Omega Protein Corporation manufactured and distributed omega-3 fish oils and fish meal products. Omega financed its operations through federal government programs under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936....more
9/3/2019
/ Clean Water Act ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Felonies ,
Loans ,
Merchant Marine Act of 1936 ,
Misrepresentation ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Strict Compliance ,
Title XI
The SEC provided guidance to assist investment advisers in fulfilling their proxy voting responsibilities. The guidance discusses, among other matters, the ability of investment advisers to establish a variety of different...more
The SEC charged TherapeuticsMD Inc., a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with violations of Regulation FD based on its sharing of material, nonpublic information with sell-side research analysts...more
8/21/2019
/ Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FDA Approval ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Insider Trading ,
Investigational New Drug Application (IND) ,
Non-Public Information ,
NYSE ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation FD ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Stock Prices ,
Trading Platforms
The SEC has issued proposed rule amendments to modernize the description of business, legal proceedings and risk factor disclosures that registrants are required to make pursuant to Regulation S-K. The SEC stated the proposed...more
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or FAST Act, required the SEC to consider ways to streamline SEC regulations. Accordingly, the SEC adopted final amendments to its rules that are intended to modernize and...more
The SEC has issued proposed rule amendments to modernize the description of business, legal proceedings, and risk factor disclosures that registrants are required to make pursuant to Regulation S-K. The SEC stated the...more
The SEC has issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters, Inc., or PoQ, regarding the sale of gaming tokens called Quarters to be used on the Quarters Platform to play Participating Games....more
The SEC announced charges against Facebook Inc. for making misleading disclosures regarding the risk of misuse of Facebook user data. According to the SEC, for more than two years, Facebook’s public disclosures presented the...more
7/25/2019
/ Data Management ,
Data Transfers ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Facebook ,
Internal Controls ,
Personal Data ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Disclosure ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Social Media
The SEC published a statement that encourages market participants to proactively manage their transition away from LIBOR and outlines several potential areas that may warrant increased attention during that time. It is...more
Blockstack previously announced they expected to be the first Regulation A qualified ICO. I blogged that this was a likely a correct prediction. It turns out it was true as the SEC has qualified the ICO....more
In a public statement, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton discussed the historical interplay between settlement offers and related waiver requests. Chair Clayton noted...more
It has been widely reported that the SEC sued Kik Interactive Inc. for conducting an illegal $100 million securities offering of digital tokens. The SEC charges that Kik sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering...more
In a review of a PCAOB disciplinary proceeding the SEC took the rare step of cancelling the PCAOB’s finding that an audit partner of a Big Four firm engaged in repeated instances of negligent conduct during the audit of a...more
6/3/2019
/ Audits ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Statements ,
Form 10-K ,
Internal Controls ,
Mortgage REITS ,
Negligence ,
PCAOB ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The SEC awarded more than $4.5 million to a whistleblower whose tip triggered the company to review the allegations as part of an internal investigation and subsequently report the whistleblower’s allegations to the SEC and...more
Current SEC reporting requirements establish three different filer statuses that categorizes issuers subject to Exchange Act reporting requirements as non-accelerated, accelerated, and large accelerated filers....more
5/13/2019
/ Attestation Deadlines ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Financial Reporting ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 10-Q ,
ICFR ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation
The SEC held an open meeting on May 9th to discuss whether to propose long-awaited modifications to filer definitions applicable to accelerated filers and large accelerated filers....more
C-Suite executives may now have to be accustomed to a new form of adverse publicity to deal with in their crisis management planning – someone making publically available an SEC whistleblower submission and publicizing the...more
The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a Motion for Relief from Judgment with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of Barry D. Romeril. Mr. Romeril served as the Chief Financial Officer...more
5/8/2019
/ Acceleration ,
Consent Order ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Errors and Omissions Policy ,
First Amendment ,
Gag Orders ,
Investment Fraud ,
Motion for Relief ,
Revenue Growth ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Xerox
The SEC has proposed rule amendments that revise required financial disclosure upon the acquisition and disposition of businesses in M&A transactions....more
In this action, anonymous whistleblower John Doe filed a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus Directed to the Securities and Exchange Commission to Compel Agency Action that has been Unreasonably Delayed in the United States Court...more
In a wide ranging derivative action, a Facebook shareholder has filed a 193 page complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery alleging three Facebook directors sold a total of $1.5 billion of stock while in possession of...more
According to this announcement, Blockstack expects to be the first SEC Regulation A+ qualified token offering.
I’m not touting or endorsing the potential Blockstack offering. But viewing from the outside in, there’s a good...more
The SEC charged fifteen individuals with acting as unregistered brokers or aiding-and-abetting such activity in connection with Intertech Solutions, Inc.’s fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings....more
4/11/2019
/ Aiding and Abetting ,
Anti-Fraud Provisions ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment ,
Offering Fraud ,
Offerings ,
Registration Requirement ,
Retail Investors ,
Sales Commissions ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Unregistered Brokers ,
Unregistered Securities
The SEC has approved amendments to Sections 312.03 and 312.04 of the NYSE Listed Company Manual that modify the price requirements for certain exceptions to shareholder vote requirements related to issuances of securities set...more
Wow, it finally happened. The SEC granted long awaited guidance on when tokens are not securities in the form of a no-action letter. ...more