“It is difficult to overstate how much the regulatory landscape for hedge fund managers has changed over the past four years.” So said Norm Champ, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management, in a recent speech wherein he outlined how the SEC has built on its newfound authority to regulate private
Corporate & Commercial
Update: Supreme Court Declines to Define Instrumentality under FCPA
On October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an August 14, 2014, petition for writ of certiorari by Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriquez, former owners of Terra Communications (Terra). The petition asked the court to define who counts as a foreign official under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
In 2011, Esquenazi and Rodriquez…
One Year Later: SEC Sanctions Under Rule 105 of Regulation M
On September 16, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced enforcement actions against 19 firms and an individual trader for short sales in violation of Rule 105 of Regulation M. The SEC’s latest crackdown on short-selling violations in advance of stock offerings came one day shy of the one-year anniversary of enforcement actions against 23…
Higher Education Facing Scrutiny from CFPB
Colleges, universities and anyone offering postsecondary education, take note: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to target alleged unfair and deceptive practices related to the student loan and financial aid process. A few weeks ago, the CFPB filed suit against Corinthian Colleges in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging violations…
SFO Bashing, Chapter 49.
No one could accuse the Serious Fraud Office of living a charmed life. It is regularly accused of stupidity and inefficiency by a hostile press, and not infrequently the government weighs in with destabilising tactics, either by slashing its paltry budget, or by planning to redesign the counter fraud landscape.
A report this week in…
SEC Announces Record-Breaking Award for Foreign Whistleblower in the Wake of Liu v. Siemens
Recently, the SEC announced its largest whistleblower award to date − an expected award of $30-35 million − to be issued to a foreign resident. Notably, the award would have been even larger if the tipster had not unreasonably delayed in reporting the violations.
This award to a foreign resident is of particular interest because…
The Serious Fraud Office bribery charges against Alstom
“From this autumn, we will start to see cases adopted by us, under our recalibrated focus on top tier work, coming to trial…we have much in the pipeline.”
David Green CB QC, Director of the SFO, addressing the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime on 2 September 2014
One such case is the SFO’s bribery case,…
CFPB Proposes New Rule Expanding Oversight to NonBank Auto Finance Companies
In a move that should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency issued a proposed rule last week that would expand its oversight, supervision and enforcement jurisdiction to include nonbank automobile finance companies.
Established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act…
Going Inside for Insider Trading
It is always assumed that sentences in the US for any crime are significantly higher than they are in the UK, but nowhere is this more starkly exemplified than in white collar crime. The recent sentence of 9 years in prison for Mathew Martoma for insider trading is the latest proof of the truth of…
Welcome to The Fraud Board, a new blog site for UK fraud and related regulatory issues
Welcome to the new McGuireWoods London LLP fraud blog: The Fraud Board, which has taken over from our highly rated Bribery Library site. There are various reasons for the change, but the main rationale is that while the subject of Bribery remains very important in the economic crime landscape, and will continue to feature strongly…