As the Web3 and digital assets ecosystem continues to grow, hacks, scams and other threats remain a major cause for concern and a potential impediment to broader adoption. Data from various sources indicates that after a year...more
Who may be interested: Investment Advisers - Quick Take: The SEC filed a complaint in federal court charging activist short publisher Andrew Left and Citron Capital, LLC, an investment adviser he operated, with securities...more
In what will be one of the most important decisions in antitrust since the proliferation of algorithm software, on May 8, 2024, Chief Judge Miranda Du of the United States District Court, District of Nevada, granted the hotel...more
On March 25, 2024, the US Department of Commerce (“DOC”) published a final rule revising substantive and procedural aspects of antidumping duty (“ADD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) investigations. The changes enter into...more
Settlement payment subject to tax as employment income - In Mathur v HMRC, the Upper Tribunal (UT) has upheld the FTT’s decision that a £6 million settlement payment to a former employee following an employment tribunal...more
It should come as no surprise that one of the goals of an investment fraud is the theft of customer funds for the scammer’s personal benefit. In legal parlance, this aspect of a fraudulent investment scheme is called...more
The SEHK guidance sets out the framework for its assessment in considering a waiver application of the increasingly popular automatic share buyback program. The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the SEHK) has issued a...more
On September 14, 2023, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Strengthening Antitrust Enforcement for Meatpacking Act of 2023, an ambitious new piece of legislation designed to halt consolidation in the meatpacking...more
On June 7, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rule 9j-1 (“Rule 9j-1”)1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”). Rule 9j-1 is designed to prevent fraud, manipulation, and deception in...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has two levels of jurisdiction under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”). First, there is an exclusive (or regulatory) jurisdiction over “derivatives” on “commodities,”...more
Price-fixing agreements among horizontal competitors raise significant antitrust concerns under Section 1 of the Sherman Act....more
In the wake of the LUNA-UST collapse in which the value of UST and LUNA crashed over 99 percent over a period of days due price manipulation of the algorithmic stablecoin, the Federal Reserve and other regulators have become...more
Glencore, a giant in the commodities and mining scenes, will pay $1.1 billion “to settle charges that two of its units bribed officials in several countries and manipulated oil prices,” a deal that follows “months of...more
DOJ officials are investigating whether some activist investors—including “prominent short sellers . . . Carson Block and Andrew Left”—crossed lines in their efforts to expose “companies with shoddy or even fraudulent...more
Spring-loading - awarding equity awards before announcing material good news - was in the headlines 15 years ago but still surfaces on occasion, notably when in July 2020 Kodak made large grants to executives the day before a...more
Takeaways: ..In recent remarks, top DOJ officials stated that DOJ will “surge resources” and “redouble efforts” for corporate enforcement. ..Areas of particular concern include Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,...more
The new Director of the Enforcement Division, Gurbir Grewal, assumed his position during the Third Quarter of 2021. Even if he hits the ground running it typically takes time to adjust to the environment. ...more
Investigators with the U.S. Department of Justice reportedly are investigating energy pricing benchmarks published by Platts, targeting suspected manipulation of deal prices provided by individual traders. According to...more
On April 27, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit released its opinion in Set Capital LLC v. Credit Suisse Group AG, No. 19-3466 (2d Cir. 2021). The decision is noteworthy because the Court permitted market...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced last week that it has obtained another admission from a trader of violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations ...more
2020 saw continuity in CFTC leadership, programs, and direction from 2019. Overall, the Commission enjoyed an unusually heavy rulemaking calendar and continued the direction of its enforcement program from 2019. On the...more
In recent years, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed two actions with facts so shocking the reader is forced to ask, ‘can this be how the industry really functions?’ The Complaints - The most recent...more
In a coordinated enforcement action with the DOJ, the CFTC filed and simultaneously settled charges against Vitol Inc., the U.S. affiliate of one of the world’s largest energy trading firms. ...more
The Commission frequently increases the rate at enforcement actions are filed in advance of the September 30th fiscal year end. That fiscal year end is followed by Congressional budget hearings where statistics are at least...more
In the last five years, the Justice Department and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission have aggressively prosecuted “spoofing” cases. While the government’s record in these cases has been mixed, the government has...more