Throughout the week over at Securities Docket, I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web (on the subjects, predictably, of SEC enforcement and securities litigation). Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending December 18:

2009 Year-End FCPA Update (GD&C)Gibson Dunn Update | January 8, 2010"One can say without exaggeration that this past year was probably the most dynamic single year in the more than thirty years since the FCPA was enacted." So began Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a recent recap of 2009 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") enforcement. Indeed, for the fourth time in the last five years, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), the statute's dual enforcers, set a record by bringing more FCPA prosecutions than in any prior year in the FCPA's history.

Meant to Be a Safety Net, Bank Custodians Tangle Investors (Floyd Norris, NY Times)The New York Times | January 8, 2010Some of the people who lost money in the Madoff fraud had a custodian agreement with a bank. So far, they are worse off than they would have been if they had not had such an agreement. And therein lies a tale raising the question of just what a custodian needs to do. It also shows the perverse effect of a federal law that has kept that group of victims, some of whom lost only a few hundred dollars, and others who lost millions from filing a class-action suit. If some of the victims do not file their own suits, or join in the existing litigation, they could fail to recover any money even if the bank is later held to be liable.

Top Ten D&O Stories of 2009 (The D & O Diary)The D&O Diary | January 5, 20102009 was an eventful year, with significant developments across a wide variety of economic, financial, judicial and legislative fronts. With the arrival of the New Year, it seems appropriate to take a look back at the past year's most significant D&O developments. So, in the finest tradition of year-end punditry, here is The D&O Diary's list of The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2009.

A Closer Look at the 2009 Securities Lawsuits (The D & O Diary)The D&O Diary | January 4, 2010What a difference a year makes. Just 12 months ago, the subprime and credit crisis litigation wave was in full spate, and the onslaught of Madoff and other Ponzi scheme cases had just begun to surge. And while both of these lawsuit filing trends continued well into 2009, by year's end both of these phenomena had largely played out. At the same time, however, other litigation trends emerged as the year progressed, and in the end, the number of new securities class action lawsuits filed during 2009, though significantly below the number filed in 2008, was well within historical norms.

Cornering Rajaratnam Rekindles Dennis Levine Taking Down Drexel (BusinessWeek)Business Week | January 4, 2010Days after he was arrested in an insider-trading probe in 1986, investment banker Dennis Levine sequestered himself at his lawyer's New York office to read the government's evidence. As he finished, he gazed out a window some 30 floors up, silently urging himself to open it and jump. He didn't.