This past weekend I caught the Moody Blues’ tour celebrating the 45th anniversary of their seminal classic album, “Days of Future Passed”. This was the second album released by the band and while I had always thought of it as the first rock concept album, it is seen by many rock critics as a precursor to progressive rock music. Bill Holdship, Yahoo! Music, said that the band “created an entire genre here.” Robert Christgau noted that it was “closer to high-art pomp than psychedelia.” And finally, Allmusic editor Bruce Eder calls the album “one of the defining documents of the blossoming psychedelic era, and one of the most enduringly popular albums of its era.” The band had its core members of Justin Hayward, John Lodge and Graeme Edge playing at the concert and I can assure you that even in their 70s, they can still rock.

I thought about this album and its title while reading the Memorandum and Order from District Judge Keith Ellison in the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil action filed against current and former officers of Noble Corporation, Mark A. Jackson and James R. Ruehlen. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) commentariat has gone both ways on interpreting the Court’s Order; witness the headline by the FCPA Professor, “Judge Grants Jackson And Ruehlen’s Motion To Dismiss SEC’s Monetary Claims – Finds That SEC Was Not Diligent In Bringing Case And That SEC Failed To Negate Facilitation Payments Exception – However Judge Allows SEC To File An Amended Complaint”, in contrast with Dick Cassin on the FCPA Blog, whose headline read “Great guidance from the bench: ‘The FCPA casts a wide net”. However, I found one other part of the Court’s ruling by far the most interesting. It was the section which discussed whether the defendant’s claims that their actions met the facilitation payment exception under the FCPA. The Court granted the SEC leave to amend to proffer facts which would overcome the facilitation payment exception.