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In a long overdue move to fill a perceived gap in U.S. law, this year’s National Defense Authorization Act included a new law that will finally criminalize the solicitation of bribes by foreign officials.
On November 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published its 2023 annual enforcement report which revealed a continuation of 2022’s record-setting enforcement activity.
It is one of the hardest questions a company can face: after discovering criminal conduct inside your company, do you self-report to the government or not?
Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Enforcement Division reemphasizes robust enforcement, robust remedies, and robust compliance as key priorities for the rest of 2023, while signaling an upcoming focus on private funds and enforcement sweeps for recordkeeping violations related to off-channel communications.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) will soon have the tools necessary to enforce its longstanding rules regarding share repurchases.
Recent technological advances, including cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (“AI”), have made their stamp on the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and its goals.
On February 22, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a cease-and-desist order (the “Order”) charging African Gold Acquisition Corp. (“African Gold”) with multiple violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) related to African Gold’s failure to maintain a sufficient system of internal controls.1
On January 13, 2023, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two consolidated cases from the Seventh Circuit to consider whether a defendant relying on an objectively reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous law acts “knowingly” in violation of the False Claims Act (“FCA”).
In an apparent response to a downturn in corporate cases and criticism that its harsh rhetoric was chilling corporate cooperation, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) recently announced significant changes to its policy on corporate enforcement aimed at sweetening the deal for companies under criminal investigation.
On December 14, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) announced charges against eight social media influencers in a $100 million securities fraud scheme, alleging that they manipulated the market through an arrangement of coordinated misrepresentations to their thousands of followers on Twitter and Discord (an instant-messaging social platform).
The SEC has been busy under the Biden administration. From rulemaking to enforcement, the agency is pushing boundaries and expanding its reach into new and active areas of the market.
The crypto token asset class has grown substantially in the last couple of years, drawing the watchful eyes of regulators. While the emerging world of crypto has created more questions than answers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) remains clear that investor protection remains at the forefront of its mission and that mission extends to where money is to be made in connection with the offer or sale of securities. To this end, the Commission has increased its regulation of crypto asset tokens, and crypto industry participants at all levels of engagement with this market should pay attention.