On February 3, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that video game developer Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Activision) agreed to pay $35 million to settle accusations that it violated whistleblower...more
On January 9, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had reached a settlement with McDonald’s and its former CEO, Stephen Easterbrook, for charges stemming from McDonald’s 2019 termination of...more
On November 15, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its enforcement results for fiscal year 2022, which featured the following key metrics...more
On September 6, investment advisory firm Perceptive Advisors LLC (Perceptive) agreed to a cease-and-desist order with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to disclose alleged conflicts of interest...more
In what the Manhattan federal prosecutors have touted as the first-ever guilty plea in an insider trading case involving cryptocurrency, the brother of a former Coinbase Global, Inc. (Coinbase) product manager pled guilty to...more
On March 17, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a notice, clarifying when chief compliance officers (CCOs) will face liability as supervisors under FINRA Rule 3110. Under Rule 3110, member firms are...more
On January 28, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) issued a press release, announcing the settlement of various fraud charges against a private technology company in light of their “significant remedial...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is testing the bounds of insider trading laws (as previously reported here), and it recently survived the first challenge to its newest theory. On January 14, the U.S. District...more
On October 12, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s decision in SEC v. Blackburn, awarding disgorgement to alleged victims of a penny stock fraud scheme subject to SEC enforcement action. This...more
On October 5, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a decision in Firemen’s Retirement System of St. Louis v. Sorenson, et al., C.A. No. 2019-0965-LWW, dismissing breach of fiduciary duty claims brought against various...more
A remote status conference was held June 28 for United States v. Mark Schena, currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In the recently unsealed superseding indictment, the SEC...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently settled an enforcement action in which it found that a public company failed to develop and implement adequate controls around a stock buyback program. The action...more
Federal agencies have long wielded a set of enforcement tools not explicitly provided for by statute. Restitution—used by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to secure billions from defendants—and disgorgement—the Securities...more
11/7/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
FTCA Section 13(b) ,
Kokesh v SEC ,
Section 5 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices