In October 2023, the Biden Administration released an Executive Order on governing the development and use of AI in a safe and responsible manner, while working with federal agencies to regulate and disperse the benefits of...more
Chair Gensler Continues to Be Outspoken About the Risks of AI Technologies -
Chair Gensler’s warnings of the potential risks associated with the use of AI technologies in the securities industry recently continued with...more
The SEC’s Cybersecurity Proposals -
The SEC has proposed four rules designed to address cybersecurity risk and management, including incident reporting by public companies....more
7/21/2023
/ Board of Directors ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Management ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Companies ,
Oversight Duties ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Proposed Rules ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Join BakerHostetler for our series of Fireside Chats about the latest developments impacting the capital markets and their participants, and the blockchain industry....more
7/12/2023
/ Administrative Proceedings ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Blockchain ,
Capital Markets ,
Cybersecurity ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement ,
Popular ,
SEC Commissioner ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Webinars
The SEC and CFTC settlements with HSBC and Scotia Capital come after years of federal regulators’ and prosecutors’ steadily increasing scrutiny of off-channel communications. Anchoring these settlements are long-standing...more
5/24/2023
/ Amended Rules ,
Books & Records ,
CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Data Preservation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Discovery ,
Electronic Communications ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Mobile Devices ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On Wednesday, March 1 the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its first-ever prosecution of an individual for insider trading based on an executive’s use of 10b5-1 trading plans. Terren Peizer, the executive chairman of...more
3/8/2023
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Amended Regulation ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Form 8-K ,
Indictments ,
Insider Information ,
Insider Trading ,
Popular ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud
On Feb. 7, 2023, the Division announced its 2023 examination priorities. These priorities, updated and published annually, provide insights into the Division’s prioritization of certain practices, products and services in its...more
The SEC’s Complaint -
According to the SEC’s complaint, Kraken offered and sold its staking services to the general public in which participants could transfer crypto assets to Kraken in exchange for “advertised annual...more
Takeaways -
..U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC, or Commission) Chair Gary Gensler reaffirmed his view that the “vast majority” of cryptocurrency tokens are securities, and recent agency enforcement actions...more
On July 25, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or the Commission) made headlines announcing insider trading charges against 10 individuals across four separate cases, signaling an increased and renewed focus on...more
Significant parallel actions commenced this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) bring crypto fraud enforcement into the spotlight, with the SEC alleging that multiple...more
7/25/2022
/ Coinbase ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Cryptoassets ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Wallets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Howey ,
Illegal Tipping ,
Indictments ,
Insider Trading ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rule 10(b) ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Tokens ,
Securities Violations
Key Takeaways - The SEC and DOJ announce that they are focusing on individual and corporate accountability, including a renewed emphasis on lawyers and accountants as the first line of defense against misconduct....more
In a speech before the Aspen Security Forum on August 3, 2021, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) Chair Gary Gensler urged lawmakers to provide him with the power to police cryptocurrency trading,...more
The push on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) disclosures has increased in the past several years, with these disclosures becoming a particular focus of the Biden Administration, the Securities and Exchange...more
Many companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”), whether as a public company, an investment adviser, or a broker-dealer, will undergo an inquiry or a formal investigation by the...more
On June 11, 2021, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the Office of Management and Budget, released the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions,[1] which includes...more
On April 14, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Gary Gensler as the 33rd Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”). This change will bring forth a Democratic majority at the...more
4/16/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
CFTC ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fraud ,
FSOC ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
On December 8, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives approved final passage of a $740.5 billion annual defense policy bill, the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (“National...more
On Sept. 23, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) adopted amendments to the rules that govern its whistleblower program in a 3-2 vote. Since the program’s inception 10 years ago, original...more
On August 26, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) decided in a 3-2 vote to adopt amendments to modernize the disclosure required under Item 101, Description of Business; Item 103, Legal...more
On June 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Antitrust Division announced that they have signed an interagency Memorandum of Understanding...more
On June 22, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in Liu v. Securities and Exchange Commission, which found that disgorgement awards that do not exceed a wrongdoer’s net profits (gross profits...more
7/2/2020
/ 15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(5) ,
Administrative Authority ,
Business Expenses ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Disgorgement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equitable Relief ,
Kokesh v SEC ,
Lack of Authority ,
Liu v Securities and Exchange Commission ,
Net Profits ,
Remedies ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On March 25, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporate Finance (CorpFin) issued Disclosure Guidance Topic No. 9, which provides its views on disclosure and other securities law obligations companies...more
On March 25, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC or Commission) issued an order that updated its March 4 order to extend the conditional exemptions from reporting and proxy delivery requirements for...more
3/30/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Filing Requirements ,
Form 8-K ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Relief Measures ,
Required Forms ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed its brief in Liu v. SEC, claiming that disgorgement in federal courts is within its statutory authority and that the U.S. Supreme Court should not disrupt...more