On June 23, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Terren Scott Peizer, founder of Ontrak Inc., a Miami-based publicly traded health care company, has been sentenced to three and one half years in prison by a...more
6/30/2025
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Insider Trading ,
Penalties ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions
On June 9, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche released a much-anticipated update to the Trump administration’s plans for enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)....more
6/17/2025
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
Corporate Governance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
National Security ,
Trump Administration ,
Voluntary Disclosure ,
White Collar Crimes
On January 17, the District of Columbia Circuit issued a pivotal opinion regarding the Fifth Amendment rights of a defendant-appellant compelled by the FBI to unlock his cellphone using his thumbprint. The D.C. Circuit’s...more
1/30/2025
/ Biometric Information ,
Cell Phones ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Evidence ,
FBI ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Fingerprints ,
Personal Data
It was a busy year for enforcement activity in the cyber, crypto, SPAC, and whistleblower spaces, with several pending actions that will likely have wide-ranging implications in 2024. We are also awaiting a ruling from the...more
2/29/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Whistleblowers
In March 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division updated its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP) guidance to address the use of personal devices and third-party messaging applications by...more
On the heels of a speech delivered by Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Lisa Monaco to NYU Law School on September 15, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum and announced further revisions to its existing corporate...more
Public companies should prepare for a more strenuous auditing process, and the increased likelihood that the information that they share with their auditors could be compelled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)...more
In January 2021, commentary by members of the social news aggregator Reddit may have contributed to unprecedented trading activity that led some online brokerages to freeze trading of certain securities for a prolonged window...more
Why It Matters -
As evidenced in the recently published 2020 Year in Review Report (Report), the Department of Justice’s Fraud Section (Fraud Section) demonstrated its resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its...more
On June 22, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (the Division) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a first-of-its-kind Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two agencies. The MOU was...more
Gregory J. Nowak, a partner and practice leader for hedge funds in Pepper Hamilton’s Private Fund Services Practice Group, hosts a series of candid, interactive webinar discussions for West LegalEdcenter on what is going on...more
1/10/2020
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equitable Relief ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Fund Managers ,
Injunctions ,
Investment Firms ,
Investment Funds ,
Investment Management ,
Remediation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Violations ,
Self-Reporting
Directors and officers are exposed to potential liability from suits by the company, shareholders, and debt holders, among others. There are, however, a number of protections available to protect the assets of directors and...more
12/27/2017
/ Asset Protection ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Officers ,
D&O Insurance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Derivative Suit ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Indemnification ,
Insurance Industry ,
Liability Insurance ,
Personal Liability ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Litigation
The Business Law Section’s Director and Officer Liability Committee conducted a program at the Section’s Spring Meeting in Montréal. The program focused on the recent Yates memorandum of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),...more
8/19/2016
/ Commercial Insurance Policies ,
Cooperation ,
Corporate Crimes ,
Corporate Executives ,
Corporate Officers ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Individual Accountability ,
Internal Investigations ,
KPMG ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Self-Reporting ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Yates Memorandum
The DOJ’s Yates Memo makes individual prosecutions a higher priority and makes a company’s own identification of potentially culpable individuals an explicit factor in assessing cooperation credit....more
9/14/2015
/ Corporate Fines ,
Corporate Governance ,
Deferred Prosecution Agreements ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DPA ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Proffer Agreement ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Wells Notice ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Willful Misconduct