This Week in FCPA-Episode 58, the Declination Edition
Weekly Brief: Lawyers Advised To Accept New Reality
On February 7, a group of 30 investors, representing over $1.5 trillion of assets under management, wrote to the CEOs and board chairs of five major European banks “urging them to stop directly financing new oil and gas...more
Ride-hailing giant Uber laid off 350 workers on Monday as part of an ongoing effort to pare costs that now represents 1000 jobs cut since July....more
Federal regulators moved this week to “ease oversight of Wall Street firms by scaling back two major mechanisms that were imposed to scrutinize big financial companies in the wake of the financial crisis.” ...more
Some continuing reaction to the potential end to the trade war between the US and China, through the lens of a Delaware lighting store [NYTimes] and US businesses far more broadly, who are grappling with the question of what...more
GE—still in streamlining mode—agreed yesterday to sell its biopharma business to Danaher (current CEO Larry’s Culp’s former company, btw) for a reported $21.4 billion in the form of $21 billion in cash and $400 million in...more
The author who literally wrote the book on the Enron is warning that the next financial crisis is lurking underground—aka, fracking has “turned the energy world upside down,” and it’s pulled in a bunch of Wall Street along...more
Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson announced on Monday that it will shift some of its motorcycle production overseas “to avoid retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union” in response to the White House’s trade moves....more
The High Court has a daunting lineup of decisions yet to issue this year, but it’s checking one off the list with yesterday’s 5-4 holding upholding the right of companies to use arbitration clauses in employment contracts “to...more
It was a busy Thursday in the big pharma world, with drugmaker Shire rejecting a $60 billion takeover offer from Japan’s Takeda, while US rival Allergan disclosed that it was considering a bid of its own for Shire....more
The White House has chosen Columbia University economist Richard Clarida as Fed Vice Chair—the number 2 spot at the central bank. Clarida is a “monetary policy scholar” and former Bush II administration Treasury official....more
The Journal reported yesterday that the DOJ will allow Bayer to move forward with its plans to acquire Monsanto, a deal valued at more than $60 billion, after the companies “pledged to sell off additional assets to secure...more
China’s latest response to the White House’s aluminum and steel tariff plans came in the form of a no-joke April 1 announcement of its own tariffs of roughly $3 billion in 128 U.S.-made products ranging from pork to wine and...more
FRB Requests Public Comment on Proposal to Amend Regulation A - On December 4, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") requested public comment on a proposal to amend Regulation A to make certain technical adjustments,...more
On December 5, 2017, the First Department of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York unanimously overturned a New York Supreme Court holding that California’s statute of limitations did not bar Plaintiff’s...more
The Senate Banking Committee has voted out of committee a bipartisan effort to ease Dodd-Frank regulations. The bill in question could “drastically cut” the number of banks subject to heightened Fed oversight and “would ease...more
The FHLB Boston’s $5.9 billion MBS case against Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Credit Suisse, is back in Massachusetts state court—a result of the Supreme Court’s Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortgage case that held that Fannie Mae’s...more
A putative class action filed last week is accusing 25 prominent banks—including Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays—of “conspiring to rig the market for securities” sold by the US Treasury in their roles as primary...more
The Federal Reserve Board and the FDIC announced that they are giving four foreign banking organizations a one-year extension for the submission of their next US resolution plans. Barclays PLC, Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche...more
Last spring popular author Michael Lewis described the world of high-frequency stock trades and dark pools in his book, Flash Boys. Between then and now, the New York Attorney General (“NYAG”), a group of public investors,...more
On December 4, the European Commission announced that it had fined eight international banks a total of more than 1.7 billion for their participation in illegal cartels in markets for financial derivatives covering the...more