Features

Circuit Split Over Joint and Several Liability for Forfeiture In White-Collar Crimes
Ever since the Honeycutt ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017 that co-conspirators convicted of federal narcotics violations could not be held jointly and severally liable, courts have grappled with whether it also applied outside the narcotics context, to forfeiture judgments imposed in white-collar cases.
Features

SEC Tightens Rules on Scheduling Trades In Advance
General counsel may find themselves pulled into difficult conversations with top executives as the Securities and Exchange Commission tightens its rules on company insiders looking to dump their stock.
Features

Trouble Prosecuting Trump Allies Signifies DOJ's Difficulties In Prosecuting Non-Traditional Foreign Influence Cases
Despite the broad language of the Espionage Act, the DOJ has faced significant hurdles in pursuing prosecutions outside the traditional espionage context, and particularly where the alleged foreign agent's activity involves ostensibly legitimate international business dealings.
Features

Cryptocurrency: Rich In Investment Opportunity; Ripe for Fraud Schemes
The recent implosion of FTX Trading leaves investors and their advisers wondering whether any crypto investment is safe. There have been dozens of cryptocurrency-related fraud schemes in recent years including Ponzi schemes and investment schemes using crypto and the blockchain to facilitate the fraud scheme.
Features

What the SEC May Be Signaling Through Its Approach to NFTs and F-NFTs
Recent actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), together with certain statements by SEC commissioners, may indicate a shift in approach toward a rebuttable presumption that digital assets are securities, without deference to formal legal tests.
Features

Impact of 'Hoskins' Cases on the FCPA and White-Collar Law
This article examines the impact of Hoskins on three issues of importance to white-collar practitioners: the scope of the FCPA; the interpretation of white-collar criminal statutes; and the authority of the district court to consider at the outset of a prosecution threshold questions of the reach of the law to foreign individuals.
Features

Using Anti-Bribery and Corruption Regimes for ESG Concerns
Compliance leaders recognize that Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is a growing concern for U.S. companies, but face challenges in determining how to embed compliance structures into their programs. One solution is to look to already existing anti-bribery and corruption (AB&C) compliance measures.
Features

Insider Trading Evolving Beyond Just Securities As DOJ Targets NFTS and Crypto
In two recent notable cases involving NFTs and cryptocurrency markets, the DOJ has brought insider trading charges under the wire fraud statute without claiming that any securities were involved. These cases demonstrate the substantial flexibility federal prosecutors have — or at least believe they have — in charging insider trading and underscore the oft-recognized need for a federal statute expressly addressing insider trading.
Features

Regulators Renew Focus on Individual Liability for Gatekeepers
A rising tide of regulation is headed for corporate compliance officers and in-house lawyers. Corporate accountability is a key priority for the DOJ and SEC, and both agencies have renewed their focus on individual liability for gatekeepers, including lawyers, accountants, underwriters and auditors.
Features

Recent Decisions Fill Gap In §951 Notification Requirement for Agents of Foreign Governments
The Northern District of Illinois recently issued an opinion which criminalizes acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general.
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTsA federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.Read More ›
- Compliance Officers and Law Enforcement: Friends or Foes?<b><i>Part Two of a Two-Part Article</b></i><p>As we saw in Part One, regulators have recently shown a tendency to focus on compliance officers who they deem to have failed to ensure that the compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) programs that they oversee adequately prevented corporate wrongdoing, and there are several indications that regulators will continue to target compliance officers in 2018 in actions focused on Bank Secrecy Act/AML compliance.Read More ›
- Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the RoughThere is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.Read More ›
- Structuring Strategies for Off-Balance-Sheet Treatment of Real Property LeasesThe Financial Accounting Standards Board released a new set of lease accounting standards, ASC 842, which went into effect earlier this year. Most significantly, publicly traded companies are now obligated to list all leases of 12 months or longer on their balance sheets as both assets and liabilities. Large private companies will follow suit in 2020.Read More ›
- Removing Restrictive Covenants In New YorkIn Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?Read More ›