Gary Gensler is stepping down. And no one in crypto is going to miss the SEC chair. Under his tenure, the lead U.S. securities regulator led a wide-ranging campaign against digital assets companies that was both damaging and frequently unfair. Meanwhile, Gensler offered no clarity to crypto companies wanting to do business the right way. At times, it seemed that…
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that its 33rd Chair, Gary Gensler, will step down from the Commission effective at 12:00 pm on January 20, 2025. Chair Gensler began his tenure on April 17, 2021, in the immediate aftermath of the GameStop market events. He led the agency through a robust rulemaking agenda to enhance efficiency, resiliency, and integrity…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated 80 enforcement actions against public companies and subsidiaries in fiscal year 2024, marking a 12% decline from FY 2023 but still up nearly 5% compared to the nine-year historical average, according to a report released today by Cornerstone Research and the NYU Pollack Center for Law & Business. Meanwhile, total monetary settlements…
A free-market consumer advocacy group has launched a campaign urging Gary Gensler to step down as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair, and it’s having fun doing it. Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) has released two “Goodbye Gary” videos targeting Gensler’s record as America’s top securities cop, arguing he undermined the SEC’s reputation and effectiveness. One video is…
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy said the government efficiency panel that President-elect Donald Trump has named them to lead will follow recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that they say can be used to take power away from federal agencies and reduce regulations the two call unnecessary, costly and inefficient. Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ramaswamy, a…
FTX co-founder Gary Wang has been spared from prison over his role in the multibillion dollar fraud at the cryptocurrency exchange after prosecutors praised his early cooperation in the case. Wang, whose assistance helped convict the orchestrator of the fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to time served Wednesday by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan. Source: Ex-SBF Ally…
Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of manipulating stock prices and defrauding banks as part of a scheme that led to the biggest single-firm meltdown since the financial crisis. A New York federal jury this summer found Hwang guilty of 10 counts including securities fraud and…
Big Law is poised to turn in a financial year that rivals the explosive growth of 2021, and the success is driven by a now-familiar strategy: raise billing rates at historical levels. Billing rates rose 10% through three quarters at the 50 largest firms by revenue, according to Wells Fargo’s law firm banking unit. That’s the biggest driver behind a…
Every new market mania needs new metrics to attract investors and explain the reason for its existence. Here’s one for the bitcoin boom: “BTC yield.” MicroStrategy, which once was a humdrum software firm, introduced this unusual term to its investors in August. BTC, for the uninitiated, means bitcoin. Yield typically refers to the dividend a company pays as a percentage…