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Following a speech by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite on January 17, 2023, the DOJ issued additional guidance on changes to the Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policy, focused on voluntary self-reporting.

The policy increases, and makes more explicit and concrete, the potential benefits for companies to self-disclose misconduct, cooperate, and remediate, as well as the…

On December 21, 2022, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published a notice of proposed rulemaking elaborating on what constitutes false advertising of deposit insurance for purposes of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.Continue Reading FDIC Continues Rulemakings Related to Misrepresentation in Advertising: Digital Asset Businesses Still in the Crosshairs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced the Division of Enforcement’s results for fiscal year 2022, the first full year for the Division under the leadership of both Chair Gary Gensler and Director of Enforcement Gurbir Grewal.

Results were up from the year before, with a record $4.2 billion in civil penalties reflecting the…

On December 1, 2022, at the American Conference Institute’s 39th International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) in Washington D.C., Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri (“DAAG Argentieri”) gave a special keynote speech highlighting developments in FCPA enforcement by the Department of Justice (“DOJ” or the “Department”), including with regard to the application of the DOJ’s announcement of corporate criminal enforcement policy priorities in September of this year.[1]  DAAG Argentieri focused on several policy changes and enforcement trends and initiatives using examples from this year’s FCPA resolutions and declination,[2] as well as from the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.
Continue Reading DOJ Provides Updates on FCPA and Corporate Criminal Enforcement Trends at International Conference on the FCPA

On October 26, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed a new rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) imposing due diligence, recordkeeping and reporting obligations on registered investment advisers (“RIAs”) who outsource certain key “covered functions” of the adviser’s business to third parties, including affiliates.  The Proposal represents another step toward more substantive regulation of RIAs by the SEC under Chairman Gensler, and will impose real costs and operational risk on RIAs.
Continue Reading New Requirements for Outsourcing by Advisers: Proposed SEC Rule Brings More Obligations and Scrutiny

On September 30, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) of the Department of the Treasury adopted a final rule (the “Final Rule”) to implement the beneficial ownership reporting requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.  The CTA and Final Rule require a range of U.S. entities, and non-U.S. entities registered to do business in the United States, to report information on their underlying beneficial owners who are individuals to FinCEN.  Notably, certain investments advisers exempt from registration and subsidiaries of private fund clients of investment advisers will be subject to these reporting requirements.
Continue Reading FINCEN’s Corporate Beneficial Ownership Reporting Rule: Significance for Investment Advisers

On September 9, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced charges against several investment advisers for failure to comply with requirements of Section 206(4) of the Advisers Act and the rules promulgated thereunder (commonly known as the “Custody Rule”) and deficiencies related to Form ADV filings.  The advisers included BiscayneAmericas Advisers L.L.C., Garrison Investment Group, LP, Janus Henderson Investors US LLC, Lend Academy Investments, LLC, Polaris Equity Management, Inc., QVR, LLC, Ridgeview Asset Management Partners, LLC, Steward Capital Management, Inc., and Titan Fund Management, LLC.  The advisers all agreed to settle the charges and will pay combined penalties of over $1 million.
Continue Reading SEC Releases Slate of Enforcement Actions Against Advisers Related to Custody Rule Violations and Form ADV Deficiencies

On September 15, 2022, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco (“DAG Monaco”) announced further changes to the enforcement policies and practices of the Department of Justice (“DOJ” or the “Department”) at an event at New York University Law School[1], in particular building on previously announced revisions relating to individual misconduct and corporate recidivism.
Continue Reading U.S. Department of Justice Announces Changes to Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies

On July 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Ishan Wahi, a former employee of the digital asset trading platform Coinbase (the “Company”), as well as his brother and friend, with engaging in insider trading ahead of certain of the Company’s digital asset listing announcements (i.e., announcements in which the Company publicly discloses the specific digital assets that it plans to make available for trading on its platform), which allegedly generally increase the value of the relevant digital assets.
Continue Reading SEC and DOJ Charge Employee of Digital Asset Trading Platform and His Associates With Alleged Insider Trading in Digital Assets

On August 12, 2022, in United States v. Hoskins, No. 20-842 —F.4th—, 2022 WL 330357 (2d. Cir. Aug. 12, 2022) (“Hoskins II”), a three-judge panel from the Second Circuit upheld a lower court decision to overturn the foreign bribery conviction of a former Alstom SA executive, Lawrence Hoskins.  The Court concluded that the trial evidence did not support a finding that Defendant Hoskins was an “agent” of a U.S. subsidiary of the French multinational railway manufacturer Alstom (“Alstom U.S.”).  While highly fact-intensive and likely subject to narrow interpretation in the future, the decision is the Second Circuit’s most recent limitation on the extraterritorial reach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”).  This follows a prior Second Circuit decision in this same case limiting the scope of the FCPA’s extraterritorial reach of conspiracy liability for certain foreign individuals acting abroad.
Continue Reading Second Circuit Upholds District Court’s Rejection of DOJ Attempt to Expand Extraterritorial Reach of FCPA Through Agency Liability