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Compliance
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July 31, 2024
SEC Settles Reg BI Case Against Calif. Broker-Dealer
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday it has agreed to settle allegations that Western International Securities Inc. sold more than $13 million in high-risk debt securities to those with lower risk profiles, marking the potential end of a first-of-its kind enforcement action claiming violations of Regulation Best Interest.
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July 31, 2024
5th Circ. Pause Spells Doom For DOT Airline Fees Rule
The Fifth Circuit gave the airline industry a temporary reprieve from a new U.S. Department of Transportation rule requiring carriers to more clearly disclose add-on fees upfront, a decision that stands to embolden opponents of the Biden administration's more aggressive consumer-focused policies.
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July 31, 2024
PayPal Alum Joins Forensic Consultancy As Crypto Leader
Compliance consultancy and investigations firm Forensic Risk Alliance said Wednesday that it's hired an alum of PayPal and Paxos to direct its global cryptocurrency investigations and compliance practice.
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July 31, 2024
DraftKings Closes NFT Platform Over 'Legal Developments'
DraftKings has announced that it is shuttering its nonfungible token marketplace due to "recent legal developments," with the decision coming weeks after a Massachusetts federal judge permitted a proposed securities class action involving the marketplace to move forward.
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July 31, 2024
Dutch Regulators OK Freshfields-Guided Asset Exchange
A Dutch digital asset exchange is touting itself as the first widely accessible and regulated crypto derivatives exchange in Europe after receiving a license from the government of the Netherlands, aided by the guidance of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, the firm has announced.
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July 31, 2024
Saul Ewing Adds 2 Employee Benefits Attys On East Coast
Saul Ewing LLP announced Wednesday that it has grown its employee benefits and executive compensation practice on the East Coast with two attorneys, one from Ivins Phillips & Barker and another from Hogan Lovells.
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July 31, 2024
Judge Won't Undo IRS' Pause On Worker Retention Credits
An Arizona federal judge rejected a tax advisory firm's request to lift the IRS' pause on processing claims for the pandemic-era employee retention credit, saying he wasn't eager to stop the agency from addressing the fraud it alleges has been widespread.
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July 30, 2024
DOJ Says Norfolk Southern To Blame For Amtrak Delays
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday accused Norfolk Southern Corp. of illegally refusing to give passenger trains preference over freight trains, leading to widespread delays for Amtrak passenger trains on the route between New York and Louisiana last year.
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July 30, 2024
11th Circ. Upholds Geofence Warrant In Carjacking Case
The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday rejected a convicted carjacker's attempt to quash a geofence warrant that allowed law enforcement to obtain information from cellphones within a certain geographic area, finding that the man lacked standing to challenge a search that revealed no information from his own electronic device.
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July 30, 2024
Amazon Must Recall Unsafe Third-Party Products, CPSC Says
Amazon bears legal responsibility for recalling the hundreds of thousands of products sold by third-party sellers on its site that are defective or fail to meet safety standards, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found in an order issued Monday.
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July 30, 2024
Tribe Says Sovereignty 'Sea Change' At Stake In Tobacco Row
A California tribe has opposed the U.S. government's bid to toss its suit fighting placement on a "non-compliant list" under a law that targets tobacco trafficking, telling a federal judge that forcing it to stop sales would cause a "sea change" in tribal sovereignty.
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July 30, 2024
FDIC Moves To Revamp Brokered Deposit Regs In Policy Push
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a proposal that would subject more bank deposits to heightened regulation as "brokered" funds, outlining new rules that the agency pitched as addressing risks highlighted by failures of firms like First Republic Bank and Voyager, a crypto lender.
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July 30, 2024
FTX Users Say Sullivan & Cromwell Must Face Abetting Claims
FTX customers told a Florida federal judge on Tuesday that Sullivan & Cromwell LLP can't dismiss customer claims it aided and abetted the defunct cryptocurrency exchange's fraud as "speculative allegations" when the customers' complaint "paints a much more detailed and nefarious picture."
