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Banking
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September 25, 2024
SEC Fines Alphabet, Others Over Stock Ownership Reports
Alphabet Inc., Goldman Sachs and several other entities and individuals were hit with a combined total of over $3.8 million in penalties on allegations they failed to report information about their holdings and transactions in a timely manner, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday.
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September 25, 2024
In-House Counsel To Play Central Role At AI Cos., VCs Say
Venture capital firms expect in-house counsel at artificial intelligence companies to play a bigger role in their businesses due to regulatory uncertainties around AI, while a professor who helped pioneer the technology warned that transparency of commercial AI businesses should be "top of mind," attorneys heard at the seventh annual Berkeley Law AI Institute Wednesday.
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September 25, 2024
8th Circ. Told Student Debt Relief Should Remain Blocked
Seven Republican-led states are asking the Eighth Circuit to finalize its court order blocking the Biden administration from implementing its second attempt at student loan forgiveness, accusing the White House of "hiding the ball" on the true cost of the plan.
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September 25, 2024
Basel Edits 'Encouraging' But Incomplete, Republicans Say
House Republicans signaled at a Wednesday hearing that they want further softening of federal banking regulators' so-called Basel III endgame proposal for tougher big-bank capital requirements, casting recently floated potential changes as insufficient to ensure the plans won't pose an economic threat.
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September 25, 2024
Feds Urge Judge Not To Ax Novel Insider Trading Conviction
Prosecutors have hit back at former Ontrak CEO Terren Peizer's bid to ax his first-of-its-kind insider trading conviction and score a new trial, telling a California federal judge that the jury had all the information it needed to find Peizer guilty in June.
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September 25, 2024
CFPB Gets Partial Win Over Debt Collector's Property Transfer
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and New York's attorney general secured a partial win in its suit over the head of a debt collection company's allegedly fraudulent transfer of a million-dollar property to his family members, with a New York federal judge ruling that they are only entitled to the daughter's share of the property's escrow proceeds.
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September 25, 2024
3 NJ Attys Charged With Bank Fraud In Short-Sale Scheme
A trio of attorneys and a real estate agent have been criminally indicted on bank fraud charges on allegations they participated in a yearslong scheme to defraud financial institutions in connection with short-sale transactions of residential properties in New Jersey, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced Wednesday.
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September 25, 2024
Silvergate Can't Block Activist Investor From Board In Ch. 11
The parent company of defunct cryptocurrency-friendly bank Silvergate on Wednesday lost its bid to keep activist investor Joseph Stilwell from seeking election to its board, after a Delaware bankruptcy judge rejected its request for a temporary restraining order that would have halted the company's annual shareholder meeting on Friday.
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September 25, 2024
Accountant Used Fake Tax Docs For Mortgage, Feds Say
A managing director at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal was charged in D.C. federal court with failing to file his personal tax returns for over a decade and falsifying tax documents as part of a mortgage application.
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September 25, 2024
Merrill, Harvest To Pay SEC $9.3M For Ignoring Clients' Limits
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced that investment advisory firms Harvest Volatility Management LLC and Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. will pay a combined $9.3 million to settle claims that they exceeded clients' designated investment limits over a two-year period, causing those clients to incur higher fees and losses.
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September 25, 2024
Julie Chrisley Gets No Slack In Resentencing From Ga. Judge
Julie Chrisley, the former real estate mogul and reality TV star who was convicted of running a yearslong bank fraud scheme with her husband, Todd, was resentenced Wednesday by a Georgia federal judge to the same seven-year prison term she first received nearly two years ago.
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September 24, 2024
Bank Regulators, SEC Face GOP Inquiry Over Crypto Bulletin
House Republicans have called for the Federal Reserve and other agencies to turn over a host of documents for what the lawmakers say is an inquiry into the origins and behind-the-scenes policymaking impact of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's cryptocurrency accounting guidance.
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September 24, 2024
'Be Careful What You Wish For' Post-Jarkesy, SEC Atty Says
A trial lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told the defense bar Tuesday to "be careful what you wish for" after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the agency's in-house court system, saying cases against gatekeepers "are not going away."
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September 24, 2024
3 Takeaways From Gensler's Big Day Before The House
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler appeared before the U.S. House of Representative for potentially the last time on Tuesday, where he stuck up for his agency's actions in the crypto space and hinted at the possible revival of share buyback rules.
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September 24, 2024
Invitation Homes Agrees To $48M Settlement With FTC
The Federal Trade Commission said it has struck a $48 million agreement with Invitation Homes Inc. to settle claims against the nation's largest single-family home landlord, including that it deceived people about leasing costs and junk fees, failed to inspect and repair homes as promised, and unfairly held on to security deposits.
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September 24, 2024
Feds Say BitMEX Should Owe $428M For Flouting AML Rules
Federal prosecutors urged a Manhattan federal judge to impose a $428 million penalty for offshore crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX after the firm admitted to lax anti-money laundering procedures, arguing the more than $100 million the firm and founders have already paid to regulators is not enough to deter other crypto firms from Bank Secrecy Act violations.
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September 24, 2024
Star Witness Against Bankman-Fried Gets 2 Years In FTX Case
A Manhattan federal judge sentenced former cryptocurrency executive Caroline Ellison to two years in prison Tuesday, crediting her decision to testify against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried but saying the $11.2 billion fraud was too big to warrant a "get out of jail free card."
