Find Out What Companies and Investment Firms Need to Know about the SEC’s Exam Priorities for 2023 -
Each year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes its annual examination priorities. This report...more
12/20/2022
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Compliance ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Digital Assets ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fraud ,
Insider Trading ,
Investment Firms ,
Private Funds ,
Registered Investment Advisors ,
SEC Examination Priorities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblowers
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) in the United States Department of Commerce has experienced a surge in recognition and importance over the past year. This Bureau, and particularly the Office of Export Enforcement...more
12/14/2022
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Exports ,
Final Rules ,
Imports ,
International Trade ,
Penalties ,
Reputational Injury ,
Russia ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
Ukraine
Online cryptocurrency promotion—and promotion on social media in particular—has garnered national media attention in recent months. First, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had entered into a...more
12/7/2022
/ Bitcoin ,
Celebrity Endorsements ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
Investment ,
Investment Firms ,
Popular ,
Retail Investors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Social Media ,
TikTok ,
Transparency ,
Twitter ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
The report is the culmination of an internal audit, where the internal auditors describe what they found, provide evidence of the issues that were detected, and the corrective action that they recommend to fix them. The...more
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (15 U.S.C. § 78dd-1 et seq.) is a federal anti-bribery law that makes it unlawful for certain people to pay foreign government officials in order to conduct business abroad. While it...more
11/23/2022
/ Anti-Bribery ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Internal Audit Functions ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
As a licensed physician, facing a medical board investigation could mean that your career is on the line. Even though you spent years in medical school and in residency, and even though you may have spent decades honing your...more
Because failing to comply with the legal obligations imposed by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) can subject national banks or other financial institutions to significant penalties and considerable hardship, it is paramount for...more
Many businesses and businesspeople are exposed to potential legal liability for a wide variety of financial crimes. Minimizing financial crime risk or exposure is critical and requires strict compliance with the state and...more
11/1/2022
/ Bank Fraud ,
Banking Sector ,
Compliance ,
Embezzlement ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Insider Trading ,
Investment Fraud ,
Mail Fraud ,
Money Laundering ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Securities Fraud ,
Tax Fraud ,
Theft ,
Wire Fraud
Federal law enforcement takes money laundering and other suspicious transactions extremely seriously. Unfortunately, this does not mean that legal scrutiny is confined to the criminal actors and organizations that launder...more
10/25/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bad Actors ,
Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Money Laundering ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
As a licensed physician in Texas, facing a Texas Medical Board (TMB) investigation can entail significant risks. Depending on the allegations underlying the investigation, your medical license could be in jeopardy—and you...more
Securities litigation presents substantial risks for companies, firms, and individuals accused of violating federal law, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, or Financial Industry Regulatory Authority...more
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Consumer Protection Branch works with other branches and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute civil and criminal violations of the nation’s consumer protection...more
10/6/2022
/ Consumer Fraud ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Defense Strategies ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Elder Abuse ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
FTC Act ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Mail Fraud ,
Wire Fraud
A Qlarant audit is a serious event in the life of a healthcare provider and company. This auditing contractor claims that it is a non-profit company that works on behalf of the government to uncover healthcare fraud and...more
Medicare, Medicaid, and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) audits can result in substantial losses for pharmacies. If auditors uncover evidence—or apparent evidence—of overpayments, not only can they initiate recoupments, but...more
The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) is a set of rules that apply to federal defense contractors with access to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and Covered Defense Information (CDI). Defense...more
9/13/2022
/ Compliance Monitoring ,
Controlled Defense Information (CDI) ,
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Documentation ,
Failure To Respond ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Misrepresentation ,
Noncompliance ,
Risk Mitigation
Public companies in the United States are subject to a laundry list of federal laws and regulations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is responsible for enforcing these laws and regulations, and it routinely...more
Corporations that have international clients have to comply with far more rules and regulations than companies that only operate domestically. Among those new laws are regulations from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s...more
For all of its upheaval, cryptocurrency seems like it is here to stay. This presents virtual currency businesses and institutional bankers with a dilemma: Do they capitalize on the increasingly powerful trend, or do they wait...more
Medical professionals, patients, and others can commit healthcare fraud by deceiving the healthcare system, such as providing medically unnecessary services, in order to get unauthorized benefits or payments. Facing...more
A civil investigative demand, or CID, is a powerful law enforcement tool that federal agencies such as the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) can use during the early stages of investigations into potential antitrust...more
Federal criminal cases can broadly be divided into four phases: (i) the government’s investigation, (ii) grand jury proceedings, (iii) pretrial practice, and (iv) trial. The empanelment of a grand jury is a critical juncture,...more
8/2/2022
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Defense Strategies ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Grand Juries ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Indictments ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Motions to Quash ,
Self-Incrimination ,
Subpoenas
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it has filed charges against 36 defendants in relation to an alleged health care fraud scheme that resulted in approximately $1.2 billion in fraudulent payments....more
7/21/2022
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FBI ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Kickbacks ,
Medicare ,
Medicare Beneficiaries ,
Physician Medicare Reimbursements ,
Physicians ,
Telehealth ,
Telemarketing ,
Telemedicine
If you are a healthcare provider, you are bound to get audited at some point. Who conducts that audit (this includes federal authorities such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Center for Medicare and...more
Civil investigative demands (CIDs) are powerful investigative tools that federal agencies use to gather information in support of a broad range of charges. Identifying the federal agencies that issued a civil investigative...more
7/12/2022
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Civil Investigation Demand ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cooperation ,
Defense Strategies ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Litigation Hold ,
Meet and Confer ,
Motions to Quash ,
Privileged Documents
On June 27, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important decision for doctors who have been convicted of violating the federal Controlled Substances Act in connection with the nation’s opioid crisis. In Ruan v. United...more
7/5/2022
/ Burden of Proof ,
Controlled Substances ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Opioid ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prescribing Authority ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Ruan v United States ,
SCOTUS