All Regulatory Enforcement articles – Page 156
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Blog
Bankers Need to Clean Up Their Act, Allianz Exec Says
Image: Elizabeth Corley, global chief of Allianz Global Investors, warns that there can be serious consequences to the economy if bankers continue to engage in reckless misconduct. Corley says rogue bankers often see wrongdoing as a minor rather than a serious offence, which can lead to bigger problems for financial ...
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Article
Advisers Still Feel Unease Over CCO Liability Risk
Image: The conversation about personal liability for compliance officers is buzzing again, thanks to a hornet’s nest SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher stirred up with a complaint about recent sanctions against two CCOs. “We’re hearing similar concerns among CCOs at investment adviser firms—and not just from CCOs, but also from senior ...
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Blog
Aguilar on CCO Liability Fears: Untwist Your Knickers!
Image: SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar has jumped into the conversation about CCO liability, rebutting “unwarranted fear in the CCO community” that the SEC is looking to take enforcement action against compliance officers at investment advisory firms. “CCOs that faithfully and reasonably fulfill [SEC requirements] are not going to be subjects ...
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Blog
SEC to Finalize Clawback Requirements
The SEC will meet on Wednesday to consider the long-awaited clawback requirements under the Dodd-Frank Act. The SEC has postponed addressing the incentive compensation clawback provision for years. If the amendments are made, this will usher in a new wave of compliance requirements for many companies. More inside.
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Blog
My 15 'Must-Follows' on Twitter -- 2015 Edition
In May 2009, when Twitter was in its infancy, I created a list of "15 People All Securities and Corporate Litigators Should Follow on Twitter." I updated that list here in February 2010, adding and removing a few people as I tried to identify the people and organizations who "consistently ...
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Blog
SEC Rebukes Investment Advisory Firm for Ignoring CCO Pleas
A bit of good news amid the discussion of personal liability for chief compliance officers: The SEC has delivered a one-year suspension to an investment advisory firm’s former president on the grounds that he consistently ignored the chief compliance officer’s request for resources, which led to the firm’s compliance failures. ...
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Blog
Utah AG Brings Charges Against Latest 'Affinity' Ponzi Scheme
Shortly after Utah introduced the nation's first "White Collar Crime Offender Registry" to help fight affinity fraud, the state's Attorney General charged a father and son with 15 counts of securities fraud in which they allegedly exploited their membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to win ...
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Anti-Corruption Groups Challenge the SFO on DPAs
Image: Title: GreenA number of well-known anti-corruption activists, such as Transparency International and Corruption Watch, are urging David Green, director of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, to rethink replacing criminal charges with deferred prosecution agreements. The group warns that if DPAs are offered, that will allow banks and other companies to ...
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Blog
SEC, Secret Service Reportedly Investigating 'FIN4' Hackers
The SEC and the U.S. Secret Service are reportedly separately investigating a group of hackers called FIN4. In December 2014, cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc. released a report stating that FIN4 that was hacking the email accounts of top executives, lawyers and others in an effort to obtain non-public information about ...
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Blog
SEC Charges 36 Firms for Fraudulent Muni-Bond Offerings
The SEC has brought enforcement actions against 36 municipal underwriting firms for violations in municipal bond offerings. The cases are the first to be brought against underwriters under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative, a voluntary self-reporting program targeting material misstatements and omissions in municipal bond offering documents. Details inside.
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Blog
SEC Charges CCO of SFX With Compliance Failures
The Securities and Exchange Commission last week brought fraud charges against the former president of SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises for stealing client funds. The firm and its chief compliance officer separately agreed to settle charges that they were responsible for related compliance failures and other violations. Details inside.
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Blog
India Attempts to Tackle the Supply Side of Bribery
India’s Union Cabinet recently approved amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act (PoCA) that will expand the scope of the law to corporate executives. Currently the law prohibits corrupt acts by public servants and government officials, who have been at the center of enforcement actions. Over the years, government corruption ...
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Blog
Two More NPAs Reached Under Swiss Bank Program
The Department of Justice today announced that two more banks—Bank Linth (Bank Linth) and Bank Sparhafen Zurich AG (BSZ)—have reached a resolution under the Department’s Swiss Bank Program, which provides a means for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States. Bank Linth will pay a $4.1 ...
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Blog
SEC in 1942: Everybody Into the Pool!
How did the SEC staff end up working at the bottom of a swimming pool in 1942? The SEC Historical Society has the answer.
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Blog
Gallagher Uncorks on SEC Action Against CCOs
Image: SEC Commissioner Dan Gallagher, often a contrarian voice at the agency, spoke up again last week to denounce recent enforcement actions against compliance officers at investment advisory firms. Gallagher panned the SEC rule that dictates how investment advisers establish compliance procedures, and he railed that “the Commission seems to ...
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Blog
Same Old, Same Old With SEC Budget Process
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill eerily similar to the bill Congress passed four years ago—both bills appropriate $222 million less than the SEC requested, freeze the SEC’s budget at the prior year’s level, and prohibit the SEC from drawing upon an important ...
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Blog
Sand Hill Exchange Founder Accepts Responsibility, Has Feedback for SEC
Despite a few outliers, most defendants in SEC settlements continue to settle cases "without admitting or denying" the allegations against them. While such language was also included in the Order memorializing the settlement of the SEC's recent administrative proceeding In the Matter of Sand Hill Exchange, et al., the settlement ...
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Blog
PetroTiger Exonerated From FCPA Prosecution
First, it was Morgan Stanley in 2012. Now, for only the second time in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (at least, that's been publicly reported), the Department of Justice has exonerated a company from FCPA prosection, despite guilty pleas by three of its top executives. The Justice ...
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Blog
As BHP Enforcement Shows, the Proof Is in the Doing
Yes, Virginia, you can violate the FCPA even without bribing a foreign government official—just ask BHP Billiton, fined $25 million by the SEC for having a compliance program that looked great on paper, but was never strongly implemented. This week, columnist Tom Fox does a post-mortem on how BHP’s program ...
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Blog
Société Générale to Pay $17.8 Million Under Swiss Bank Program
The Justice Department announced that two more banks—Société Générale Private Banking and Berner Kantonalbank—have reached a resolution under the Swiss Bank Program, which provides a means for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States. Société Générale will pay a $17.8 million penalty, Berner Kantonalbank a $4.6 ...