All Regulatory Enforcement articles – Page 152
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Blog
Financial Instruments Rule May Challenge Banks
Image: Danièle Nouy, supervisory chief of the European Central Bank, spoke recently about a new accounting standard for financial instruments that may prove challenging to the banking sector. “The completion of this accounting standard as one of the responses to the financial crisis will bring major changes and challenges to ...
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French Data Regulator Rejects Google’s ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Appeal
Big news this week from France as the Commission Nationale de I’Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL) rejected Google’s appeal against the enforcement of “right to be forgotten.” If Google fails to comply with CNIL’s order, the company may be hit with sanctions, including a €300,000 fine, which could increase to ...
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Adventist Health to Pay $115 Million for False Claims Act Violations
Adventist Health System, a non-profit healthcare organization that operates hospitals and other health care facilities in 10 states, this week agreed to pay $115 million to the government to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by maintaining improper compensation arrangements with referring physicians and by miscoding claims. ...
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Article
Navigating Global Internal Investigations Under Main Justice’s New Policy
Image: The Justice Department’s new Yates Memo, demanding much more cooperation from companies to find individual wrongdoers, will pressure companies to pressure employees during internal investigations. In Europe and elsewhere, however, the law favors employees much more than in the United States, making global investigations a tall order. “Most developed ...
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Report Highlights Cybersecurity Risks to Accountants
A lot has been written here and elsewhere about the cybersecurity risks to law firms, but a recent report by ACCA USA highlights another, similarly situated profession that has not received as much attention: accountants.
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Mindtree Partners With MetricStream to Simplify Regulatory Compliance for Financial Firms
Mindtree, a digital transformation and technology services company, announced this month that it has partnered with GRC provider MetricStream to help simplify regulatory compliance for financial firms. Mindtree will leverage MetricStream's Zaplet, a cloud-based open platform to build, deploy, and manage a variety of GRC applications for financial firms globally. ...
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GM to Pay $900 Million to Resolve Criminal Charges in Product Safety Case
General Motors today agreed to a $900 million forfeiture to resolve criminal charges for wire fraud and for concealing information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concerning safety defects in its vehicles. The automaker also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement under which it admitted that it failed to ...
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Swiss Authorities to Unveil New ‘Lex-FIFA’ Anti-Corruption Reform
A new draft anti-corruption law in Switzerland, named after scandal-ridden football organization FIFA, will treat bribery as a criminal offence and allow Swiss authorities to launch corruption probes against the country’s international sporting federations without tip-offs from inside the organization in question. Some members of Swiss Parliament argue that the ...
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Article
Getting a Better Read on ‘Conduct Risk’
Image: “Conduct risk” is a phrase uttered by many regulators these days and a menace compliance officers in banking circles worry about more and more. Still, putting a precise definition on it isn’t easy. “Conduct risk frequently demands that a firm address the widest range of policies, processes … and ...
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Advocacy Group Rolls Out 'Dump (Mary Jo) Truck' on D.C. Streets
What stunts are even left for the next disgruntled advocacy group to pursue? Skywriters? Taking over the television airwaves to deliver a message like the Joker in Batman? Falconers? Stay tuned!
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Newman Decision Leads to Rare Loss for SEC in an AP
SEC Administrative Law Judge Jason Patil dismissed an insider-trading case against a former Wells Fargo trader, noting that the SEC failed to prove that the person who allegedly tipped the trader did so for a personal benefit, as required by the Second Circuit’s disruptive opinion in U.S. v. Newman. Patil ...
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Cohen and Sansone Named Co-Chiefs for SEC's Market Abuse Unit
The SEC has named Robert Cohen and Joseph Sansone as the new Co-Chiefs of the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit, filling the position recently vacated by Dan Hawke.
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Blog
Court: Whistleblowers Protected, SEC Reporting or Not
A federal appeals court has ruled that employees are covered by anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers provided by the Dodd-Frank Act, even if they don’t file a report with the SEC. The ruling is a warning to businesses to tread carefully when handing out discipline to a suspected whistleblower, whether or ...
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Blog
DoJ Shifts Policy on Corporate Prosecutions, Individual Culpability
Image: Representing a potential sea change in how the Justice Department approaches corporate prosecutions, a new policy memo stresses the importance of individual prosecutions. The memo, by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, appears to be a reaction to widespread criticism that in the wake of the financial crisis the Justice ...
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Blog
Welcome to the Enforcement Action Art Gallery!
Welcome to the "Enforcement Action Art Gallery," this blog's collection of the finest SEC and securities enforcement-related art available anywhere.
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Article
Preventing an FTC Cyber-Security Action
Image: A federal appeals court has upheld the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to sanction companies for poor data security practices—which opens a new front of cyber-security compliance and legal risks for Corporate America. “Basically, if consumers trust you with data, you need to use reasonable business efforts to honor that ...
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SEC Charges Bankrate, Former Executives With Accounting Fraud
Bankrate Inc. has agreed to pay $15 million to settle accounting fraud charges leveled against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Three former executives were also charged, accused of fraudulently manipulating the company’s financial results to meet analyst expectations. Bankrate’s former CFO Edward DiMaria is also accused of selling ...
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Former Gov. Contractor in Afghanistan Charged With Bribery
A former employee with International Relief and Development Inc., a government contractor, has pleaded guilty to charges of bribery in connection with a federal program and attempting to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements. The announcement was made this week by Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal ...
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SEC Charges BDO USA, Partners for Misleading Audit Opinions
The SEC has charged audit firm BDO USA with issuing false and misleading unqualified audit opinions about the financial statements of staffing services company General Employment Enterprises. BDO agreed to admit wrongdoing, pay disgorgement of its audit fees and interest totaling approximately $600,000, and pay a $1.5 million penalty. Details ...
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Tougher Regulations Lead to Structural Overhaul in Europe’s Biggest Banks
The size and number of European investment banks is shrinking, due to tighter regulations that are causing some big banks to retreat from expansion plans. The move comes as financial firms anxiously await final ring-fencing rules from the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority. More inside.