On March 24, 2022, the Utah governor signed a consumer privacy law (the Utah Consumer Privacy Act, UCPA), marking the fourth state law to create enhanced data privacy rights and protections for consumers. The law will go into...more
The Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA), passed as part of the omnibus spending bill on March 15, 2022, will require critical infrastructure companies - which could include financial...more
During the past week, the US continued to strengthen its sanctions against Russia as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine.
..BIS issued a final rule clarifying which luxury goods are subject to the ban on exports to...more
3/28/2022
/ Asset Freeze ,
Belarus ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
General Licenses ,
Imports ,
Russia ,
Trade Restrictions ,
UK ,
Ukraine
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the UK, EU and US have all responded by announcing significant sanctions in respect of Russia and Belarus.
The sanctions landscape has been changing at a fast pace and further...more
3/23/2022
/ Asset Freeze ,
Belarus ,
Blocked Entities ,
Blocked Person ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Entity List ,
EU ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Relations ,
General Licenses ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Switzerland ,
UK ,
Ukraine
On March 7, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert calling on financial institutions to be “vigilant” in guarding against attempts to evade the recent imposition of expanded Russia sanctions....more
3/21/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Compliance ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Russia ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Virtual Currency
In an Executive Order (EO) issued March 9, 2022, President Joseph Biden set out the guiding principles for US policy on digital assets and digital asset regulation, including US policy with respect to a US Central Bank...more
On February 4, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury (the Treasury) released the “Study of the Facilitation of Money Laundering and Terror Finance through the Trade in Works of Art” (the Report). The Report examines the...more
2/18/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Art Dealers ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Blockchain ,
BSA/AML ,
Compliance ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Fine Art ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
U.S. Treasury
There is no love lost between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the crypto industry with tensions escalating over the past year. So it seems fitting that on Valentine’s Day, the SEC brought a...more
On January 26, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule (Proposed Rule) amending - and significantly broadening - a rule that defines certain terms used in the statutory definition of “exchange.”...more
On January 27, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision in United States v. Connolly, overturning the 2018 fraud convictions of two former traders at a large financial institution. A...more
2/4/2022
/ Appeals ,
Bank Fraud ,
British Bankers' Association ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Statements ,
Fraud ,
Libor ,
Misleading Statements ,
Reversal ,
UK ,
Wire Fraud
On December 17, 2021, a financial institution agreed to pay $200 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Futures Trading Commission for allowing employees to discuss business on their...more
1/7/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Fines ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discovery ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Government Investigations ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Internal Controls ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
WhatsApp ,
White Collar Crimes
On October 28, 2021, Deputy Attorney General (Deputy AG) Lisa O. Monaco gave remarks explicitly warning companies that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to increase its efforts and devote additional resources to...more
11/2/2021
/ Compliance ,
Compliance Monitoring ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Government Investigations ,
Individual Accountability ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Policy Statement ,
Professional Misconduct ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Yates Memorandum
The US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has released the results of its review of economic and financial sanctions first announced in December 2020 by then President-elect Biden (Report). From that review, Treasury has...more
On September 21, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury took actions in response to the increasing prevalence and severity of ransomware attacks in the United States and address the central role that virtual currency and...more
9/27/2021
/ Currency Exchange ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) ,
Digital Currency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Ransomware ,
SDN List ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Virtual Currency
On June 30, 2021, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) provided an update on implementation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act) and issued the first government-wide priorities for anti-money...more
7/9/2021
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Biden Administration ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
Medical device manufacturer, Medtronic, began its second trial on June 14 in the US Tax Court in a $1.36 billion transfer pricing dispute with the IRS. The trial concluded on June 25 and is among the most significant transfer...more
7/6/2021
/ Affiliates ,
Business Profits ,
Foreign Profits ,
IRS ,
Medical Devices ,
Medtronic ,
Multinationals ,
Parent Corporation ,
Popular ,
Puerto Rico ,
Tax Court ,
Transfer Pricing
In a US District Court complaint filed May 26, 2021, a married couple is seeking a refund of taxes they paid on cryptocurrency tokens the husband created, asserting that current law does not permit the treatment of created...more
6/23/2021
/ Asset Tokens ,
Blockchain ,
Coinbase ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Data Mining ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Federal Taxes ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Personal Property ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Refunds ,
Token Sales
While there are efforts afoot to broaden the impact and reach of US law on hackers, particularly with the US Department of Justice (the DOJ) planning to coordinate ransomware attack investigations with similar protocols it...more
On June 3, 2021, in one of his first major China-related actions, President Biden issued an Executive Order that amends, but keeps intact the core elements of, previous orders issued by President Trump prohibiting US Persons...more
6/7/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
China ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Exemptions ,
Foreign Investment ,
Human Rights ,
Military End Use ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
SDN List ,
Technology Sector ,
Telecommunications ,
U.S. Treasury
On May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court held that the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA), section 7421(a) of the Code, does not preclude a pre-enforcement challenge to an IRS notice enforced through civil and criminal penalties. The AIA...more
5/26/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Injunction Act ,
CIC Services LLC v IRS ,
Criminal Liability ,
Criminal Penalties ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Notice and Comment ,
SCOTUS ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Tax Penalties
On April 9, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (Service) released Chief Counsel Advice 202114020 (the Guidance) regarding the tax consequences to an individual in receipt of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) following the August 2017 hard...more
The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposed Rule) seeking input from the public on the implementation of a reporting...more
Xiaomi Corporation (Xiaomi), one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, won a preliminary injunction from the DC District Court on March 12, 2021 that enjoined the US government from enforcing a Trump-era rule that...more
Updata is an international report produced by Eversheds Sutherland’s dedicated Privacy and Cybersecurity team – it provides you with a compilation of key privacy and cybersecurity regulatory and legal developments from the...more
3/11/2021
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
EU ,
EU-US Privacy Shield ,
European Data Protection Board (EDPB) ,
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) ,
Popular ,
Schrems I & Schrems II ,
State Privacy Laws ,
Surveillance ,
Virus Testing
In a closely watched decision, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit confirmed the government’s expansive authority to search cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices at the border. On February 9, 2021, the...more
2/19/2021
/ Appeals ,
Border Searches ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Electronic Devices ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Mobile Devices ,
National Security ,
Reasonable Suspicion ,
Search & Seizure ,
Search Warrant