This Week in FCPA-Episode 58, the Declination Edition
Weekly Brief: Lawyers Advised To Accept New Reality
Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson announced on Monday that it will shift some of its motorcycle production overseas “to avoid retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union” in response to the White House’s trade moves....more
Anbang Insurance founder Wu Xiahoui’s fall from grace now includes an 18-year prison sentence for his conviction by a Shanghai court for using Anbang to “cheat investors out of more than $10 billion”....more
It was a busy Thursday in the big pharma world, with drugmaker Shire rejecting a $60 billion takeover offer from Japan’s Takeda, while US rival Allergan disclosed that it was considering a bid of its own for Shire....more
China’s latest response to the White House’s aluminum and steel tariff plans came in the form of a no-joke April 1 announcement of its own tariffs of roughly $3 billion in 128 U.S.-made products ranging from pork to wine and...more
FRB Requests Public Comment on Proposal to Amend Regulation A - On December 4, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") requested public comment on a proposal to amend Regulation A to make certain technical adjustments,...more
On December 5, 2017, the First Department of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York unanimously overturned a New York Supreme Court holding that California’s statute of limitations did not bar Plaintiff’s...more
The Senate Banking Committee has voted out of committee a bipartisan effort to ease Dodd-Frank regulations. The bill in question could “drastically cut” the number of banks subject to heightened Fed oversight and “would ease...more
Goldman’s deal-making advising is sputtering a bit these days, so Lloyd and the gang are working on generating some of those deals themselves through a new Innovations Lab internal venture....more
Store-branded credit cards are still big business, but as the Times tells us, their contribution to companies’ bottom lines are masking bigger troubles at retailers around the US....more
Investors’ decreasing appetite for actively managed mutual funds appears to have helped drive the major shake-up at AllianceBernstein Holding, which said so long to CEO Peter Kraus and removed nine board members in favor of 6...more
Wells Fargo’s board not only issued a massive report on its fake account scandal yesterday. It also announced that the bank would claw back an additional $75 million from former CEO John Stumpf and former head of community...more
The FHLB Boston’s $5.9 billion MBS case against Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Credit Suisse, is back in Massachusetts state court—a result of the Supreme Court’s Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortgage case that held that Fannie Mae’s...more
Dealbook gives us the story of Airgas, where founder Peter McCausland’s reticence to sell (despite serious shareholder pressure) resulted in a $5 billion windfall rather than the all-too-often result of a later sale for...more
Agencies Issue Proposal on Method to Adjust Threshold for Exempting Small Loans from Special Appraisal Requirements - On July 22, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Reserve Board and the Office...more
Elon Musk is curing what ails SolarCity by having his Tesla motors company buy it—a move he’s called “obvious” [though others disagree] but which will leave him personally exposed to margin calls if the stock price for the...more
ESMA Consults on Guidelines on Disclosure of Information on Commodity Derivatives Markets or Related Spot Markets under MAR - On March 30, the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") opened a public...more
On March 29, Barclays Capital Inc. and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. jointly moved pursuant to a confidential settlement agreement for dismissal of an action brought by MassMutual. MassMutual brought claims under...more
Talk about a regulation with teeth. Within days of the Treasury Department announcing new rules meant to discourage corporate tax inversion deals, Pfizer and Allergan announced they were scrapping their planned $152 billion...more
In what would be the largest acquisition of a foreign corporation ever, state-owned ChemChina is nearing a deal to purchase Switzerland’s Syngenta (besting US-based Monsanto’s overtures to do the same). The deal could help...more
Chinese economic data has already been wreaking havoc on markets in 2016. So I shudder to think about the impact of the recently announced investigation by China’s anticorruption commission into the head of the country’s...more
Barclays and Wachovia Settle with NCUA - On October 19, 2015, Barclays PLC and Wachovia Capital Markets LLC agreed to pay $325 million and $53 million, respectively, to settle claims brought by the National Credit Union...more
On October 19, 2015, Barclays PLC and Wachovia Capital Markets LLC agreed to pay $325 million and $53 million, respectively, to settle claims brought by the National Credit Union Administration Board (NCUA), as liquidating...more
On June 18, 2015, Justice Marcy Friedman of the New York Supreme Court dismissed RMBS fraud claims brought by Commerzbank AG London Branch (“Commerzbank”) against UBS, Nomura Holdings Inc., Barclays Bank PLC, Citigroup and...more