Features

SEC's Reboot on Waiver Requests in Enforcement Settlements
SEC Chairman Jay Clayton recently announced a change in how the SEC will consider requests for waivers of certain serious collateral consequences that would otherwise result from settlement of an SEC enforcement action. These collateral consequences, often referred to as "bad actor" or "bad boy" provisions, can vary greatly and may disqualify an entity from conducting certain business or utilizing certain means to offer securities.
Features

The California Consumer Privacy Act: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask
Part One of a Two-Part Article The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a comprehensive new consumer protection law set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2020. In the wake of the CCPA's passage, approximately 15 other states introduced their own CCPA-like privacy legislation, and similar proposals are being considered at the federal level. Part One of this article covers how the CCPA applies to businesses — both in and outside California, the revenue threshold, proposed amendments and other open issues.
Columns & Departments
Business Crimes Hotline
Canadian Clean Fuel Technology Company and Former CEO Pay $4.1 Million to Settle China Related FCPA Case
Features

The California Consumer Privacy Act: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask — 100 Days Out
Part One of a Two-Part Article Responses to questions businesses frequently ask about the impacts of the CCPA. Implementation challenges inevitably will arise as a company works to apply these new requirements to its business practices. The time is now to start preparing for the CCPA, as well as for other new U.S. privacy laws that are likely to follow.
Features

Cybersecurity False Claims Act Cases: The Next Frontier
A new wave of False Claims Act cases is crashing ashore. Based on the federal government's inclusion of toughened cybersecurity requirements for government contractors, numerous FCA cases will undoubtedly be filed and litigated in coming years against prime contractors and their major subcontractors for allegedly failing to comply with their contractual cybersecurity obligations.
Features

Crowdfunding, Reg D and Reg A
The New Routes for Access to Capital and the Potential Legal and Regulatory Risks Although the business community lauded the arrival of new crowdfunding laws, the enforcement community has had a different take on them. As stated in 2017 by then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: "The potential downside of crowdfunding is that it occurs outside the watchful eye of a regulated banking and financial industry. Unregulated websites therefore provide a platform for criminals to defraud potential investors."
Features

A Tenant's Perspective on SNDAs: Non-Disturbance Is Not Enough
Part Two of a Two-Part Article Part One of this article outlined the basic elements of a subordination, non-disturbance and attornment agreement (SNDA), which regulates two competing interests in the same property — tenant's right to possess its premises pursuant to its lease and mortgage lender's security interest in that same premises. Part Two explains the differences between the concepts of "non-disturbance" and "recognition," while contending that lease recognition is more important to the tenant than not having its possession disturbed.
Columns & Departments
In the Courts
New Developments In Och-Ziff FCPA Settlement As Brooklyn Judge Grants Victim Status to Former Investors In Restitution Claim over Lost African Mining Venture
Features

Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
Columns & Departments
Business Crimes Hotline
Former Cognizant Technology COO Settles FCPA Case In Relation to India Office Construction Project
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- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›