On June 9, 2025, the Deputy Attorney General issued a Memorandum detailing the administration’s new FCPA guidelines for all current and future investigations and enforcement actions. According to the Head of DOJ’s Criminal...more
SEC v. Nagler is the second enforcement action charging an investment adviser with undisclosed conflicts of interest since Chair Paul Atkins began his tenure on April 21, 2025. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)...more
On May 12, 2025, the DOJ announced a new “white-collar enforcement plan” identifying new corporate enforcement priorities and aiming to promote greater focus, fairness and efficiency in prosecuting corporate misconduct. In a...more
On March 20, 2025, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland jointly announced the formation of a new International Anti-Corruption Prosecutorial Taskforce (the “Task Force”) aimed at strengthening cross-border collaboration...more
5/13/2025
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
France ,
Government Agencies ,
Switzerland ,
UK
On February 25, 2025, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released an enforcement advisory regarding the impact of self-reporting, cooperation and remediation in enforcement cases (the “Enforcement...more
UPDATE: President Signs Executive Order Directing DOJ to Pause All FCPA Enforcement for 180 Days - On February 10, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to pause all...more
On January 13, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced settled enforcement actions with five registered investment advisers for failing to maintain and preserve internal electronic communications. These...more
1/20/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Compliance ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Penalties ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Remedial Actions ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation ,
Settlement ,
WhatsApp
On April 12, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposed fines and other sanctions on five registered investment advisers (RIAs) for violations of the Investment Adviser Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1), which has...more
On Friday, April 5, 2024, a San Francisco jury found the defendant liable in SEC v. Panuwat, the closely watched litigated enforcement action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to so-called...more
On April 3, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its first enforcement action against a registered investment adviser (RIA) with no ties to a broker-dealer regarding so-called “off-channel”...more
4/10/2024
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Electronic Communications ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fund Managers ,
Investigations ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Registered Investment Advisors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations
Key Takeaways -
With the SolarWinds enforcement action, the SEC continues to ratchet up its enforcement against companies that fail to properly disclose their cybersecurity incidents and risks. By naming the SolarWinds CISO...more
11/22/2023
/ Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Popular ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SolarWinds
Key Point -
Just over two weeks after the SEC announced the settlement of its first NFT enforcement action against Impact Theory, on September 13, 2023, the SEC announced its second NFT enforcement action against SC2, the...more
No financial services firm or professional welcomes an investigation by a regulator, let alone enforcement action. Each investigation proceeds differently depending on the target of the investigation, the subject matter and...more
Key Point -
Just shy of three weeks after Judge Torres held that the digital asset XRP is not itself a security,1 Judge Rakoff held that the SEC had adequately pled that certain digital assets, such as the UST and LUNA...more
Key Points -
SEC Enforcement and PCAOB Enforcement both are pursuing more significant sanctions against auditors, particularly with respect to civil money penalties.
Expect 2023 enforcement against auditors to focus...more
Key Points -
On March 2, 2023, DOJ announced that its NSD would hire more than 25 new prosecutors to investigate and prosecute sanctions evasion, export controls violations and similar economic crimes. Consistent with...more
Key Points -
On February 3, 2023, Activision Blizzard settled charges with the SEC, agreeing to pay $35 million to resolve novel claims that the company failed to maintain adequate disclosure controls to track workplace...more
Late last year, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler warned private fund managers that they should be prepared for increased regulatory scrutiny. Shortly thereafter, in February 2022, the SEC announced...more
Key Points -
The SEC and the FCA each publish annual reports, which can offer a useful insight into their enforcement actions.
The data in the reports only represents a snapshot of the regulators’ activities, but is...more
Key Points -
The SEC’s Division of Examinations published a risk alert that, in the context of a focus on MNPI, highlighted observed deficiencies related to the use of alternative data by private fund managers and other...more
Key Points -
The DOJ and CFTC have filed insider trading charges against a Houston-based energy trader for allegedly disclosing confidential information to a third party who then used the information to trade profitably....more
Private funds should be prepared for increased oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following a landmark year of enforcement cases. In 2021, the Commission brought 159 enforcement actions against...more
2/3/2022
/ Enforcement Actions ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Form PF ,
Fund Managers ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Private Equity ,
Private Funds ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations
On September 23, 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged a quantitative analyst for “a scheme to violate the federal securities laws by using material nonpublic information to secretly trade ahead of (i.e.,...more
In this episode, Akin Gump financial regulatory partner Helen Marshall and white collar defense and government investigations practice co-head Michael Asaro look at SEC and FCA’s annual reports to discuss similarities,...more
9/22/2021
/ Annual Reports ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Regulatory Agencies ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investigations ,
Penalties ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
UK
Key Points -
The SEC has charged App Annie, Inc. and its former CEO with violations of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5, which constitute the primary mechanism for enforcing insider trading violations.
This...more