All Regulatory Enforcement articles – Page 157
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Blog
Swiss Bank Feels Force of Cyber Attack in the Social Media Age
In June 2014 I wrote here about how the concept of hackers demanding ransom from companies in exchange for the hackers leaving them alone and moving on to other targets was new to me. Just seven months later, we have the U.S. government accusing foreign countries of hacking massive companies ...
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Blog
NHTSA Issues Record Fines in 2014; Fines Honda $70 Million
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration slapped Honda with two $35 million civil penalties for failing to report deaths, injuries, and certain warranty claims to the federal government in violation of the TREAD Act. Including Honda, NHTSA issued more than $126 million in civil penalties in 2014, exceeding the total ...
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Article
Preparing for Pay Rules, Privacy, and a New Congress
The SEC is likely to spend 2015 churning through as much rulemaking for the Dodd-Frank Act as it can, never mind being years behind schedule on that front. To complicate matters for the agency, Congress is also likely to try repealing some parts of the law even before the SEC ...
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Article
Better Ways to Test Banks’ Stress
Image: Title: KraynThe banking world will start 2015 with another bout of hand-wringing over stress tests. Critics question whether the tests probe what truly makes large banks a threat to the financial system, and banks know they must somehow use technology to streamline the annual exercise. “Throwing people at the ...
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SEC Fights 'Pre-taliation' Against Dodd-Frank Whistleblowers
According to whistleblower lawyer Erika Kelton, companies that fear Dodd-Frank whistleblower programs are aggressively trying to squash potential tips to the SEC through a practice the agency has dubbed "pre-taliation." Kelton, a partner at law firm Phillips & Cohen LLP who recently helped one of her clients obtain the largest ...
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Blog
SEC.gov's Top 10 News Stories, Search Terms in 2014
The SEC marked the end of 2014 by tweeting "Top 10" lists of both the most-viewed news stories of 2014 on SEC.gov, as well as the most-searched terms on SEC.gov.Here are 2014's Top 10 most-viewed news stories on SEC.gov: See the list: 2014’s most-viewed news on http://t.co/kacEcWakdu pic.twitter.com/zrASY0Ia9j— SEC_News (@SEC_News) ...
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Blog
FTC Finalizes User Privacy Charges Against Snapchat
Image: The Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that Snapchat deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service. “If a company markets privacy and security as key selling points in pitching its service to consumers, it is critical that it ...
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Blog
FBI Recruiting New Wave of Cyber Agents
The FBI is actively trying to hire a new wave of Special Agents with specialized cyber skills to help it "protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes." In a recent FBI job posting for "Special Agent (Cyber)," the FBI emphasized that the position is for applicants ...
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Blog
Computer Sciences to Pay $190 Million in Accounting Probe; Makes Compliance Enhancements
Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) disclosed in a securities filing yesterday that it has reached a $190 million proposed settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and will restate three years of financial results to resolve accounting issues dating back four years ago. The SEC charged the IT services company with ...
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Blog
CSC Discloses $190 Million Settlement Agreement With SEC
Computer Sciences Corp. is settling an SEC enforcement action relating to accounting errors in the company’s 2009-2012 financial statements. As part of the settlement, CSC will pay a penalty of $190 million and restate past financial statements. CSC said the errors concerned operations in Europe and Australia, and the company’s ...
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Blog
Bank Leumi Fined $400 Million for Tax Evasion Scheme; Bans Compliance Officer
Israel-based Bank Leumi has agreed to pay a total of $400 million to resolve charges that it conducted an illegal cross-border scheme to help U.S. clients evade taxes by hiding income and assets in offshore bank accounts at the bank’s locations in Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the United States. Details ...
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Blog
'British Madoff' Disappears After $200M Fraud Unravels
The UK press reported this week that a trader named Joe Lewis of Yorkshire has disappeared after admitting earlier this month that his investment firm actually stopped operating back in 2009. Despite the firm not engaging in any trading for years, investors in JL Trading continued to receive detailed monthly ...
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Blog
Justice Department Intervenes in Whistleblower Suits Against Omnicare
The Justice Department recently intervened in two consolidated whistleblower lawsuits against drug company Omnicare over allegations that it solicited and received millions of dollars in kickbacks from drug maker Abbott Laboratories. “Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia is small, we will not waver in our ...
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Blog
'You Know What's Cool? A Billion Dollars,' Part II
"A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars." -- Sean Parker, The Social Network In 2009, when Irving Picard and his law firm, Baker & Hostetler, had been working as trustee on the Madoff case for less than a year, I observed that the firm had ...
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Article
Britain Braces for New Supervisory Regime
Image: British Banks are bracing for “incredible pressure” in 2015 as they implement new rules to make senior executives personally accountable to regulators. Compliance functions will help lead the creation of the new Senior Managers Regime, complete with certification overload. “Regulators will expect compliance in the spirit of the regulations, ...
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Article
Companies Face New Twists in Shareholder Proposals
What the SEC giveth, the courts may taketh away—a point made clear lately by two conflicting messages for companies seeking to keep shareholder proposals off the proxy statement. At the SEC, a victory for Whole Foods suggests the agency might be more business-friendly in granting no-action letters this coming proxy ...
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Blog
SEC Sues F-Squared for Touting Hypothetical and Inflated Performance
Yesterday, the SEC announced an interesting enforcement action against investment management firm F-Squared Investments and its former CEO, Howard Present. According to the SEC, F-Squared misled investors between September 2008 and September 2013 by touting a lengthy record of stellar performance that was, in fact, not only hypothetical but substantially ...
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Blog
Ocwen Financial to Pay $150 Million Over Wrongful Foreclosures
Ocwen Financial this week agreed to pay a total of $150 million in “hard-dollar” assistance to current and former New York borrowers to resolve numerous and significant abuses in violation of a previous settlement agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services. As part of the settlement, founder William ...
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Blog
Former Rite Aid VP Charged in Kickback Scheme
A former Rite Aid vice president, Timothy Foster of Oregon, has been charged in connection with a $14.6 million, surplus inventory sales/kickback scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As the company’s vice president for quality assurance, Foster’s took advantage of his oversight of surplus inventory liquidation to benefit himself ...
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Blog
Former MoneyGram CCO Fined $1 Million
Image: MoneyGram International’s former chief compliance officer, Thomas Haider, has been fined $1 million by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for failing to ensure that his company abided by the anti-money laundering provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act. Concurrently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of ...