On May 3, 2023, a jury found Nathaniel Chastain, a former manager of OpenSea (a major NFT marketplace), guilty of wire fraud and money laundering in connection with his attempts to conceal his use of confidential business...more
5/25/2023
/ Commodities ,
Confidential Information ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Digital Assets ,
Fraud ,
Insider Trading ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Misappropriation ,
Money Laundering ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Securities ,
Wire Act ,
Wire Fraud
Dapper Labs was founded in 2018 shortly after the debut of its first NFT collection, “CryptoKitties,” which was so successful it created a bottleneck of transactions on the decentralized Ethereum Network. Seeking faster...more
3/7/2023
/ Blockchain ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Digital Assets ,
Ethereum ,
Howey ,
Investment Contract ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
Securities ,
Securities Act of 1933
Takeaways -
..The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued the first-ever smart contracts sanction, and its decision to sanction a nonperson may be challenged in court.
..The U.S....more
8/23/2022
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Ethereum ,
Money Laundering ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
SDN List ,
Smart Contracts ,
U.S. Treasury
Key Takeaways - The SEC and DOJ announce that they are focusing on individual and corporate accountability, including a renewed emphasis on lawyers and accountants as the first line of defense against misconduct....more
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed its brief in Liu v. SEC, claiming that disgorgement in federal courts is within its statutory authority and that the U.S. Supreme Court should not disrupt...more
On May 2, 2019, Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York ruled that the government effectively outsourced a portion of its ongoing investigation of LIBOR manipulation at one financial institution (the Bank)...more
6/28/2019
/ Banks ,
CFTC ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Financial Institutions ,
Internal Investigations ,
Libor ,
Motion to Vacate ,
Self-Incrimination
Welcome to the 2016 Mid-Year Report From the BakerHostetler Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Practice Team.
The purpose is to provide a periodic survey, apart from our team Executive Alerts, on matters...more
8/2/2016
/ Bebo v SEC ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dirks v SEC ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Exclusive Jurisdiction ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Merrill Lynch v Manning ,
Popular ,
PSLRA ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Litigation ,
SLUSA ,
Young Lawyers