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DOJ and SEC Scrutinize Potential Misuse of Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans by Corporate Directors Affiliated with Investment Advisers

Over the past four years, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) have focused on insider trading involving private funds as one of their key targets in the fight against...more

Fourth Circuit Court Of Appeals Puts Teeth Into The "In Fact" Exclusions Of A D&O Policy

In Farkas v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, No. 12-1481, 2013 WL 1459248 (4th Cir. Apr 11, 2013), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision that put teeth into the "in fact" exclusions of a...more

SEC And FBI Try To Ketchup To Heinz Insider Traders

In the latest development in an SEC lawsuit filed Friday, February 15, U.S. District Judge Rakoff extended a freeze on a Swiss Goldman Sachs account linked to possible insider trading in H.J. Heinz Company call options. The...more

Remote Tippee Issues Hang over SEC/Wells Fargo Insider Trading Case

The SEC brought a big insider trading case against a number of individuals in the Western District of North Carolina yesterday. The complaint alleges $11 million in illicit profits. The complaint calls it an insider...more

Back from the Securities Enforcement Forum 2012

Yesterday I attended the Securities Enforcement Forum 2012 at the Mayflower Hotel in D.C. Bruce Carton organized an excellent day of panels devoted to a number of securities enforcement topics. Here is the full agenda from...more

Insider Trading: What Happens When the Victim Says That There Was No Crime?

Under the “misappropriation theory” of insider trading, a person violates the securities laws by breaching a fiduciary duty to keep information confidential. But what happens when the entity to whom the fiduciary duty was...more

Do You Have an Insider Trading Compliance Policy?

Just to make every compliance officer’s job a little bit more difficult, companies need to adopt and implement an insider trading compliance policy. The Justice Department and the SEC have made headlines through its...more

InfoBytes Special Alert: DOJ Increasingly Pursuing Both Monetary and Non-Monetary Relief in Civil Enforcement Actions

Last month, in a potentially significant but largely overlooked development, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") signaled that it would "increasingly" pursue "innovative, non-monetary measures" when it settles civil fraud...more

Recent DOJ Obstruction of Justice Case Highlights Importance of HSR Item 4 Compliance

Failing to comply with premerger document disclosure rules can lead to civil and criminal penalties for companies and their executives. On May 3, 2012, Kyoungwon Pyo, a senior executive at Hyosung Corporation, agreed to...more

SEC Changes Policy on Admitting Guilt in Settlements of Enforcement Actions

On January 6, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that it has modified its settlement policy for enforcement actions that also involve a criminal conviction or admissions by a defendant of criminal...more

Securities Law Doppelgängers

Over the years, I’ve noted that a number of evil twins have walked the corporate securities law stage. Other People’s Money O.P.M. Leasing Services, Inc. was a large computer leasing company that crashed into...more

Business Crimes Perspectives -- DOJ’s Recent Trend of Prosecuting Individuals for FCPA Violations Continues with Longer Prison...

The longest prison term ever imposed in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) case -- fifteen years -- was recently given to Joel Esquenazi, former president of Terra Telecommunications Corporation, after a jury convicted...more

Keep the wolves of embezzlement away.

Information on how to keep an embezzlement from taking place....more

Three Moms Alleged To Have “Socked It To” PTA Members

Several news stories appeared this week about three Southern California mothers who allegedly used their involvement in an elementary school PTA to solicit investors in a Ponzi scheme. According to this press release issued...more

Securities Litigation Report - Volume 8, Issue 4 - April 2011

In this issue: The Vivendi Ruling: Revisiting Three Key Issues (and Adding Two More); Delaware Chancery Court Update: Recent Decisions Shed New Light on Stapled Financing Offered by Financial Advisors, Duties of Directors...more

How does the Bribery Act 2010 affect your business?

A brief introduction to how the Bribery Act 2010 will affect commercial organisations and the steps that they need to take now to minimise their risk....more

UK Bribery Act - Sintesi da "Il Sole 24 ore"

Sintesi dei contenuti del Bribery Act - in vigore in UK dal 01 luglio 2011...more

FCPA, UK Bribery Act, and Indonesian Anti-Corruption Law - A Comparison

There are several multinational companies in Indonesia which have a parent company, affiliate, subsidiary or even a listed company in the US and UK. One of the issue for such companies is that, developing countries such as...more

Advocate's Edge

Our bi-monthly newsletter for attorneys featuring articles re: ACFE report highlighting the importance of antifraud controls; Authentication issues: Who creates ESI; Rule 26 Amendments extending greater work product...more

Failed Bank Executives' FDIC Man Hunt!

"Federal regulators have authorized legal action against more than 50 executives and directors of collapsed U.S. banks as they seek to recover about $1 billion in losses. A spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp....more

When Negligence Is Not A Crime: Massachusetts SJC Draws Brighter Line Between Criminal And Civil Corporate Liability

Companies face serious challenges when a terrible accident has happened (including substantial civil exposure). In the recent Life Care Centers decision, the Massachusetts SJC has rejected the "aggregation" theory of...more

United States Supreme Court Limits Scope Of Federal Criminal "Honest Services" Fraud Statute

In Skilling v. United States, 2010 WL 2518587 (U.S. Jun. 24, 2010), the United States Supreme Court significantly limited the scope of a criminal statute used frequently by federal prosecutors to criminalize a wide range of...more

Whether Mens Rea Necessary for Crimes by Corporate Houses

Mens Rea means “Guilty Mind”, can a Company, which is an artificial person, have a guilty mind? Can corporate houses claim immunity from criminal prosecution because they cannot be physically jailed? I had written this short...more

Impregilo

Dimostrata l'efficacia del modello 231/2001

Sentenza del Trib. di Milano che ha confermato l'efficacia del modello di organizzazione adottato ai sensi del Dlgs 231/01 al fine della prevenzione della commissione di reati nelle aziende, confermando così che non...more

Mortgage Fraud - The Basics

Details the basic mortgage fraud schemes and how they work....more