July 12, 2022- The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a notice seeking public comment regarding potential opportunities and risks presented by developments and adoption of digital assets as part of its work under...more
U.S. Developments - Tesla buys $1.5 billion in Bitcoin - In a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Tesla announced that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Tesla said the...more
La Ley de Prácticas Corruptas en el Extranjero (“Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – FCPA”) prohíbe el pago de sobornos a funcionarios extranjeros para ayudar a obtener o retener negocios. Exige que las empresas cuyos valores se...more
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits payment of bribes to foreign officials to assist with obtaining or retaining business. It requires companies whose securities are listed in the US to maintain books and...more
SEC Adopts ETF Rule - On September 25, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unanimously adopted Rule 6c-11 under the 1940 Act to modernize the regulation of exchange-traded funds by establishing a clear and...more
The US and China have scheduled two more rounds of high-level trade talks with hopes for an agreement between the economic superpowers by late April, even as China has begun to push back against some of the US’s major...more
Quite a start to the week for consulting powerhouse McKinsey & Co., with a Times expose on the questionable relationship between McKinsey’s clients and the investments its hedge fund has made in those same clients, not to...more
Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn problems now extend to the United States, where the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a probe into the accuracy of the company’s financial disclosures and internal controls....more
Wall Street’s brutal December continued yesterday, with stocks diving to a new low “as investors braced for a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates this week and health care stocks were roiled by a decision about the...more
Food and consumer products conglomerate Unilever’s making a big play for the Asian market with its $2.7 billion deal to buy Carver Korea, a South Korean-based skin care specialist....more
Equifax is not exactly ending the week on a high note. The credit reporting agency revealed yesterday that a cyberattack [uncovered nearly 2 months ago] rendered potentially vulnerable the information of 143 million people....more
Is the SEC officially on record with a warning about the viability of unregulated ICOs? It is. Is that stopping start-ups from creating and selling new virtual currencies at a torrid pace? It is not....more
Financial Industry Developments - SEC Adopts T+2 Settlement Cycle for Securities Transactions - On March 22, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted an amendment to Rule 15c6-1(a), shortening the...more
One of the top academic commentators in the anti-corruption space is Matthew C. Stephenson, co-founder of the Global Anticorruption Blog. I was intrigued by Stephenson’s piece, entitled “Does an FCPA Violation Require a Quid...more
We heard last week about Unilever’s $1 billion acquisition of start-up Dollar Shave Club. With a few days to reflect, the Deal Professor suggests that this relatively innocuous deal should make “every other company . . . very...more
Federal Reserve Announces Extension of Conformance Period under Section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act - On July 7, 2016, the Federal Reserve announced that it will extend until July 21, 2017 the conformance period...more
SEC Approves IEX Proposal to Launch National Exchange, Issues Interpretation on Automated Securities Prices - On June 17, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") approved the application of Investors'...more
Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FPCA) enforcement action against Qualcomm Inc. for violations on the Accounting Provisions of the FCPA, including both the...more
2015 continued the trend of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with no parallel Department of Justice (DOJ) enforcement action. As you might...more
The SEC’s enforcement numbers are in for its fiscal year ended September 2015, and to no one’s surprise, the agency filed a record number of enforcement cases. As announced on October 22, 2015, the SEC filed 807 enforcement...more
In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important international anti-corruption developments in the past month with links to primary...more
The government has increasingly focused its FCPA enforcement firepower on individuals. On August 31, a Russian official living in Maryland pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with arranging $2...more
A CD or not a CD, That is the Question… That the Auditors Should Have Answered - A headline-grabbing SEC enforcement action last week against BDO USA and several of its national partners may lead audit firms to insist on...more
In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important international anti-corruption developments in the past month, with links to primary...more
No Dog Days of August for the SEC—A Recap of a Busy Month - Why it matters: Who says there is a government slowdown in August? Not for the SEC. August 2015 turned out to be very busy indeed for the agency, which...more