There were significant developments last week in two recent criminal enforcement initiatives that were first announced earlier this year.  First, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) outlined the details of its long-anticipated whistleblower bounty program.[1]  Second, on July 30, 2024, President Biden signed into law a number of amendments to the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (“FEPA”).[2]  Both of these developments underscore the importance of investing in robust compliance programs and conducting timely investigations of potential misconduct.

Continue Reading Two Enforcement Developments: DOJ Launches Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program and Amendments to the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act Are Passed into Law

Earlier this month, the California State Budget released for approval by the state legislature included an updated version of Senate Bill 54 (the “VC Diversity Law”).  The latest version contains several updates to the VC Diversity Law, including revisions to the definition of “covered entity;” that said, as we discuss below, it is not clear that the scope of coverage will meaningfully differ.  The updates also delay the initial reporting date to March 1, 2026 (from the original date of March 1, 2025), and reflect a change to the California governmental division responsible for enforcing the law.

Continue Reading California Updates Diversity Reporting Law for Venture Capital Funds to Start in 2026

What’s next after PFAR? In its highly-awaited June 5th opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated all of the SEC’s Private Fund Adviser rules (“PFAR”), agreeing with industry trade associations that the SEC lacked the necessary statutory authority to adopt PFAR. In our latest Client Alert, we examine the opinion, aspects of the rules that may survive the outcome, and what the Fifth Circuit’s decision may mean for other pending and final SEC rules. In our view, the PFAR adopting release continues to offer important insights into how the SEC staff views certain adviser activities and which areas are likely to draw scrutiny in the context of examinations and enforcement investigations.

With its decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Keener (May 29, 2024), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has now twice in the span of four months affirmed a broad interpretation of who is considered a “dealer” for purposes of the securities laws. More specifically, the Eleventh Circuit upheld the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) position that a person engaged in the business of purchasing—for its own account—convertible debt notes from microcap issuers (also referred to as “penny-stock” companies), converting the notes into common stock, and selling that stock in the market meets the definition of a “dealer” under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), and must therefore be registered as a dealer with the SEC. The decision in Keener closely tracked the same Court’s decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Almagarby, Microcap Equity Group (February 14, 2024), in which the Eleventh Circuit agreed with the SEC that the plaintiff Almagarby had been acting as an unregistered “dealer” in violation of the Exchange Act by obtaining convertible debt of microcap companies for his own account, converting the debt into common stock, and then selling the stock. 

Continue Reading Keener, Almagarby, and the Scope of the “Dealer” Definition: Potential Implications for Fund Managers and other Investors

On May 16, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” or “SEC”) adopted a final set of amendments (the “Final Amendments”) to Regulation S-P (“Reg S-P”) to require “covered institutions,” which include SEC-registered investment advisers (“RIAs”) and broker-dealers, to adopt an incident response program for incidents involving unauthorized use of or access to customer data.  The Final Amendments also require customer notification where the covered institution determines the compromise of such data could create a reasonably likely risk of substantial harm or inconvenience to an individual identified with the information.  

Continue Reading SEC Adopts Amendments to Reg S-P

On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law H.R. 815, a foreign aid bill containing a provision that doubles the statute of limitations (SoL) for civil and criminal violations of U.S. sanctions and other national security programs from five years to ten years.

Continue Reading Statute of Limitations for U.S. Sanctions Violations Extended from Five to Ten years

On April 15, 2024, the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) launched the Pilot Program on Voluntary Self-Disclosure for Individuals (“the Individual VSD Pilot Program”), which represents the latest in a string of announcements by DOJ focused on catching companies and individuals that engage in corporate crime.

Continue Reading DOJ Announces New Pilot Program Seeking Voluntary Self-Disclosures from Culpable Individuals Aimed At Uncovering Corporate Misconduct 

On March 27, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced amendments to the Internet Adviser Exemption, which permits investment advisers that provide advisory services through the internet (“Internet Investment Advisers”) to register with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) if they do not otherwise have enough assets under management to be eligible for registration.[1]  The final rule seeks to address technological and industry advancements since the original Internet Adviser Exemption was adopted in 2002.  The final rule also amends the interactive website requirement, eliminates the exception for advisers with de minimis non-internet clients, and imposes additional reporting requirements for Internet Investment Advisers on Form ADV.

Continue Reading SEC Announces Reforms for Internet Investment Advisers

On March 18, 2024, the SEC announced two enforcement actions against investment advisers for so-called “AI-washing” and violations of the Marketing Rule.  Using the playbook from the Enforcement Division’s “green-washing” cases in the ESG space, the SEC found that the two investment advisers marketed that they were using AI in certain ways, when in fact, the advisers were not. 

Continue Reading SEC Announces “AI-Washing” Cases Against Investment Advisers