The Nutter Securities Enforcement Update is a periodic summary of noteworthy recent securities enforcement activity, settlements, decisions, and charges....more
The recent surge in residential mortgage buyback demands by Freddie Mac, among others, has a number of industry analysts bracing for a new wave of indemnification claims and put-back attempts against correspondent lenders and...more
The Commercial Mortgage Market Since the Covid-19 Pandemic - The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to many facets of what was once everyday life. As Americans sheltered in place, brick-and-mortar retail shopping and...more
The Morgan Lewis Year in Review highlights key US Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC or the Commission) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) enforcement and examination developments, and cases...more
PG&E’s woes continue. Not only is the company still in the midst of a dangerous fire season, but it’s struggling to find a path out of bankruptcy while fending off a growing chorus of cities and state officials “threatening...more
A drone attack on Saudi Aramco oilfields this weekend affected 5% of global production and sent “energy prices substantially higher” late Sunday and early today. Analysts don’t anticipate a “severe shock to energy markets and...more
DOJ News & Litigation Updates - ITT Cannon to Pay $11 Million to Settle False Claims Allegations - ITT Cannon (ITT), a division of ITT Inc., has agreed to pay $11 million to settle whistleblower claims that it supplied...more
The SEC will vote today on what it’s calling Regulation Best Interest, “which says brokers can’t put their own paychecks ahead of a customer’s needs”—the more-industry-acceptable revision of an Obama-era fiduciary duty rule...more
Elon Musk and the SEC have reached an agreement to revise their earlier agreement to settle the latest round of issues caused by Musk’s Twitter habit. Under its terms, a Tesla securities attorney must now “preapprove any of...more
More fun for Facebook, just a day after it revealed a coming FTC fine, with the news on Thursday that Canadian privacy commissioners “violated national and local laws in allowing third parties access to private user...more
Individual responsibility and accountability became a critical issue in the wake of the great financial crisis. From Capitol Hill to the cross-streets of small-town America it frequently seemed that the question of the day...more
U.S. Financial Industry Developments - CFTC Proposes Rules to Simplify Process for Foreign Clearing Organizations to Obtain DCO Registration Exemption - On August 8, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)...more
The rise of tariffs as a trade weapon has put the WTO in a very difficult position as “chief judge in an intense fight among its most powerful members”....more
Elon Musk had some explaining to do in light of his “funding secured” tweet on August 7 in the context of taking Tesla private, and he’s gone to the corporate blog to do so, arguing that his meetings with representatives of...more
Anbang Insurance founder Wu Xiahoui’s fall from grace now includes an 18-year prison sentence for his conviction by a Shanghai court for using Anbang to “cheat investors out of more than $10 billion”....more
Meet ZTE (well, meet them again. We’ve discussed them before), the massive Chinese electronics maker banned last month by the White House from using US-made components that could well be the “first casualty of the high-tech...more
More on the Saudi crackdown initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the weekend, including the government’s move to confiscate and freeze more than $800 billion in assets from the detailed princes and other...more
Deutsche Borse CEO Carsten Kengeter announced yesterday that he’ll step down in the wake of insider-trading allegations related to the exchange’s now-defunct merger with the London Stock Exchange Group....more
Despite a stronger global economic outlook than we’ve seen in years, the world’s central bankers appear loath to let go of stimulus measures while lower-than-expected inflation bedevils them....more
Deutsche Bank and the DOJ have put the finishing touches on the deal to resolve the investigation into DB’s role in its sale of toxic RMBS. The bank will fork over $7.2 billion in total, including a $3.1 billion civil penalty...more
Elon Musk is curing what ails SolarCity by having his Tesla motors company buy it—a move he’s called “obvious” [though others disagree] but which will leave him personally exposed to margin calls if the stock price for the...more
SEC Adopts Trade Acknowledgment and Verification Rules for Security-Based Swap Transactions - On June 8, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission publicized the implementation of "rules that will establish timely and...more
The FCPA in 2016: DOJ and SEC Focus on International Cooperation and Investigation of Individuals - Why it matters: As we reported in our December 2015 newsletter, both SEC Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney and DOJ...more
Non-US Broker Fined by CFTC for Soliciting Futures Orders and Handling Funds for Two US Customers Without Registration or an Exemption: Otkritie Capital International, Ltd., a UK-based broker, agreed to settle charges with...more
The SEC and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut charged three senior traders with fraud by misrepresenting pricing information to clients regarding securities traded in opaque markets. In those markets...more