Monthly Archives: January 2021

On January 11, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the 2019 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Blaszczak,[1] which substantially broadened the scope of criminal insider trading liability, and remanded the case to the Second Circuit for further consideration in light of the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Kelly v. United States.[2]

The Second Circuit held in Blaszczak that the government’s often challenging burden under the Securities Exchange Act to prove that the insider received a “personal benefit” in exchange for tipping inside information,… More

Last month, General Electric agreed to pay a $200 million penalty to settle an SEC enforcement action arising from alleged disclosure violations concerning the company’s power and health insurance businesses.  According to the SEC’s order, between 2015 and 2017, GE did not disclose that the profits it reported for those segments were largely attributable to changes the company made to its accounting practices in order to mask significant challenges that those business lines were facing. … More

On January 1, 2021, Congress significantly expanded the SEC’s authority to seek disgorgement as a remedy for violations of the federal securities laws, responding to recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that had limited the SEC’s disgorgement power.  Congress unexpectedly provided this enhanced authority by amending the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) in an obscure portion of the over 1,400-page National Defense Authorization Act,… More