The following is an edited version of a conversation between Goodwin partners Jonathan Hecht and Isaac Vinyarsh. Before joining Goodwin, Jonathan spent more than a decade in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, including...more
The SEC announced another FCPA settlement in 2022. FCPA enforcement, in general, is picking up. Tenaris, a global supplier of steel pipes and related services for the energy industry, agreed to pay the SEC $78 million to...more
Cardinal Health Inc. (Cardinal) settled its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) matter with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. According to the SEC Press Release, Anita B. Bandy, Associate Director in...more
On Aug. 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) charged Commonwealth Equity Services LLC, dba Commonwealth Financial Network (Commonwealth), a registered independent investment adviser to private clients (but not...more
The big one finally is resolved. The long-awaited Walmart Inc. (Walmart) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement action was announced yesterday. This massive case came in with multiple documents, a long list of...more
In December 2018, the SEC announced two enforcement actions involving business development companies (BDCs) – one against Fifth Street Management, LLC, the former external registered investment adviser to two BDCs, and the...more
Over the past year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ramped up its scrutiny of cryptocurrencies and other digital token offerings. On Sept. 11, 2018, the SEC escalated its crackdown when it announced a pair of...more
ANTICORRUPTION DEVELOPMENTS - DOJ Extends FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy to Misconduct in Mergers and Acquisitions - On July 25, 2018, in a speech to the Ninth Global Forum on Anti-Corruption Compliance in High Risk...more
We had three major Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases resolved in Q2 2018. They all reached different resolutions under the new FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy and the new anti-piling on policy....more
New Rules, Proposed Rules, Guidance and Alerts – SEC STAFF GUIDANCE AND ALERTS - SEC Staff Issues Guidance on Cryptocurrency-related Holdings - On January 18, 2018, the staff of the SEC’s Division of Investment...more
On September 28, 2016, the SEC announced that Anheuser-Busch agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Dodd-Frank whistleblower violations. The SEC’s order stated that AB InBev violated...more
Just in time for National Beveridge Day comes the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement action involving Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI), where the company paid $6 million to settle charges that it violated the FCPA and...more
Non-Enforcement - Mutual Fund Directors Must Be Vigilant in Addressing Risks - In remarks to the Mutual Fund Directors Forum, SEC Chair Mary Jo White outlined some of the risks and challenges that mutual fund...more
With a judgment handed down on 12 May 2016 (Case T-669/14, Trioplast Industrier AB v. European Commission), the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) dismissed an action brought by Trioplast Industrier AB (Trioplast...more
Ponzi scheme cases have, of course, become a staple of SEC enforcement since the discovery of Madoff’s unprecedented scheme. While there seems to be a virtually endless number of these cases centered on the preverbal “to good...more
Non-Enforcement - SEC Decides Against Mounting an Appeal in Koch Ruling - The July 2015 ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court in Koch v. SEC will apparently not be challenged by the SEC. The Court ruled in that...more
The SEC took the unusual step of citing the inadequacy of the books and records of the firm for “adversely impacting” its investigation and “causing unreasonably prolonged uncertainty concerning” the company’s historic...more
The Commission brought its first case tied to inadequate disclosure regarding structured notes. The complex instruments, a debt security linked to a derivative tied to the performance of other products, are frequently...more
FCPA procedures, internal controls and travel, entertainment and gifts were at the center of the SEC’s latest FCPA action. The action names as a Respondent Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and focuses on its efforts to sell...more
The SEC filed a settled insider trading case which names as defendants two attorneys, an accountant and two other individuals. The action is based on information misappropriated from a corporate director by his personal...more
Microcap fraud is a key part of the broken windows enforcement approach. One of the more significant actions brought in this regard is In the Matter of John Briner, Esq., Adm. Proc. File No. 3-16339 (Jan. 15, 2015). There the...more
Dark pools are one of the issues which have been debated at least since Michael Lewis published Flash Boys and Scott Patterson put out Dark Pools. To date the SEC has brought two actions involving the trading venues. One was...more
Are the Circuits A-Splitting? The Ninth Circuit Declines to Follow the Second Circuit's Insider Trading Decision in U.S. v. Newman - Why it matters: On July 6, 2015, the Ninth Circuit in U.S. v. Salman declined to...more
The SEC entered into partial settlements with three persons charged with acting as brokers without registering. The charges were tied to an offering fraud which centered on selling interests in a firm that claimed to be...more
The SEC filed another settled action in which payments to health care professionals at state owned entities in China were alleged to be violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Although the company furnished extensive...more