We are pleased to share the July 2024 issue of Wilson Sonsini's Sustainability and ESG Advisory Practice Update. Each issue combines news, key legal developments, and resources related to sustainability and environmental,...more
8/1/2024
/ Asia ,
Business Strategies ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Green Finance ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sustainability ,
U.S. Treasury
New Regulations Will Require Additional Diligence for a Broad Array of Transactions, Including Many Investments in U.S. and Global Businesses -
On June 21, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) issued a Notice of...more
6/26/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Biden Administration ,
China ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Popular ,
Semiconductors ,
Technology Sector ,
U.S. Treasury
New rules proposed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), released on April 11, 2024, can be understood in two ways: the practical effects and signaling effects....more
Regulators are increasingly taking enforcement action against crypto asset industry participants for violating anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions laws. Regulators are concerned about the illicit use of crypto...more
6/14/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Instruments ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Services Business ,
NYDFS ,
U.S. Treasury
In keeping with its recent focus on the crypto asset industry, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an agreement last week with crypto asset trading platform Poloniex, LLC...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released its Illicit Finance Risk Assessment of Decentralized Finance (Assessment). This Assessment, part of a broad regulatory scrutiny of entities that...more
On October 11, 2022, the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced settlements with Bittrex Inc. (Bittrex). The settlements arise from violations of...more
10/19/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Sanctions
On September 30, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published its final regulations on Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting Requirements. The regulations...more
Two recent federal enforcement actions—announced the same day—have underlined the need for crypto companies to carefully consider their anti-money laundering (AML) obligations or else risk significant penalties....more
On August 9, 2022, President Biden signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (the CHIPS Act), a significant investment in industrial policy that offers, among other things, funding for the development of facilities to...more
The global NFT (non-fungible token) market now is worth dozens of billions of dollars annually. Innovators and early adopters, marketplaces, and sellers, are all eager to join this market but may have questions about how to...more
5/24/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Money Laundering ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
Virtual Currency
On December 8, 2021, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published its proposed regulations on beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements. These FinCEN regulations will...more
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published new guidance last week for the virtual currency industry. While OFAC's economic sanctions compliance obligations apply to all U.S. persons, the...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) to "tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency,...more
As directed by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the U.S. government has initiated a rule-making process to require beneficial ownership information from certain corporations, LLCs, and other legal entities....more
On October 15, 2020, the final rule implementing the baseline requirements of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) took effect. This final rule altered the mandatory filing rules of the...more
Effective May 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an interim final rule that further tightens export controls on Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. of China and its 100-plus...more
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently issued its mandatory five-year benchmark survey to obtain data on direct investment abroad by U.S persons and businesses. The survey, known as the...more
After almost a year of speculation and discussion, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is further tightening controls on exports, reexports, and transfers in-country (collectively,...more
On April 28, 2020, the Treasury Department (Treasury) issued an interim final rule, effective May 1, regarding filing fees for submissions to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The rule makes...more
In the world of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the first few months of 2020 proceeded largely as expected: CFIUS unveiled new regulations containing no major surprises (see our...more
For an entity that has historically placed an emphasis on maintaining the secrecy of its proceedings, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, or the Committee) has recently attracted quite a few...more
3/10/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Blocked Mergers ,
CFIUS ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Covered Real Estate Transactions ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Divestiture ,
Executive Orders ,
Filing Fees ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Statutory Authority ,
U.S. Treasury