The court rejects the SEC's per se materiality argument and requires proof of a causal connection between the defendant's allegedly inadequate disclosures and purported unlawful profits....more
4/9/2025
/ Appeals ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Materiality ,
Sanctions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations
On February 12, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") Division of Corporation Finance published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14M ("SLB 14M") relating to the application of the shareholder proposal rules and...more
Acting Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC" or the "Commission") Chairman Mark Uyeda directed SEC staff to request that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals not schedule an oral argument in the pending litigation...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
On September 10, 2024, the SEC settled charges against Keurig for "incomplete and inaccurate" ESG disclosures about the recyclability of Keurig's K-Cup pods, signaling a continued focus on environmental-related disclosures...more
The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") won at trial in its first insider trading prosecution against an executive based exclusively on his sales of stock under 10b5-1 trading plans....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the new SEC regulation of private fund advisers exceeded the agency's statutory authority....more
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") won at trial in its first "shadow trading" case, holding a corporate official liable for insider trading for using nonpublic information about his company's acquisition to trade...more
4/19/2024
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Insider Trading ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Third-Party
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 Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC" or "Commission") has adopted new rules that further define the phrase "part of a regular business" for purposes of determining whether a person is a "dealer" or "government...more
2/28/2024
/ Dealers ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
New Rules ,
Registration Requirement ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Dealers ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Traders ,
Securities Transactions
On January 30, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") denied a Petition for Rulemaking to amend SEC Rule 202.5(e), known as the SEC's "no-admit/no-deny" rule or, more pejoratively, the "gag rule."...more
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
Two SEC commissioners dissented and urged the Commission to provide further guidance on non-fungible tokens ("NFTs")....more
9/7/2023
/ Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Howey ,
Investment Contract ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Securities Violations ,
Unregistered Securities
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
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has charged a group of small companies with making deficient filings on Form 12b-25, harkening back to the SEC's "broken windows" strategy from the last decade....more
In Short -
The Situation: Recently, two judges in Southern District of New York were required to apply the Howey test in separate cases to decide whether sales of certain crypto assets were investment contracts, and thus...more
8/22/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Due Process ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Howey ,
Investment Contract ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Popular ,
Ripple ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Stablecoins
In Short -
The Situation: Congress recently amended the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") to exempt certain "M&A brokers" from registration as broker-dealers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange...more