ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS –

Final Judgments Entered Against Seven Former DAP Employees; Four Ordered to Pay -

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced earlier this month that on April 6 and 7, 2016, the Southern District of New York entered final judgments against seven former employees of Direct Access Partners (DAP), a New York­based Wall Street brokerage firm that engaged in a business trading scheme that generated more than $60 million in fees. See January 2016 Red Notice. DAP employees used roughly $5 million of that revenue to bribe a former official at a state­sponsored Venezuelan bank. As a result of the judgments, Iuri Rodolfo Bethancourt, Benito Chinea, Tomas Alberto Clarke Bethancourt, Josephy DeMeneses, Jose Alejandro Hurtado, Ernesto Lujan and Haydee Leticia Pabon are now enjoined from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b­5.