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One question I get asked frequently by potential clients who come in suspecting that they have been scammed is whether they might have been the victim of a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes derive their name from Charles...more
District Court Declines to Stay Case Pending Resolution of FCA Causation Standard Issue Before Court of Appeals - Earlier this week, a Massachusetts federal judge denied a motion to stay proceedings filed by Medtronic,...more
Editor's Note: The following newsletter provides a roundup summarizing enforcement actions, guidance, rulemakings, and other public statements taken by a federal and/or state financial services regulatory agency, specifically...more
Each month we publish a roundup of the most important SEC enforcement developments for busy in-house lawyers and compliance professionals. This month, we examine: •The SEC’s approval of spot bitcoin ETPs; - •SEC charges...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against Xue Samuel Lee, the co-founder of HyperFund, and Brenda Indah Chunga, also known as “Bitcoin Beautee,” the fund’s top promoter, for securities violations. ...more
Taxpayers can take a tax deduction with respect to “theft” losses that result from an illegal “taking of property” done with criminal intent. Among various other types of criminal activities, fraud is treated as theft under...more
Federal and state regulators have taken an increased interest in regulating cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and the larger blockchain ecosystem. This landscape is opaque and rapidly evolving, and many industry participants...more
Crypto Exchange Ends U.S. Operations, Swiss Bank to Expand Crypto Offerings - Late last month, Bittrex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange founded in Seattle, announced it was closing U.S. operations effective April 30,...more
Happy New Year! While the holidays hopefully provided a chance to rest and recharge, things have not slowed down in the world of digital asset enforcement. We see a growing dedication of resources by government law...more
New Crypto Payment Products Launch, Reports Publish Crypto Market Data A recent press release announced that MetaMask, the popular Ethereum (ETH) Network crypto wallet provider, will integrate its self-custodial wallets...more
This summer was a busy one for cryptocurrency regulators, with aggressive actions potentially signaling an increase in consumer protection compliance activity. In August alone, the New York Department of Financial Services...more
Ethereum Network Completes Transition to Proof of Stake Consensus - After years of development and delays, Ethereum’s long-awaited “merge” occurred this week, changing the network’s consensus mechanism from proof-of-work...more
A basic truism — you do not want to become the subject of a Justice Department investigation. The wheels of justice — prosecutors and law enforcement — can cause real harm to organizations and individuals that violate the...more
On June 30, the DOJ charged six individuals in four separate cases for a fraudulent NFT trading scheme. The first case alleged that an individual committed wire fraud and engaged in a conspiracy to commit international...more
...Treasury Releases National Risk Assessments - The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued the 2022 National Risk Assessments (NRAs) on (1) money laundering, (2) terrorist financing, and (3) proliferation...more
Traditional Financial Firms Expand Reach into Cryptocurrency Sphere - Early this week, a major investment bank announced that it plans to launch a digital asset custody platform later this year. This announcement follows...more
DOJ Releases Highly Anticipated 2021 Fraud Report - The DOJ released the Fraud Section's Year in Review for 2021 describing its 329 individual convictions, 30 trial wins, and eight corporate resolutions that yielded...more
Where’s the Beef? Two Charged with $650 Million Cattle Ponzi Scheme - On May 12, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a federal district court in Colorado unsealed an indictment alleging that two individuals ran...more
A World Trade Organization panel on Tuesday declared that the U.S.’s 2018 tariffs on China “violated international trade rules,” siding with China and its allegations that the White House’s trade war broke, among other...more
The SEC and DOJ recently received positive news in two enforcement actions that had been challenged on grounds of extraterritoriality. These cases illustrate the ongoing judicial efforts to define the extraterritorial reach...more
Deutsche Bank on Wednesday confirmed the basics of a recent German newspaper report that revealed that the bank “had used faulty software to screen customer transactions for suspicious activity” while claiming that “no...more
Just how bad is the Brexit crisis for Prime Minister May? Well, she’s considering crossing the aisle and, gulp, working with the Labour Party on a departure plan. So really bad. And oh yeah, more time, please....more
California’s trouble-plagued Pacific Gas & Electric utility has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing debts of more than $51.7 billion....more
Three weeks after his initial arrest, Japanese prosecutors have officially indicted former Nissan Chair Carlos Ghosn for understating his income by $43 million....more
Walmart’s broader foray into the grocery biz—letting customers order online and pick up in person and expanding home delivery—is paying dividends for the retailer and helping push its revenue up 3.8% from this period a year...more