In response to President Trump's February 10, 2025, Executive Order pausing DOJ FCPA enforcement (the "Executive Order"), on June 9, 2025, the DOJ issued new guidelines (the "Guidelines"), which prioritize the enforcement of...more
6/18/2025
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Government Agencies ,
National Security ,
New Guidance ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Trump Administration
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") is hosting a roundtable discussion on disclosures just weeks after reports of significant increases in executive perks....more
A May 29, 2025, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") Division of Corporation Finance statement explains that "Covered Crypto Assets"—crypto tokens without any inherent rights to passive income, business enterprise...more
6/3/2025
/ Blockchain ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Investment ,
New Guidance ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation
A 2024 CFTC enforcement action settlement that may have introduced a new test for when the Commodity Exchange Act and the agency's regulations apply on a cross-border basis concerned then-CFTC Commissioner and now Acting CFTC...more
6/2/2025
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Derivatives ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Interpretive Letters ,
Investment Portfolios ,
Jurisdiction ,
Market Participants ,
New Guidance ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Settlement
On May 12, 2025, the Department of Justice Criminal Division announced significant changes to its corporate white-collar criminal enforcement priorities. In line with the Trump administration’s recalibration toward...more
On April 17, 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's ("CFTC") operating divisions ("Divisions") provided guidance in an advisory on the criteria they will use when determining whether to refer self-reported...more
In a break from the typical acting agency chairman, Acting Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") Chairman Caroline Pham has taken several significant actions, signaled several more, and set the agency on a path to...more
3/26/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
CFTC ,
Comment Period ,
Commodities ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Futures ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Trump Administration
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's ("CFTC") new enforcement advisory introduces several major changes in policy and a matrix helping those facing potential or actual CFTC investigations quantify the extent to which...more
President Trump signed an executive order ("EO") titled "Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology" that signals a radical shift in the federal government's posture towards digital assets and the...more
On February 10, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") by the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") for 180 days and ordering Attorney General...more
The ruling that the SEC acted arbitrarily in denying Coinbase's crypto rulemaking petition, issued in the waning days of the Gensler-era SEC, invites swift action under an Atkins-led SEC....more
A new presidential administration is likely to bring change across the federal government, perhaps nowhere more starkly than at the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which has greatly expanded its enforcement reach...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) has inserted itself in recent years into efforts to scale the cash market for “high integrity” voluntary carbon credits. On September 20, 2024, the Commission...more
The Situation: In September 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ" or "Department") announced updates to its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs guidance covering three primary areas: (1) the risks of artificial...more
10/11/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Compliance ,
Compliance Management Systems ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Emerging Technologies ,
Employees ,
Machine Learning ,
New Guidance ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Safe Harbors ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies
The California legislature continues to press forward with the implementation of two of the state's sweeping climate disclosure laws after a proposal to delay the implementation dates by the governor failed to be considered...more
The Development: On August 1, 2024, the Department of Justice's ("DOJ") Criminal Division announced its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program ("Pilot Program"), designed to reward whistleblowers who report information...more
8/20/2024
/ CFTC ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Money Laundering ,
Pilot Programs ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
Recently, a senior officer from the SEC's Division of Enforcement defended the penalties the Commission has levied on firms for failing to capture and retain their employees' "off-channel" electronic communications, and, in...more
The Background: In August 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC., et al. ("Murray") that an employee suing his employer under the anti-retaliation provisions of...more
2/19/2024
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Burden of Proof ,
Certiorari ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Murray v UBS Securities LLC ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
SCOTUS ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
The recently created SDNY Whistleblower Pilot Program encourages individuals to self-disclose certain criminal conduct and cooperate in resulting investigations and prosecutions.
...more
2/8/2024
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Liability ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
New York ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Pilot Programs ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
We are pleased to present our latest update on financial reporting and issuer disclosure enforcement activity. This White Paper primarily focuses on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) enforcement activity...more
On January 9, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a 2022 jury verdict for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") against EOX Holdings LLC and a former broker, Andrew Gizienski, holding...more
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement continues to slowly rebound from pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) resolved 13 corporate FCPA...more
In Short -
The Background: As voluntary carbon credits ("VCCs") have grown in popularity, questions about their integrity and quality have arisen for investors and among regulators and lawmakers. For this reason, many have...more
12/14/2023
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Carbon Pricing ,
CFTC ,
Derivatives ,
Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) ,
Energy Market ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Investment ,
Proposed Guidance ,
Risk Management ,
SEFs
On November 7, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") issued a proposed rule that would grant it supervisory authority over major nonbank technology companies in the consumer digital payments space....more
11/16/2023
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Credit Cards ,
Credit Reports ,
Digital Wallets ,
Electronic Payment Transactions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Nonbank Firms ,
Peer-to-Peer ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Authority
The Background: The CFTC Division of Enforcement ("Enforcement") recently issued an advisory on new enforcement policies that increase the agency's focus on corporate accountability through increasing civil penalties,...more