Analyzing the trends of SEC enforcement is key for many companies, particularly when evaluating their compliance systems. The work of the Enforcement Division during the first quarter of 2022 should be considered in the...more
Last week new enforcement director Gurbir Grewal made his first public remarks at PLI’s SEC Speaks 2021 (October 13, 2021). Mr. Grewal is the former Attorney General of New Jersey....more
The Department of Justice issued its first FCPA opinion in six years on August 14, 2020. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Review, Opinion Procedure Release, No.: 20-01. The opinion process provides a mechanism by which a...more
The CFTC Division of Enforcement filed its Third Annual Report at the end of November 2019, reviewing the fiscal year. The Report is the typical mixture of goals, statistics, analysis and initiatives. Overall it offers...more
Traditionally the jurisdiction of the CFTC has been tied to the futures markets. Contracts for future delivery were within the reach of the agency and its regulatory regime....more
Since the SEC announced the formation of its Financial Fraud Task Force two years ago the agency has struggled to establish this once enforcement mainstay as a current staple. Some commentators have suggested that a trend is...more
Financial fraud actions have traditionally been a staple of SEC Enforcement. During the market crisis, however, the number of those cases waned. Following the formation of a task force focused on financial statement fraud,...more
SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher provided something of a score card for activities over the past five years he has served on the agency prior to his impending departure. To the surprise of few he panned the Dodd-Frank and...more
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce published a report regarding the enforcement practices of the SEC titled “Examining U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement: Recommendations on Current Processes and Practices, July...more
The SEC brought another custody rule action this week – against the outside auditors alleging that one examination was insufficient and the others incomplete thereby causing the client to violate the surprise audit...more
6/26/2015
/ Auditors ,
Australia ,
Australian Securities and Investments Commission ,
Brokers ,
EB-5 ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Fraud ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Unregistered Brokers
The debate over waivers WKSI waivers and other similar provisions continued this week. The Commission granted a WKSI waiver to Deutsche Bank despite a guilty plea to criminal felony charges but only over the dissent of...more
5/8/2015
/ Australia ,
Banks ,
CFTC ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Financial Institutions ,
Hong Kong ,
Investment Funds ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Mining ,
Misappropriation ,
PCAOB ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
WKSIs
Four SEC Commissioners addressed the annual SEC Speaks Conference, reviewing recent agency initiatives and tracing potential paths for the future. The SEC also brought another FCPA action, a misappropriation case and an...more
2/27/2015
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Australia ,
Bribery ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Compliance ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Fraud ,
Goodyear ,
Investment Funds ,
Mail Fraud ,
Misappropriation ,
Penny Stocks ,
Ponzi Scheme ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Unregistered Securities ,
Wire Fraud
Yesterday’s article reviewed the remarks of SEC Chair Mary Jo White and Commissioner Kara M. Stein at SEC Speaks. The article today reviews the remarks at the conference of Commissioners Michael S. Piwowar and Daniel M....more
The SEC Speaks conference has traditionally been a forum in which the agency reviewed significant recent undertakings and indicated its future direction. This year was no different. Four of the five Commissioners addressed...more
Waivers from the automatic disqualifications of the “bad boy” provisions which can come into play following the resolution of a Commission enforcement action is a topic of increasing concern. Consider the recent decision...more
The Commission resolved its actions against the PRC based affiliates of five major accounting firms for failure to produce audit work papers. The settlement contains a series of procedures designed to facilitate production in...more
2/13/2015
/ Accounting ,
Audits ,
Australia ,
Bribery ,
CFTC ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Illegal Tipping ,
Insider Trading ,
PCAOB ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swap Data Repositories ,
Swaps ,
Tender Offers ,
UK ,
Unregistered Securities
Roderick Hills, who passed away at the end of last month, served as Chairman of the SEC through one if its most turbulent periods – the birth of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. When Mr. Hills became Chairman in 1975 the...more
Raising capital through crowd-funding is one of the key provisions of the JOBS Act. It is supposed to facilitate raising small amounts of capital for start-up operations. An off-shore crowd-funding site that sold unregistered...more
“The SEC Should Copy the DMV” is the title of an article published in the New York Times by Joseph S. Fichera recently. The article focuses on the use of corporate fines, questioning whether they are effective: “The SEC and...more
Broken windows entered a new chapter. Previously, the program focused on the custody rule, Rule 105 and the filing of certain forms such as Form 4 and Schedule 13D. The point is to create SEC omnipresence – the cop on the...more
The SEC and the DOJ resolved FCPA charges with California based life science research and clinical diagnostics company Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. The charges stem from bribes paid in Russia, Vietnam and Thailand. The company...more
The Commission instituted administrative proceedings centered on an offering fraud orchestrated by a former adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School who taught, and previously specialized in, turning around troubled...more
The Commission brought a series of administrative proceedings this week and one civil injunctive action. The civil injunctive action was an insider trading case. The administrative proceedings centered on FCPA violations, the...more
10/31/2014
/ Auditors ,
Churning ,
Compliance ,
Custody Rule ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Controls ,
Rule 105 ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation
Carter’s, Inc. is the investigation that just keeps on generating cases. The investigation has yielded seven SEC actions charging insider trading and financial fraud. Hedge fund manager Stephen Slawson became the eight person...more
Layne Christensen, a global water management, construction and drilling company resolved FCPA bribery and books and records and internal controls charges with the SEC. In the Matter of Layne Christensen Company, Adm. Proc....more