All Regulatory Enforcement articles – Page 167
-
Blog
HSBC Private Bank Pays $12.5 Million for Providing Unregistered Services to U.S. Clients
HSBC’s Swiss-based private banking arm agreed today to pay $12.5 million to Securities and Exchange Commission for violating federal securities laws by failing to register with the SEC before providing cross-border brokerage and investment advisory services to U.S. clients. “HSBC Private Bank’s efforts to prevent registration violations ultimately failed, because ...
-
Blog
FINRA Fines Citigroup $15 Million for Supervisory Failures
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Citigroup Global Markets $15 million last week for failing to adequately supervise communications between its equity research analysts and its clients and Citigroup sales and trading staff. In settling this matter, Citigroup neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of ...
-
Article
Antitrust Division to Increase Use of Probation in Enforcement
Image: Title: SnyderThe Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice has signaled a shift in its enforcement approach concerning companies that violate antitrust laws and don’t have effective compliance programs. During two recent speeches, Antitrust officials said they would seek court-supervised probation in such cases. “Conversely, companies that can demonstrate ...
-
Blog
The SEC's Role in the War of 1812
Today on TheRacetotheBottom blog, Prof. J. Robert Brown Jr. of the University of Denver Law School took a playful poke at the Association of American Law Schools for its recent announcement (still on its website here) that SEC Chair Mary Jo White will be the inaugural speaker for its Showcase ...
-
Blog
Justice Department Nets Record $5.7 Billion From False Claims Cases
Image: Title: DeleryThe Department of Justice obtained a record $5.7 billion in recoveries from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against the government in fiscal year 2014, thanks mainly to massive settlements reached in the financial services and healthcare industries. “In the past three years, we have achieved the ...
-
Blog
SEC Halts Trading in Four Microcap Cos., Warns Investors About Ebola Scams
As also happened with recent natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, the Ebola outbreak that has captured the attention of the American public has become a possible tool of scam artists. The SEC suspended trading in four companies today -- Bravo Enterprises Ltd., Immunotech Laboratories Inc., Myriad ...
-
Blog
Study Delves Into the Extensive Costs of Non-Compliance
What’s the true cost of non-compliance? A study by Thomson Reuters makes the case that fines, while significant and growing, may be the least of what should worry companies that run afoul of regulations. Broader financial implications can include the end of a business line, an inability to sell specific ...
-
Blog
Justice Department Collected $24.7 Billion in Civil and Criminal Cases in 2014
The Department of Justice collected $24.7 billion in civil and criminal actions in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a video released today by the agency. That amount is “more than three times the $8 billion total the Department collected in 2013,” Holder ...
-
Blog
2014 Marked Record Year for SEC Whistleblower Program
Fiscal year 2014 marked a historic year for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program both in the number of tips it received and the number and dollar amount of whistleblower rewards the agency doled out, according to the SEC’s annual report to Congress. The SEC received 3,620 whistleblower tips ...
-
Blog
Whitewashed Sanctions Report Costs Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi $565 Million
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ today reached a $315 million settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services—adding to the $250 million settlement it reached with DFS last year—for misleading regulators regarding the bank’s transactions with Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, and other sanctioned entities, bringing the bank’s total monetary penalty ...
-
Article
A New Congress Will Bring New Chances to Alter Regulatory Landscape
The midterm elections brought a much stronger position in Congress to Republicans. While it may not be enough to give them the clout they need to make vast legislative changes, it has given them hold on the purse strings. With control of the budgeting process, and a potential new willingness ...
-
Blog
SEC: Sending Saudi Officials on 'World Tour' Was FCPA Violation
In case there was any ambiguity that companies may not send foreign government officials on a "world tour" in order to secure business, the SEC made that clear yesterday. In an administrative proceeding filed yesterday, the SEC sanctioned two former employees in the Dubai office of U.S.-based FLIR Systems Inc. ...
-
Blog
GAO Faults SEC for Internal Control Deficiencies
The message from the Government Accountability Office to the Securities and Exchange Commission: practice what you preach. A new, 176-page report from the government watchdog faults the agency for “a significant deficiency" in internal controls for its Investor Protection Fund.
-
Blog
Former Law Firm I.T. Employee Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading
On September 14, 2014, the SEC filed an insider trading case against Dmitry Braverman, a senior information technology professional at law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The case was the SEC's second in a six month period alleging insider trading by law firm employees, and the SEC emphasized that ...
-
Blog
Despite Commissioners' 'Dissent' in WSJ, SEC Argues For Fair Fund in SAC Case
As I discussed here last week, the SEC recently stated its intention to create a Fair Fund to distribute the funds from its $602 million insider trading settlement with SAC Capital to the people who were on the losing side of certain trades with SAC. This week, that decision was ...
-
Blog
ESCO Pays $2 Million for Cuba Sanctions Violations
ESCO, a maker of metal parts for the mining, oil and gas, construction and other industries, today reached a $2 million settlement with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations. According to OFAC, ESCO appeared to have violated these reegulations when ...
-
Blog
Banks Fined $4.3 Billion in Foreign-Exchange Probe
In a highly-anticipated series of settlements, regulators from the United Kingdom, United States, and Switzerland today slapped six banks with a total of $4.3 billion in fines to resolve charges that they manipulated the foreign exchange currency-trading market. JPMorgan and Citibank will pay the largest total in fines of $1 ...
-
Article
What SEC Rulemaking Generates the Most Buzz?
What rule proposals and petitions before the SEC attract the most comment letters? Not surprisingly, investors and their advocates flooded the SEC’s mailbox with form letters supporting measures such as enhanced whistleblower protections and disclosure of political contributions. Less feedback came from corporate representatives concerned with new rules on the ...
-
Blog
Getting to Know Attorney General Nominee Lynch
Following President Barack Obama’s nomination this week of Loretta Lynch as the next top chief of the Department of Justice, many in Corporate America may be wondering what the transition will mean for the agency’s enforcement priorities. “She has spent years in the trenches as a prosecutor, aggressively fighting terrorism, ...
-
Blog
Study: Whistleblowers Are Even More Costly Than You Thought
When whistleblowers tip off the government with information about corporate wrongdoing, the damage can be more costly than otherwise expected, according to a new study. Even before the SEC started offering rewards for actionable information, the assistance of one or more tipsters in an enforcement action increased penalties by an ...