To understand the litigation and regulatory risks that are coming in 2024 for private capital, it is helpful to look back briefly on recent events. Arguably, the single most important event over the last 18 months was the...more
3/19/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Asset Management ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fund Managers ,
Hedge Funds ,
Interest Rates ,
Investment Management ,
Investors ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Private Funds ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Technology Sector
U.S. government agencies continue to take action against cryptocurrency mixing services that enable cybercriminals to obfuscate the trail of stolen proceeds on public blockchains stemming from illicit cyber activity. On...more
12/22/2023
/ Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Enforcement ,
FinCEN ,
Hackers ,
North Korea ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Sanction Violations ,
State Sponsors of Cyberattacks
As use cases for NFTs evolve from digital collectibles to more functional assets, sellers need to be more mindful than ever of what they are selling. There are still intellectual property related risks for any content...more
Crypto firm bankruptcies and resulting disruption in the crypto ecosystem will continue to exacerbate liquidity and regulatory concerns in this space. Signs of contagion are evident as prices of almost every cryptocurrency...more
Everything, everywhere, all at once, as a descriptor, captures the litigation and regulatory risks for the asset management industry in 2023. Every corner of the market faces greater risks than at any time since 2008. After...more
Over the past week, the U.S., UK, and EU imposed sweeping sanctions rolled out by the US, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, outlined here. Also last week, the Department of Justice announced the launch of Task...more
3/7/2022
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Asset Seizure ,
Biden Administration ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Foreign Policy ,
Foreign Relations ,
Forfeiture ,
Joint Task Force ,
Russia ,
Ukraine ,
Vladimir Putin
A threshold question in many cryptocurrency inquiries is whether the digital assets qualify as securities under the federal securities laws. If so, then they are subject to a full suite of federal securities regulations....more
3/1/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
BSA/AML ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
Howey ,
Investment Contract ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Unregistered Securities
If 2021 was the year in which regulators and investors enthusiastically embraced environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) considerations, by creating new legal and regulatory frameworks, then 2022 will be the year for...more
2/25/2022
/ Business Plans ,
Business Strategies ,
Capital Investments ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investment ,
Private Funds ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Sustainability
The SEC’s push to regulate the next generation of blockchain-based applications will likely give rise to disputes and enforcement actions, particularly in the developing decentralized finance (DeFi) space....more
Recently, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, released a report on ransomware trends stating that during the first half of 2021, 68 different ransomware variants...more
10/28/2021
/ AML/CFT ,
Biden Administration ,
Bitcoin ,
Blocked Person ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Digital Currency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Hackers ,
Internal Controls ,
Know Your Customers ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Virtual Currency
With new types of digital assets and related business on the rise, federal authorities have been busy investigating. Recently, the SEC, FinCEN and the CFTC have imposed some notable settlements involving cryptocurrency...more
8/27/2021
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
BitMEX ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FinCEN ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Securities Violations ,
Trading Platforms ,
Unregistered Securities ,
Virtual Currency
The private fund industry is more in the public eye than ever before. Private capital and private markets have experienced massive growth over the last two decades, substantially outpacing the growth of public equity. We have...more
2/19/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Capital Markets ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Global Economy ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Investment Banks ,
OCIE ,
Private Equity ,
Private Funds ,
SEC Examination Priorities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Venture Capital