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July 30, 2024
Texas' Meta Deal Signals Future Data Privacy Actions
While the announcement of an "astronomical" $1.4 billion settlement between Texas and Meta Platforms Inc. on Tuesday won't lead to a flood of consumer suits, it's "absolutely" a signal of future enforcement actions by the Lone Star State in the data privacy sphere, experts told Law360.
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July 30, 2024
FTC Seeks Temporary Kroger-Albertsons Block In Oregon
The Federal Trade Commission is formally seeking a temporary block against Kroger's proposed purchase of Albertsons, arguing in an Oregon federal court brief unsealed Tuesday that the planned divestiture of 579 stores to a "failed" supermarket boss won't adequately protect consumers or union labor facing dramatically increased concentration.
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July 30, 2024
SEC Ruling Calls For FCC Revamp, Ex-Agency Lawyer Says
Although the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that civil defendants must be allowed jury trials to contest government fines was focused on securities law, the ruling will also upend the Federal Communications Commission's in-house enforcement and require new legislation, warns an appellate lawyer and former FCC attorney.
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July 30, 2024
Prosecutors Say Bribery Ruling Won't Disrupt Madigan Trial
Prosecutors accusing former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan of corruption said Monday night his case is unaffected by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling limiting the reach of a bribery statute that once criminalized gratuities, saying the government's allegations do not rely on gratuities, so "this dog will not hunt."
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July 30, 2024
FTX Exec Gets Prison Report Date Delayed After Dog Attack
A New York federal judge on Tuesday allowed ex-FTX executive Ryan Salame to delay his surrender date to begin his prison term from August to October, as he was forced to undergo medical treatment and surgery after being mauled by a German shepherd while visiting a friend's house last month.
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July 30, 2024
Sens. Look To Break Down Federal Barriers To Broadband
Three senators think they have the solution for speeding up the broadband permitting process in the form of a bill that they say will cut red tape and ensure applications are dealt with within the nine-month window the federal government has to do so.
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July 30, 2024
AIDS Org Sues Express Scripts For PBM Monopoly
The world's largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization is joining the slew of litigants suing pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, claiming in a new complaint that the pharmacy giant has leveraged monopoly power in Louisiana to suppress competition among independent specialty pharmacies that focus on rare and complex medical conditions.
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July 30, 2024
FINRA Says Jarkesy Doesn't Apply To Its Internal Proceedings
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is opposing a broker's attempt to get the regulator's internal proceedings against him tossed, saying that he has no case under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Jarkesy decision because FINRA is not a government regulator subject to the same constitutional challenges as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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July 30, 2024
DC Circ. Must Block EPA Mercury Rule, Challengers Say
Challengers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rule tightening mercury and other toxic metal emission standards for some coal-fired power plants are hitting back against arguments by the agency and its supporters that their requested stay of the rule isn't warranted.
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July 30, 2024
High Court Ruling Dooms EPA Smog Plan, DC Circ. Told
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to halt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan to reduce smog-forming emissions across several states is reason enough for the D.C. Circuit to invalidate the rule, several states, industry groups and energy companies argued.
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July 30, 2024
10th Circ. Shields Feds From Fire Mismanagement Suit
The U.S. Forest Service doesn't have to face allegations it mismanaged the response to two Utah wildfires in 2018, the Tenth Circuit said Tuesday.
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July 30, 2024
Exxon Loses Bid For Avangrid Docs In Mass. Climate Suit
ExxonMobil will not gain access to potentially millions of documents from wind energy company Avangrid as part of the Massachusetts attorney general's long-running climate change suit, after a state court judge found it "inconceivable" that the sought-after material could be relevant to the case.
Expert Analysis
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What 11th Circ. FCRA Ruling Means For Credit Furnishers
Credit furnishers should revisit their internal investigation and verification procedures after the Eleventh Circuit declined last month in Holden v. Holiday to impose a bright-line rule that only purely factual or transcription errors are actionable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, say Diana Eng and Michael Esposito at Blank Rome.
