On Wednesday, Dec. 4, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Paul Atkins as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Atkins, who served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008...more
During the 2024 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump took significant steps to embrace digital assets and the industry that has developed around them, positioning himself as a champion of crypto. In a speech delivered at...more
11/15/2024
/ Bitcoin ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Trump Administration
Under the second Trump administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely to see broad changes in regulatory and enforcement initiatives once Chairman Gary Gensler leaves the commission, as is expected....more
On March 6, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized a historic set of climate disclosure rules, which stand to be the most significant disclosure regime change since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The rule...more
On March 6, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted along party lines to adopt its long-awaited climate-related disclosure framework for registrants. This “Final Rule” largely reflects the proposed rule put...more
In a first for both cybersecurity and securities law, a ransomware company filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against its own hacking victim for failure to disclose the hack itself. The...more
Yesterday, in another blow to the viability of NFTs and crypto, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a settlement with Stoner Cats 2, LLC, an NFT project designed to raise money to cover some production costs...more
On Aug. 2, we distributed an alert about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) July 26, 2023, adoption of the Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure Rule. Our focus in that...more
In early June, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB” or “the Board”) proposed comprehensive amendments that impact how auditors consider noncompliance with laws and regulations, creating the possibility of a...more
8/4/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Auditors ,
Audits ,
Board of Directors ,
Chief Compliance Officers ,
Environmental Policies ,
Financial Statements ,
Noncompliance ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders
“Material Cybersecurity Incident” Standard Will Have a Monumental Impact on Current Cyber Disclosure Requirements -
On July 26, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted the Cybersecurity Risk...more
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the use of administrative law judges passes constitutional muster If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a recent Fifth Circuit ruling, it could end the use of administrative proceedings...more
After months of bad news for cryptocurrency, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s latest moves could be apocalyptic for the industry.
We previously wrote about the SEC’s Wells Notice issued to Coinbase in March 2023. A...more
In the latest stunning development in crypto policy, one of the industry’s largest exchanges is facing potential charges from the SEC. Coinbase, Inc. said on March 23, 2023, that it had received a “Wells Notice” from the U.S....more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has released its much-anticipated rule amendments regarding the use of trading plans by insiders. On Dec. 14, 2022, the SEC finalized amendments to Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities...more
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SIGNALS A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO MANAGING CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKETS -
In the evening hours of Friday, Sept. 23, California Gov. Gavin Newsom quietly dispatched a controversial bill that sought to establish a...more
10/7/2022
/ Blockchain ,
California ,
CFTC ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Governor Newsom ,
New Legislation ,
Popular ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
State Legislatures
Recently, Gurbir Grewal, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s director of the Division of Enforcement, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and...more
The price of bitcoin is down nearly 80 percent since January 2018. Many other cryptocurrencies are down with it and investors are bearish about the future of digital assets. Atop such industry concerns, three recent...more
9/17/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Misrepresentation ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Violations ,
Token Sales ,
Unregistered Securities
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kokesh v. SEC provides the defense bar with significant ammunition to argue for lower monetary sanctions in securities enforcement matters pending in federal district courts. In...more
On Dec. 6, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Salman v. United States, upholding a “friends and family” insider-trading conviction and effectively overruling the Second Circuit’s decision in...more
On June 9, 2016, the SEC announced a $17 million whistleblower award to “a former company employee whose detailed tip substantially advanced the agency’s investigation and ultimate enforcement action.” This is the...more
Given the security industry’s increased use of information technology and the constant evolution of cyber threats, cybersecurity will continue to demand significant attention from regulators and industry participants in the...more
Newly proposed reforms to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) disclosure regime would have a dramatic impact on public companies’ current disclosure obligations.
Last week during her keynote at the 48th...more
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck attorneys recently worked with staff in the Denver Regional Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to negotiate both a proffer agreement and a cooperation agreement on...more