Tag Archives: Securities and Exchange Commission

This is the eighth part in our 2023 series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations. Up next: anti-corruption.

Key Takeaways:

• As we predicted in our March 2022 post, 2022 was a year of heavy cryptocurrency enforcement, with a spike in actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) against companies and individuals involved in cryptocurrency.…

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Text messaging is convenient.  It is an informal and instant mode of communication now available through numerous apps, which allow an individual to use their synced phone, tablet, and computer to quickly fire off messages.  It’s no wonder that text messaging has extended beyond the realm of friends and family, taking hold in our daily business communications.

However, intra-company text messages and other off-channel business communications have drawn scrutiny from the federal government because they undermine a company’s ability to maintain effective recordkeeping.… More

Key Takeaways:

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) have brought the first-ever insider trading actions involving cryptocurrency against a former manager of Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. crypto asset trading platforms, and two tippees for sharing or trading upon confidential information relating to the planned listing of various cryptocurrencies on Coinbase.
• The SEC’s securities fraud charges are based on its longstanding position that certain cryptocurrencies are investment contracts and therefore “securities” subject to the SEC’s jurisdiction.…

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Key Takeaways:

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Climate and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)Task Force has brought its first two enforcement actions for allegedly misleading ESG-related disclosures by a public company and an investment adviser, respectively.
• The actions reflect the close and continuing focus on ESG by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement (Enforcement); more such actions are virtually certain to follow.
• These cases also underscore the importance for issuers and advisers of mitigating the risk of ESG-related disclosure violations through robust internal controls and careful vetting of public statements about ESG impacts and investments.…

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John W.R. Murray recently authored a White Collar Crime and Government Investigations Alert about the SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations 2020 examination priorities.  They include prioritizing the interests of retail or “Main Street” investors, particularly with respect to registered investment advisers that serve retail investors, cybersecurity and digital assets.

Click here to read the full alert. More

Editors’ Note:  This is the first in our start-of-year series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations in the coming year.  Up next:  a look at trends in health care enforcement.  Look for additional posts throughout the month of January.

As we look towards the SEC Division of Enforcement’s agenda for 2020,… More

On November 6, 2019, the SEC Division of Enforcement published its annual report for fiscal year 2019. The report provides valuable insight, not only as to the Division’s performance over the past year, but also about its current priorities and where it will be focused in the near-term future. Overall, Enforcement’s program since 2017, when SEC Chairman Jay Clayton assumed leadership of the agency, has been shaped by five “core principles”: (1) focus on the retail investor;… More

Recently, in Lorenzo v. Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 17-1077, the Supreme Court held that an investment banker had committed securities fraud by copying and pasting false statements prepared by his supervisor into emails to prospective investors, even though he was not on the hook for making the statements himself.

The decision focuses on Rule 10b-5 of the Securities and Exchange Commission,… More