On December 21, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued the final rule on Beneficial Ownership Information Access and Safeguards (the “Access Rule”) laying out the...more
1/10/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
National Security ,
Penalties ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Reporting Requirements ,
SRO ,
U.S. Treasury
In 2021, the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) was enacted into U.S. federal law as part of a multi‑national effort to rein in the use of entities to mask illegal activity. The CTA directs the U.S. Department of the...more
12/29/2023
/ Beneficial Owner ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Corporations ,
Full-Time Employees ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Parent Corporation ,
REIT ,
Reporting Requirements ,
U.S. Treasury
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
Today, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a final rule aimed to ease compliance with certain aspects of the regulations promulgated under the Corporate Transparency Act. The...more
In 2021, the U.S. enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) as part of a multi‑national effort to rein in the use of entities to mask illegal activity. The CTA directs the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial...more
The last webinar in our series concerned AI and government enforcement. Companies are currently gauging how government will focus enforcement efforts in this new, emerging area by looking to a few guideposts. The first is...more
6/30/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Antitrust Division ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
ECOA ,
Enforcement ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Machine Learning ,
Securities Fraud
On November 4, 2022, compliance with amended Rule 206(4)-1 (the “Marketing Rule”) became mandatory for all investment advisers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Seven months since the...more
Recent enforcement actions highlight the increased regulatory scrutiny that private funds may face with respect to internal cybersecurity protocols and responses to cyber-crimes and cyber incidents under new and updated...more
5/23/2023
/ Coinbase ,
Compliance ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
New Legislation ,
Popular ,
Privacy Laws ,
Private Funds ,
Robinhood Financial ,
Sanctions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
As IPOs and other traditional paths to liquidity for private assets have become more challenging, GP-led secondary transactions have emerged as a powerful and popular tool across closed-end private funds, leading to explosive...more
Go to any private equity event in the last 12 months, and “energy transition” will have been discussed, meaning the shift in energy production away from fossil‑based systems to low or zero carbon ones. As fund managers...more
5/10/2023
/ Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Liquidity ,
Risk Alert ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SFDR ,
Taxonomy
It’s a pattern we often see in boom-and-bust cycles—disputes rising in the period after a wave crests. SPAC deal volume hit an unprecedented high in 2021, but then slowed down in 2022 alongside IPOs. However, the fallout from...more
The SEC’s Enforcement Division is conducting a sweep investigation of large investment advisers regarding their employees’ use of “off-channel” communications. The sweep, which has been widely reported in the press, focuses...more
4/25/2023
/ Asset Management ,
Breach of Duty ,
Compliance ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investigations ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Private Funds ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Implications of SEC attempt to curb indemnification for private fund managers -
The SEC spent 2022 making multiple and sweeping proposals to amend rules under the Advisers Act, many of which have the ability to...more
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
Amid rising interest rates, tightening credit markets, geopolitical concerns in Europe and Asia, stubborn inflation and continuing supply chain issues, there is a growing sense of economic uncertainty. This uncertainty will...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 is our risk thesis for 2023, but one must not forget about concentration risk. This issue has rocketed up diligence agendas for LPs and GPs alike as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank...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
On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. Congress passed the CTA to...more
1/18/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
CFTC ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Corruption ,
FinCEN ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
National Intelligence Agencies ,
National Security ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Tax Evasion ,
Venture Capital
On December 7, 2022, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to expand whistleblower incentives and strengthen whistleblower protections by passing the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act.
The bill would...more
In what is the New York Department of Financial Services’ (NYDFS) first enforcement action against a NYDFS-licensed “virtual currency business,” on August 1, 2022, the agency announced $30 million settlement with...more
Earlier this spring, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration issued a series of executive orders imposing strong sanctions against Russia. Over the last few months, those sanctions have continued...more
7/28/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Biden Administration ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement ,
Foreign Policy ,
Investors ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Private Funds ,
Private Investment Funds ,
Russia ,
UK ,
Ukraine
As our other Top Ten posts have demonstrated, there is no shortage of risks for private fund sponsors to navigate in today’s economic and regulatory environment. Nevertheless, they need to prioritize the risk that hits...more
6/2/2022
/ Asset Management ,
Breach of Duty ,
Business Litigation ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fraud ,
Fund Sponsors ,
Investment ,
Investment Funds ,
Investment Portfolios ,
Private Equity
In response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February, the U.S. government announced sweeping sanctions against Russia. As the conflict nears the three-month mark, businesses around the...more
The SEC last month proposed rules under the Advisers Act indicating a dramatic shift in how the SEC intends to reduce conflicts of interest involving private fund managers and their investors. As we previously noted in the...more
5/3/2022
/ Anti-Fraud Provisions ,
Clawbacks ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Fund Managers ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Investment Management ,
Investors ,
Private Funds ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation