10 For 10: Top Compliance Stories For the Week Ending March 15, 2025
Ep. 3 - The Art of Parallel Investigations (Part 2)
Episode 286 -- Matt Stankiewicz on the Ripple Decision and Celsius CEO Indictment
Blue Sky Laws: Defending State-Level Securities Violations
The Justice Insiders: The Administrative State is Not Your Friend - A Conversation with Professor Richard Epstein
Four Decision Points in SEC Securities Investigations
Crypto Enforcement Is Here, and Always Has Been
Cryptocurrency: The Regulator’s Perspective
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Regulatory and Enforcement Update
Until fall 2023, there were few SEC enforcements or litigations involving securities issues with non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). This has changed dramatically. In rapid succession last fall, the SEC undertook two enforcements...more
This year, the SEC has ramped up its enforcement efforts against digital asset marketplaces for selling non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) (and other digital assets) the agency alleges are securities. In response, some potential...more
On December 2, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc. and two of its executives alleging they offered and sold over $1.38 billion of digital asset XRP without registration or...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced charges against rapper and actor Clifford Harris, Jr., known as T.I. or Tip, film producer Ryan Felton, and three others who promoted Felton’s unregistered...more
After an extended fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), Telegram has agreed to resolve charges the company's unregistered offering of digital tokens called "Grams" violated the United States federal...more
The SEC has settled charges against action star Steven Seagal for failing to disclose payments he received for promoting an investment in an initial coin offering (ICO) conducted by Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G)....more
On September 30, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that blockchain developer Block.one had agreed to pay a $24 million fine to settle charges that it had engaged in an unregistered offering of securities...more
U.S. Developments - Litigation - New York Resident Indicted for Duping Investors with Fake ICO Scam - On November 6, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced a wire fraud charge...more
This BitBlog summary focuses on the continuing actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against the issuers of noncompliant initial coin offerings (“ICOs”) and other crypto related transactions including...more
On November 8, the SEC filed its first settled enforcement action against cryptocurrency trading platform for operating as an unregistered exchange trading securities, in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934....more
On November 8, 2018, the SEC announced it had settled charges against Zachary Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta, a digital “token” trading platform. ...more
Distributed ledger technology is continuing to be thought of as the technology that can address some of the issues that plague the music and content-creation space. Our Music Festival (“OMF”) is relying on this technology to...more
On October 3, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Blockvest LLC and its founder Reginald Buddy Ringgold, III for falsely claiming that its initial coin offering had been approved by the SEC. ...more
Hiding somewhat in the shadows during the rise of virtual currencies over the past year or two has been blockchain, the ledger technology that undergirds bitcoin and other cryptos, and its potential application beyond digital...more
China is answering the White House’s latest tariff announcement with another $60 billion in levies on US goods of its own....more
On September 11, FINRA announced its filing of an enforcement action accusing a Massachusetts broker of fraud and registration violations arising from his sale of an unregistered cryptocurrency, “HempCoin.” It is FINRA’s...more
If you’re thinking of airdropping free tokens or implementing a cryptocurrency bounty program, be careful. The Securities and Exchange Commission just issued a cease and desist order (the “Order”) with respect to an initial...more
After a surge in popularity and an increased interest from regulators, virtual currencies — also known as cryptocurrencies — have entered into a new phase in their relatively short history, with an increase in class actions...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has taken to using humor and sarcasm to educate retail investors about the potential risks of purchasing tokens in initial coin offerings (“ICOs”)....more
Breakingviews on what the White House’s intervention into Broadcom’s [dropped] bid for Qualcomm could mean for the US-based chip maker. [Hint, it involves China, and it’s not great for the big Q]....more
I am always amazed at how “business” entrepreneurs ignore enforcement risks in the face of specific warnings from regulators. The SEC and the CFTC have made it clear to the emerging initial coin offering (ICO) and...more
On December 4, the SEC’s new Cyber Unit announced it obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt the initial coin offering (“ICO”) of PlexCoin. According to the SEC, the Plexcoin ICO had raised up to $15 million to date...more
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office unveiled new charges against Barclays Bank yesterday over a $3 billion loan it made to Qatar in 2008 for the purpose of “allowing the firm to directly or indirectly acquire shares in Barclays...more
This week, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held hearings focused in part on Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”)....more
One week after filing a fraud suit against the organizer of the PlexCoin token sale, the SEC issued an enforcement order in connection with a token offering by Munchee and a public statement that shed some additional light on...more