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September 24, 2024
Baker Donelson Adds Financial Services Expert In DC
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC has hired a new shareholder who started her 15-year legal career as an attorney adviser in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Banking and Finance Division, the firm announced Tuesday.
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September 24, 2024
DOJ Accuses Visa Of Monopolizing Debit Card Market
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Visa on Tuesday of illegally maintaining a monopoly over debit card networks by using its dominance to thwart competition from new and existing rivals, as the Biden administration continues its push to combat high prices using antitrust law.
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September 24, 2024
SEC, CFTC Issue $118M Fines In Latest Text Message Actions
Federal regulators said Tuesday that the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and nearly a dozen other financial firms have agreed to pay fines totaling nearly $120 million to settle recordkeeping violations tied to employee use of unapproved communication methods like text messages to conduct business.
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September 23, 2024
Credit Suisse Can't Ditch Investor Fraud Suit, But PwC Can
A New York federal judge has declined to fully dismiss a proposed class action alleging Credit Suisse misled investors about its condition in the run-up to its collapse and takeover by UBS, ruling that a narrow part of the litigation can proceed while much of it — including claims against PwC — must go.
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September 23, 2024
Ex-Adviser Can't Seek Due Process Update, Justices Told
A Morgan Stanley unit on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to tackle a purported circuit split over whether "manifest disregard of the law" remains a valid reason for vacating an arbitral award, arguing that a former employee missed his chance to press the argument in the lower courts.
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September 23, 2024
Court Sinks Antitrust Claims Against Suns Owner
A Florida federal court adopted the recommendations of a magistrate judge and tossed a mortgage broker's antitrust case against the owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and his company, United Wholesale Mortgage, over an alleged boycott.
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September 23, 2024
DOJ Adds AI Risk To Corporate Compliance Program
The U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division is now weighing how companies manage risk related to artificial intelligence and potentially stymie whistleblowers, one of several updates to the division's policies on evaluating corporate compliance programs announced by a senior official on Monday.
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September 23, 2024
PNC, Plaid End Legal Battle With Customer Data-Sharing Deal
PNC Financial Services Group and Plaid have reached an agreement to end nearly four years of trademark litigation that allows PNC customers to use Plaid to share their financial data with fintech companies like Venmo and Cash App.
Expert Analysis
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SVB Ch. 11 Shows Importance Of Filing Proof Of Claim Early
After a New York bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in SVB’s Chapter 11 case denied late claims filing requests related to post-bar date events, parties with potential claims against a debtor may need to seriously consider filing protective proofs of claim, says Kyle Arendsen at Squire Patton.
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Cyber Incident Response Checklist For SEC Compliance
In light of recent guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which clarified the distinction between two types of cybersecurity incident disclosures, companies should align their materiality assessment, incident response and disclosure control processes to bolster compliance and provide a measure of protection, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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2 Rulings Serve As Conversion Fee Warnings For Banks
A comparison of the different outcomes in Wright v. Capital One in a Virginia federal court, and in Guerrero v. Bank of America in a North Carolina federal court, highlights how banks must be careful in describing how currency exchange fees and charges are determined in their customer agreements, say attorneys at Weiner Brodsky.
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Expect CFPB To Enforce Warning Against 'Coercive' Fine Print
The recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warning against unenforceable terms "deceptively" slipped into the fine print of contracts will likely be challenged in court, but until then, companies should expect the agency to treat its guidance as law and must carefully scrutinize their consumer contracts, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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Loss Causation Ruling Departs From Usual Securities Cases
A California federal court recently dismissed Ramos v. Comerica, finding that the allegations failed to establish loss causation, but the reasoning is in tension with the pleading-stage approaches generally followed by both courts and economists in securities fraud litigation, say Jesse Jensen and Aasiya Glover at Bernstein Litowitz.
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Playing The Odds: Probing Sports Betting Allegations
With gambling-related controversies becoming a mainstay of the athletics landscape, it's essential for in-house and outside counsel to stay abreast of best practices for conducting sports betting investigations, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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What FTX Case Taught Us About Digital Asset Recoverability
FTX's Chapter 11 plan has drawn lots of attention, but the focus should be on the anticipated outcome for investors, which counters several myths about digital currencies, innovation and recoverability, says Kyla Curley at StoneTurn.
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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Series
After Chevron: Impact On CFPB May Be Limited
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is likely to have a limited impact on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's regulatory activities, and for those who value due process, consistency and predictability in consumer financial services regulation, this may be a good thing, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Synapse Bankruptcy Has Ripple Effects For Fintech Industry
Synapse Financial Technologies’ recent bankruptcy filing marks a significant moment in the fintech industry's evolution, highlighting that stringent compliance and risk management in fintech partnerships are essential to mitigate risk and protect consumers, say Joann Needleman and Ryan Blumberg at Clark Hill.
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A Checklist For Lenders Preparing For CRE Loan Defaults
Considering the recent interest rate environment, lenders should brush up on the proper steps that they should take when preparing to respond to a borrower's default on a commercial real estate loan, and borrowers should understand what lenders will be reviewing, says attorney Norma Williams.