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FEPA Cases Are Natural Fit For DOJ's Fraud Section
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent announcement that its Fraud Section would have exclusive jurisdiction over the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act — a new law that criminalizes “demand side” foreign bribery — makes sense, given its experience navigating the political and diplomatic sensitivities of related statutes, say James Koukios and Rachel Davidson Raycraft at MoFo.
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Supply Chain Considerations For Companies Deploying AI
Many businesses will risk failure by embracing artificial intelligence without fully understanding the risks, and the value of a five-step AI supply chain analysis cannot be overstated, say Brooke Berg and Nathan Staffel at Nardello & Co.
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Opinion
DOJ Messaging App Warnings Undermine Trust In Counsel
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's increasingly ominous warnings to defense and in-house counsel about the consequences of not preserving ephemeral messaging and messages sent using collaboration tools could erode confidence and cooperation, says Mark Rosman at Proskauer.
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Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.
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A Changing Regulatory Landscape For Weight Loss Drugs
As drugs originally approved to treat diabetes become increasingly popular for weight loss purposes, federal and state regulators and payors are increasing their focus on how these drugs are prescribed, and industry participants should pay close attention to rapidly evolving compliance requirements, say attorneys at Goodwin.
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Compliance Considerations For New Data Protection Law
Sam Castic at Hintze Law discusses how to determine if your organization is covered by the newly enacted Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, the scope of the law's restrictions, and how to go about compliance as its June 23 effective date approaches.
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CFPB Poised To Up The Ante After Supreme Court Victory
When the U.S. Supreme Court emphatically ruled last week that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure did not violate the Constitution, the agency boasted that it was "here to stay," signaling that it is moving full steam ahead with its regulatory, enforcement and supervisory agenda, says Jim Sandy at McGlinchey Stafford.
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2 Oil Trader FCPA Pleas Highlight Fine-Reduction Factors
Recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlements with Gunvor and Trafigura — the latest actions in a yearslong sweep of the commodities trading industry — reveal useful data points related to U.S. Department of Justice policies on cooperation credit and past misconduct, say Michael DeBernardis and Laura Perkins at Hughes Hubbard.
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Opinion
NEPA Final Rule Unlikely To Speed Clean Energy Projects
A recent final rule from the White House Council on Environmental Quality purports to streamline federal environmental reviews to accelerate the construction of renewable energy infrastructure — but it also expands consideration of climate change and environmental justice, creating vast new opportunities for litigation and delay, says Thomas Prevas at Saul Ewing.
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Diving Deep Into Sweeping NY Financing Bill — And Its Pitfalls
A New York bill seeking to impose state usury limits onto a broader variety of financing arrangements and apply lender licensing requirements to more diverse entities would present near-insurmountable compliance challenges for lenders and retailers, say Kate Fisher and Tom Quinn at Hudson Cook.
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Influencer Considerations As FINRA Initiates Crackdown
To avert risks when evaluating influencer and referral programs, firms should assess the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's recent settlements involving the supervision of social media tastemakers, as well as recent FINRA guidance in this area, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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New Crypto Reporting Will Require Rigorous Recordkeeping
The release of a form for reporting digital asset transactions is a pivotal moment in the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to track cryptocurrency activities that increases oversight by requiring brokers to report investor sales and exchanges, say Shaina Kamen and Max Angel at Holland & Knight.
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A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches
Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.
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Crypto Mixer Laundering Case Provides Evidentiary Road Map
A Washington, D.C., federal court’s recent decision to allow expert testimony on blockchain analysis software in a bitcoin mixer money laundering case — which ultimately ended in conviction — establishes a precedent for the admissibility of similar software-derived evidence, say Peter Hardy and Kelly Lenahan-Pfahlert at Ballard Spahr.