The Many Recent Signals that Foreshadow a More Aggressive SEC  in Terms of Enforcement Action and Stiffer Penalties for Wrongdoers

The first few months of 2021 have marked a clear shift in how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could soon start holding corporations to a much higher standard of accountability for actions that harm investors. A central theme of the SEC’s emerging mindset, as stated in a March 9, 2021, speech by Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw is the belief that corporate culture comes from the top and there is a strong need to incentivize companies to foster a culture of compliance, not misconduct.

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What to Expect in 2021 from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement: Material Nonpublic Information

In today’s remote work environment, cybersecurity has become one of the Industry’s largest vulnerable components when servicing clients. As majority of the Industry has migrated to remote work and new communication technologies, this has forced more data and information to be susceptible to risk. In this blog post, we will discuss material nonpublic information and how we believe this will be an area of additional focus as the Industry gears up for 2021.

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Recent Insider Trading Case at Amazon Offers Useful Reminders for Compliance Departments

Not even the world’s fourth-largest company by market capitalization is immune to the hazards of employee insider trading.

On September 28, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission Exchange Commission charged a former senior manager in Amazon.com Inc.’s tax department and two of her family members with insider trading for a scheme that lasted 2 ½ years.

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OCIE Risk Alert—Examinations Focused on Initial Compliance With Regulation Best Interest

As firms work to prepare their updated disclosures and move toward compliance by June 30, 2020 with the new Regulation Best Interest (“Reg BI”), the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) made two important announcements.  As a reminder, Reg BI establishes a new standard of conduct for broker-dealers and their associated persons when making a recommendation of any securities transaction or investment strategy involving securities (including account recommendations) to a retail customer.

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2019 SEC Enforcement Cases: A Year in Review

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC’s”) Division of Enforcement released its Annual Report (the “Report”) last month, which discusses enforcement cases for its fiscal year of 2019. According to the Report, the SEC filed 862 enforcement actions in FY 2019, resulting in disgorgements and monetary penalties of roughly $4.35 billion.… Read More

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