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
As discussed in our December 15, 2023 client alert, the SEC has waged an aggressive effort to enforce alleged violations of the whistleblower protection rule. On September 9, 2024, the SEC announced settled charges resulting...more
On June 17, 2024, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “the Commission”) issued a groundbreaking order against an energy, metals, and minerals commodity trading company (the "Company”) registered in Singapore....more
Employers should check their confidentiality and severance agreements for a common oversight that, for some, is becoming a costly error. Recent enforcement activity by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Rule...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced its enforcement results for fiscal year 2023, which reported a total of 784 enforcement actions, up 3% from FY22. This includes 501 original (stand-alone)...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently settled charges alleging that a company’s employee separation agreements restricted former employees from receiving monetary awards for reporting securities law...more
Summary - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently announced settlements with a number of companies whose separation agreements or internal policies the SEC viewed as impeding employees’ participation in the...more
Rule 21F-17 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Rule 21F-17”), adopted under Dodd-Frank, prohibits employers from “tak[ing] any action to impede an individual from communication directly with [SEC staff] about a possible...more
The Security and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) continues to aggressively enforce its whistleblower program under the Biden Administration. As we have reported, the SEC has cracked down on employers’ agreements and procedures...more
On May 5, the SEC announced the Commission’s largest-ever award—nearly $279 million—awarded to a whistleblower for providing information and assistance leading to the successful enforcement of SEC and related actions. The SEC...more
Only a few months into the new year and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun to wade into new waters with enforcement efforts focused on disclosure issues without traditional links to securities...more
On November 15, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released its summary of enforcement actions for the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2022. The SEC announced that it filed 760 enforcement actions,...more
The SEC brought an enforcement action against The Brink’s Company for using confidentiality agreements that the SEC alleged violated Exchange Act Rule 21F-17. That rule prohibits any person from taking any action to impede an...more
On Tuesday, April 12, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined David Hansen, the former Chief Information Officer of NS8, Inc., a Las Vegas-based fraud detection and prevention software firm, approximately...more
The proposed amendments to the rules governing the whistleblower program, if adopted, would reverse prior amendments and provide further and significant financial incentives for whistleblowers to report potential violations...more
On August 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced interim procedures effectively nullifying amendments to the SEC's whistleblower program adopted less than a year ago under former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton....more
Last week, the SEC announced accumulated awards of over $1 billion paid to 207 whistleblowers since its first award in 2012. Over $500 million was awarded in fiscal year 2021 alone. The SEC crossed the billion-dollar...more
On July 21, in S.E.C. v. Collector’s Coffee, Inc. et al.,[1] a New York federal court held that a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) whistleblower protection rule prohibiting actions to impede the...more
The Situation: The SEC has brought another in a growing list of whistleblower cases critical of entities for potentially attempting to impede an individual from communicating with the agency. In July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall...more
The highest award in the history of the SEC whistleblower program is issued to an employee who repeatedly reported misconduct internally before alerting the SEC. On October 22, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange...more
SEC Whistleblower Program Rules Change - On September 23, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the adoption of a final rule in Release 34-89963 that changes several aspects of its whistleblower...more
On December 9, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that, as a matter of law, directors cannot be held liable under the anti-retaliation provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Zornoza v....more
Public company directors, who are under constant threat of claims, received welcome news earlier this month. On December 9, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that corporate directors...more
On Nov. 4, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an amended complaint against Collectors Café and its CEO, Mykalai Kontilai, to add charges against defendants for alleged violations of whistleblower...more
On July 19, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted an employer’s motion to dismiss a SOX whistleblower claim, holding that the Plaintiff—an in-house attorney—failed to allege sufficient facts...more
On June 3, 2019, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower announced a $3 million award to two whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information that led it to investigate and successfully bring an enforcement action for...more