The Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) establishes program, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for certain financial institutions to combat and detect money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activities.  On February 13, 2024, FinCEN proposed new rules which expand the scope of the BSA to include certain investment advisers, which currently are not subject to any federal or state regulations regarding anti-money laundering (“AML”) or counter-financing of terrorism (“CFT”) compliance.  FinCEN also published a fact sheet on the proposed rules that provides a helpful summary of the key provisions.

Rule Regarding Access to Beneficial Ownership Information Takes Effect

On February 21, 2024, FinCEN published a Small Entity Compliance Guide to aid in compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act’s (“CTA”) Beneficial Ownership Information (“BOI”) Access and Safeguards Rule (“Access Rule”).  The Compliance Guide is called the Small Entity Compliance Guide only because federal law requires that the federal government issue guidance specifically directed at facilitating smaller business’s compliance efforts.  Notwithstanding the title, the Compliance Guide will assist financial institutions (“FIs”) of all sizes with understanding FinCEN’s expectations for access to the BOI database once such access is approved.

Argosy Healthcare Partners (AHP) has announced the recapitalization of Command Medical Products.

Command, based in Ormond Beach, Fla., and founded in 1987, provides contract manufacturing services for medical devices sold by original equipment manufacturers and other device providers. 

AHP, based in Wayne, Pa., is a lower middle market private equity investor focused exclusively…

On February 1, 2024, the G7+ Coalition (consisting of the G7, the European Union, and Australia) published an Oil Price Cap (OPC) Compliance and Enforcement Alert (the “Alert”), identifying notable OPC evasion methods and recommending various methods to reduce the risk of evasion and its negative impacts.  The OPC was enacted in December 2022 in response to the Russian incursion into Ukraine and related disruptions to global oil flows and energy security.  The Alert seeks to bolster legitimate commercial efforts to comply with the OPC and provides guidance to regulators on how to combat the innovative methods by which bad actors are attempting to circumvent it.  The G7+ Coalition is further encouraging regulators to supplement its findings and recommendations with their own detailed advisories, sector-specific guidance, and case studies.

On Feb. 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $4.75 million settlement with New York non-profit health system Montefiore Medical Center over alleged malicious insider conduct that caused potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule. This settlement follows two other recent investigations that led to OCR’s first-ever settlements stemming from ransomware and phishing attacks.