Federal funding from the full-year Continuing Resolution (CR) expired on September 30. Without the necessary votes in the Senate to pass a clean CR, the federal government shut down on October 1. Since then, most official...more
On September 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) posted, for public inspection, an interim final rule titled “Expansion of End-User Controls to Cover Affiliates of Certain Listed...more
The push for digital assets legislation has slowed since its peak in July, largely due to Congress's August recess and its current focus on essential funding and defense authorization bills. However, the Senate Banking...more
President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law the following day. Ahead of the annual August recess, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), along with Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and...more
On August 29, 2025, the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) announced the creation of a new cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force “to bring robust enforcement against importers and other parties who...more
9/8/2025
/ Criminal Prosecution ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud ,
Imports ,
International Trade ,
Tariffs ,
Whistleblowers
Given the Trump Administration’s unprecedented reliance on tariffs as a foreign policy tool and a means to protect and foster U.S. industry, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is rapidly shifting resources and enforcement...more
June marked a pivotal moment in U.S. digital asset oversight with major developments from the SEC, Congress, and the DOJ. First, on June 9, 2025, the SEC’s Crypto Task Force held its final scheduled roundtable called “DeFi...more
In May 2025, the leadership from the SEC provided guidance on digital asset regulation in several keynote addresses and round tables. The SEC's activities in May 2025 suggest a deliberate movement towards establishing a more...more
In March 2024, NSD issued an updated Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations (NSD Enforcement Policy) that includes the M&A Policy. Under the M&A Policy, where an acquiring company makes a qualifying voluntary...more
On June 9, 2025, the Deputy Attorney General issued a Memorandum detailing the administration’s new FCPA guidelines for all current and future investigations and enforcement actions. According to the Head of DOJ’s Criminal...more
Following a two-week Easter recess at the end of April, Congress returned to Washington, D.C. with all eyes on budget reconciliation. Individual committees marked up legislation in accordance with reconciliation directives to...more
On May 12, 2025, the DOJ announced a new “white-collar enforcement plan” identifying new corporate enforcement priorities and aiming to promote greater focus, fairness and efficiency in prosecuting corporate misconduct. In a...more
On March 20, 2025, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland jointly announced the formation of a new International Anti-Corruption Prosecutorial Taskforce (the “Task Force”) aimed at strengthening cross-border collaboration...more
5/13/2025
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
France ,
Government Agencies ,
Switzerland ,
UK
CryptoLink is a compilation of news stories published by outside organizations. Akin aggregates the stories, but the information contained in them does not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of the firm. Akin's...more
Both the CFTC and SEC have new Acting Chairs, who are known to be crypto advocates, with Mark Uyeda being appointed Acting Chair of the SEC, taking over from Gary Gensler, while Caroline D. Pham has assumed the role of Acting...more
2/12/2025
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Bitcoin ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Trump Administration
UPDATE: President Signs Executive Order Directing DOJ to Pause All FCPA Enforcement for 180 Days - On February 10, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to pause all...more
CryptoLink is a compilation of news stories published by outside organizations. Akin aggregates the stories, but the information contained in them does not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of the firm. Akin's...more
1/14/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Fraud ,
Investment ,
NVIDIA ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Russia ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins ,
UK
CryptoLink is a compilation of news stories published by outside organizations. Akin aggregates the stories, but the information contained in them does not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of the firm. Akin's...more
12/19/2024
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
Investment ,
Misleading Statements ,
Money Laundering ,
New Legislation ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Phishing Scams ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Sanctions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sentencing ,
Smart Contracts ,
Tokenization ,
UK
On June 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court held 6-3 in Snyder v. United States that a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B), does not criminalize “gratuities” to state and local officials—i.e., payments made to those...more
Key Points - On May 21, 2024, the DOJ announced its first ever declination under the NSD’s updated Enforcement Policy, declining to prosecute Sigma-Aldrich Inc., d/b/a MilliporeSigma (a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,...more
6/7/2024
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) ,
Enforcement ,
Export Controls ,
Incentives ,
National Security ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Sanction Violations ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
White Collar Crimes
Key Points - On May 10, 2024, OFAC issued an IFR that would amend its Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations (RPPR) at 31 C.F.R. Part 501 to, among other things, modify certain reporting requirements pertaining to...more
While media reporting has predominantly focused on the provisions in the emergency foreign aid package that President Biden signed into law on April 24, 2024 that provides funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, House Foreign...more
5/1/2024
/ Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Drug Trafficking ,
Economic Sanctions ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
National Security ,
New Legislation ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Sanction Violations ,
Statute of Limitations ,
TWEA
Executive Summary -
- On March 7, 2024, the NSD of the DOJ issued an updated NSD Enforcement Policy to include a new section covering VSDs in connection with mergers and acquisitions.
- These updates follow repeated...more
3/19/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Mergers ,
National Security ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On January 29, 2024, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a proposed rule (the Proposed Rule) that would impose significant know-your-customer (KYC), monitoring and reporting obligations...more
2/2/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Jurisdictions ,
Infrastructure ,
Know Your Customers ,
Penalties ,
Proposed Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Verification Requirements
Key Points -
On January 16, 2024, Matthew Axelrod, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s BIS announced key updates to BIS’s VSD process. The updates are also now reflected on BIS’s...more
1/26/2024
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Enforcement ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Exports ,
National Security ,
Negligence ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Penalties ,
Penalty Reductions ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
Voluntary Disclosure