRS notice enforced through civil and criminal penalties. The AIA...more
5/26/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Injunction Act ,
CIC Services LLC v IRS ,
Criminal Liability ,
Criminal Penalties ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Notice and Comment ,
SCOTUS ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Tax Penalties
On April 9, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (Service) released Chief Counsel Advice 202114020 (the Guidance) regarding the tax consequences to an individual in receipt of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) following the August 2017 hard...more
The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposed Rule) seeking input from the public on the implementation of a reporting...more
Xiaomi Corporation (Xiaomi), one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, won a preliminary injunction from the DC District Court on March 12, 2021 that enjoined the US government from enforcing a Trump-era rule that...more
Updata is an international report produced by Eversheds Sutherland’s dedicated Privacy and Cybersecurity team – it provides you with a compilation of key privacy and cybersecurity regulatory and legal developments from the...more
3/11/2021
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
EU ,
EU-US Privacy Shield ,
European Data Protection Board (EDPB) ,
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) ,
Popular ,
Schrems I & Schrems II ,
State Privacy Laws ,
Surveillance ,
Virus Testing
In a closely watched decision, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit confirmed the government’s expansive authority to search cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices at the border. On February 9, 2021, the...more
2/19/2021
/ Appeals ,
Border Searches ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Electronic Devices ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Mobile Devices ,
National Security ,
Reasonable Suspicion ,
Search & Seizure ,
Search Warrant
It was a tumultuous year for privacy and cybersecurity, and further uncertainty is all but guaranteed. The key to navigating this volatility, as 2020 proved, is to develop and maintain a proactive, agile and holistic data...more
2/10/2021
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
NAIC ,
Popular
On January 1, 2021, the US Senate voted to override President Donald Trump’s veto of H.R. 6395, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA). As part of the NDAA, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020...more
1/8/2021
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Congressional Override ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Banks ,
NDAA ,
Patriot Act ,
Presidential Veto ,
Shell Corporations ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Transparency ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies
On December 18, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to establish new requirements for convertible virtual currency (CVC) and legal tender digital asset (LTDA)...more
The massive SolarWinds security breach, which affected not only the private sector, but federal, state and local governments, has caused some to question whether to share data with the government. On Friday, December 18, the...more
Congress is moving rapidly towards passing the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Extenders Bill) as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. If enacted, the Extenders Bill would extend certain...more
Working from home since the onset of the pandemic, you check your social media on a work laptop, in violation of your company’s Acceptable Use Policy. Have you just committed a federal crime?...more
On October 8, 2020, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Cyber-Digital Task Force issued an 83-page comprehensive “Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework,” (Framework), signaling the DOJ’s increased focus on prosecuting...more
Hopes that privacy regulators and litigants would grant a reprieve to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic may prove ill-founded. On July 21, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services announced its first...more