The Delaware Court of Chancery invalidated a $55.8-billion payout by Tesla, Inc., to its founder and controlling stockholder, Elon Musk. In a 200-page post-trial decision, Chancellor McCormick stated Musk was required to...more
Delaware’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected challenges by stockholders of two corporations who argued the respective companies invalidly adopted exculpatory charter provisions without giving each class of stock a separate...more
Delaware’s Supreme Court recently clarified the difference between derivative and direct claims in the context of a dispute over whether creditors’ fraudulent transfer claims were covered by insurance policies applicable to...more
1/11/2024
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Creditors ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Debtors ,
Delaware ,
Derivatives ,
Fraudulent Transfers ,
Insurance Claims ,
Verizon
On June 17, 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), the non-governmental financial regulator in the United Kingdom, issued a Final Notice to Commerzbank London (the “Bank”), a branch of the large German business bank,...more
Examiners Should Focus on Risk, Not Technical Perfection -
On April 15, 2020, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (“FFIEC”) released updates to the Bank Secretary Act/Anti-Money Laundering (“BSA/AML”)...more
In its 2020 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing (“2020 Strategy”), the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) has laid out its AML and money laundering enforcement priorities. Last week, we...more
3/5/2020
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Investment ,
Geographic Targeting Order ,
Innovative Technology ,
Legal Representatives ,
Money Laundering ,
Natural Person Requirement ,
Real Estate Investments ,
Real Estate Market ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Service Professionals ,
Title Insurance ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Virtual Currency
First in a Two-Post Series -
The U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) has issued its 2020 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing (“2020 Strategy”)....more
2/28/2020
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Casinos ,
Corruption ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Digital Assets ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Correspondent Banking ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Services Business ,
Proposed Rules ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities Transactions ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Terrorism Funding ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Transparency ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Vulnerable Victims ,
White Collar Crimes
Last week, a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted two former Venezuelan officials, charging them with seven counts of money laundering and one count of money-laundering conspiracy. The charges relate to...more
7/3/2019
/ Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Official ,
Kickbacks ,
Money Laundering ,
Venezuela ,
White Collar Crimes
Authorities Begin to Focus on Individual Responsibility -
This week, Danish prosecutors charged Thomas Borgen, the former chief executive officer of Danske Bank, for his involvement in the money laundering scandal arising...more
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee released three proposed bills to codify many of the reform ideas that have arisen in an ongoing conversation among financial agencies, law enforcement, financial institutions,...more
3/15/2019
/ AML/CFT ,
BSA/AML ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Committee ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Money Laundering ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Whistleblowers
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released prepared remarks delivered by FinCEN director, Kenneth A. Blanco, at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Anti-Money Laundering (AML) &...more
2/7/2019
/ BSA/AML ,
Cooperative Compliance Regime ,
Employee Training ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Internal Controls ,
Money Laundering ,
Policy Statement ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations
This week Danske Bank released a report detailing the results of its much anticipated internal investigation into allegations of money laundering perpetrated in its Estonian branch. ...more
9/21/2018
/ Banking Sector ,
Corruption ,
Estonia ,
EU ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Internal Controls ,
Money Laundering ,
Popular ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
White Collar Crimes
Earlier this month, the District Court for the Central District of California imposed a prison sentence of one year and a day, with three years of supervised release, on defendant Theresa Lynn Tetley, who had pleaded guilty...more
7/24/2018
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
Bitcoin ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Darknet ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Instruments ,
FinCEN ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Services Business ,
Money Transmitter ,
Registration Requirement ,
Statutory Violations ,
Virtual Currency
Incorporation Solidifies Customer Due Diligence as “Fifth Pillar” to BSA/AML Compliance Program -
May 11, 2018 was the much anticipated effective date for the Customer Due Diligence (“CDD”) Requirements for Financial...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) recently advised that a financial institution is not required to file a Suspicious Activity Report (“SAR”) based solely upon a customer’s inquiry into or participation in a...more
After over a year of negotiations, the European Parliament and its executive arm, the European Council, recently agreed to an amendment to the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive to include measures targeting exchange...more
12/21/2017
/ Beneficial Owner ,
Bitcoin ,
Digital Currency ,
EU ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Money Laundering ,
New Amendments ,
Popular ,
Prepaid Payment Products ,
Tax Evasion ,
Terrorism Funding ,
Virtual Currency
FinCEN recentlty announced entry of a $2 million assessment against Lone Star National Bank, a private bank operating out of Texas, for the bank’s allegedly willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) and inadequate...more
11/8/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Correspondent Banking ,
Mexico ,
Patriot Act ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
On August 25, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York sentenced former Guinea Minister of Mines and Geology, Mahmoud Thiam, to seven years in prison, followed by three years of supervised probations,...more
8/31/2017
/ Banking Sector ,
Bribery ,
China ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Official ,
Fraudulent Wire Transfers ,
Guinea ,
Mining Contracts ,
Money Laundering ,
Oil & Gas ,
White Collar Crimes
Two days after North Korea’s successful long-range ballistic missile test, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia unsealed a memorandum opinion which granted the Department of Justice “damming” warrants to seize...more
This post discusses individual liability in AML/BSA enforcement, which is an area of increasing attention. Indeed, according to public statements by the government, individual liability is the focus of enhanced scrutiny...more
5/19/2017
/ Banking Sector ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Derivative Suit ,
FinCEN ,
Fraud ,
Individual Accountability ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Transmitter ,
Moneygram ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Western Union ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Yates Memorandum
On January 19, 2017, the Western Union Company (“Western Union” or the “Company”) entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), in which Western Union admitted to willful...more
3/15/2017
/ Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Class Action ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Derivative Suit ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Form 10-K ,
Misleading Statements ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Transfer ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Western Union ,
Wire Fraud
A federal appeals court recently decided that a plaintiff could not assert a claim against the issuer of a reverse mortgage for breach of regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), when...more
8/9/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Breach of Contract ,
Financial Institutions ,
Fraudulent Concealment ,
Fraudulent Inducement ,
HECM ,
HUD ,
Liens ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Real Estate Market ,
Reverse Mortgages ,
Summary Judgment ,
Written Agreements
The failure of a mortgagee to file a claim in the probate of an estate does not bar the mortgagee from later pursuing a foreclosure, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held. The plaintiff inherited a...more
Delaware's Chancery Court rejected a buyer's fraud claims premised on misrepresentations and omissions other than the statements the contract identified as the seller's "sole and exclusive representations" in a recent...more
In a recent putative class action by borrowers against a mortgage servicer alleging violations of the Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that mortgage servicers must credit electronic...more