All Regulatory Enforcement articles – Page 138
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Blog
Wells Fargo to Pay $1.2 Billion for ‘Reckless’ Lending Practices
Wells Fargo & Company said this week in a securities filing that it would pay $1.2 billion to resolve certain civil claims relating to the company’s Federal Housing Administration lending activities. In a Form 8-K filing, Wells Fargo said it had reached an agreement in principle with the Justice Department, ...
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Article
Mitigating export control violations
Image: The U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security is considering proposed rules that, on the one hand, would significantly raise the stakes for companies that run afoul of export control regulations but, on the other hand, bring greater transparency to the enforcement process. “The guidelines generally provide ...
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Article
OCC will add "recovery plans" alongside big bank stress tests
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is seeking comment on “enforceable guidance” that will require banks with assets of $50 billion or more to create “recovery plans.” While resolution plans, orchestrated by the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, largely focus on liquidity and asset quality, the ...
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Blog
Five LIBOR Defendants Acquitted
A jury at Southwark Crown Court has found five individuals not guilty of conspiracy to defraud in connection with the U.K. Serious Fraud Office’s ongoing criminal investigation into the manipulation of LIBOR. The SFO alleged that all six conspired with Tom Hayes, who was convicted after trial and sentenced last ...
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Blog
Treasury and Commerce Further Amend Cuba Sanctions Regulations
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security recently published amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to further implement policy change amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations laid out by the president in December 2014. These ...
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Level Global Case Continues to Rewind
Watching developments in the Level Global insider trading case -- which fell apart after the Second Circuit's landmark decision in Newman resulted in the conviction of its co-founder and another defendant being overturned -- feels like watching a movie rewind.
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Blog
FinCEN Takes Aim at Real Estate Industry
Compliance officers, beware: the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s increasingly aggressive push to combat money laundering has entered a new phase, and this time it has its sights on high-end real estate transactions. “We are seeking to understand the risk that corrupt foreign officials, or transnational criminals, may be using premium ...
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SEC Invests $18 Million to Further Modernize SEC.gov
The SEC's website, SEC.gov, is one of the federal government’s busiest websites, reportedly serving up more than 562 million page views every month. Earlier this month, Accenture Federal Services announced that the SEC has awarded it a $17.9 million contract to modernize and “create an improved user experience” for users ...
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SEC Awards $700,000 to Whistleblower Who Was Company Outsider
Image: It took over five years, but we finally have a success story in the “professional whistleblower” area. The SEC has awarded more than $700,000 to an industry expert (a company outsider) who conducted a detailed analysis that led to a successful SEC enforcement action. Sean McKessy, chief of the ...
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Blog
Consumer Group Protests Post-Settlement Tax Breaks
Goldman Sachs recently announced that it had reached an agreement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice and others to resolve civil claims relating to the firm’s securitization, underwriting, and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities from 2005 to 2007. The $5 billion settlement has drawn the ire of U.S. ...
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Court: Compliance Officers Must Ensure Compliance With AML Laws
A federal district court this month upheld a $1 million fine imposed against the former chief compliance officer for MoneyGram International, finding that individual officers of financial institutions, including chief compliance officers, may be held responsible for ensuring compliance with the anti-money laundering provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act.
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Blog
Duff & Phelps Expands Global Disputes and Investigations Practice
Duff & Phelps, a global valuation and corporate finance advisor, has added managing director Steve Cornmell and director Victoria Richards to its Disputes and Investigations practice in London. The addition of these new professionals aligns with the firm’s strategy to expand its capabilities in disputes and investigations and strengthens its ...
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Blog
SEC Charges State Street for Pay-to-Play Scheme
State Street Bank and Trust Company last week reached a $12 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it conducted a pay-to-play scheme through its then-senior vice president and a hired lobbyist to win contracts to service Ohio pension funds.
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Blog
From Bad to Worse -- and Finally to Prison -- for Apple Day-Trader Sued by SEC
I always try to warn people not to get themselves thrown in prison by obstructing justice in SEC investigations. No really, I do! They just don't listen.
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Blog
SEC Initiated Record Enforcement Actions in 2015
The number of enforcement actions initiated by the SEC has steadily increased over the past six fiscal years, reaching a record high in 2015, according to a recent report drawing on data from the Securities Enforcement Empirical Database (SEED) that tracks and records information on SEC enforcement actions filed against ...
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Article
Bad News for Banks: More Regulatory Risk Is Coming, With a Political Twist
Banks can look forward to a 2016 with additional regulatory risk, with rules layered upon rules, heightened capital requirements, and cyber-security casting an ever-darkening shadow. Even political risk is a reason for concern; With a presidential race underway, calls for breaking up big banks, and reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, are ...
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Article
Systemic Cases Dominate EEOC Enforcement
Image: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission achieved record enforcement results in 2015 and shows no signs of letting up this year. The good news is that employers now have a leg up in defending EEOC claims where they had little to no leverage before. “The EEOC’s focus on systemic investigations ...
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New Report Shows SEC Bringing More, Larger APs Against Public Companies
A new report offers some interesting angles on the SEC's enforcement actions against public companies since 2010. Among other things, the report shows that since FY 2010, SEC enforcement has undergone a "dramatic shift" in its choice of venue for bringing cases against public company defendants, with a significant move ...
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Blog
SEC Settles for Two-Year Bar in Steve Cohen 'Failure to Supervise' Case
The SEC announced today that it has settled its high-profile lawsuit against hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen, founder of SAC Capital. Under the Order resolving the case, Cohen will be prohibited from supervising funds that manage outside money until 2018.
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Blog
Dental Practice Software Provider to Pay FTC $250K for Misleading Customers About Encryption
Henry Schein Practice Solutions, a provider of office management software for dental practices, this week agreed to pay $250,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it falsely advertised the level of encryption it provided to protect patient data.