The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it filed 583 total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2024 while obtaining orders for $8.2 billion in financial remedies, the highest amount in SEC history. The 583 enforcement actions represent a 26 percent decline in total enforcement actions compared to fiscal year 2023. Of those cases, the Commission filed 431 “stand-alone” actions,…
This Article reassesses the culpability of those of who invest in law-breaking firms. Prosecutors currently treat investors as victims of corporate wrongdoing rather than as actors who might bear responsibility for it. One explanation for this tendency is that corporate law’s doctrine of limited liability creates so strong a presumption of investor blamelessness that it permeates other spheres, including criminal…
A judge declined to sanction Elon Musk for skipping a meeting with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to watch one of his rockets launch. US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said Friday there is no need to sanction Musk because he already agreed to reimburse the SEC $2,923 to cover airfare for the trio of agency lawyers he stood…
Federal regulators anticipating drastic change under the second Trump administration are nonetheless poised to continue pursuing enforcement against companies making false and misleading statements about artificial intelligence, known as AI washing. Policing misrepresentations about AI under the aegis of fraud enforcement is a strategy that will remain viable, even with the expected deregulatory emphasis in the new administration, according to…
Law firms are preparing for an influx of new work given the anticipated relaxed regulatory environment that is expected to occur at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, with legal experts predicting heightened demand in cryptocurrency, capital markets and fund formation activity. *** “We’re seeing many searches now for capital markets, for debt, finance,…
The bill lays out a mechanism for paying for the reserve. Any surplus the Federal Reserve returns to the Treasury would be spent instead on bitcoin. The Fed doesn’t currently return any money to the Treasury. No matter. The bill also proposes that Fed banks mark all their gold certificates to the current market price of gold, then remit the…
For the most part, all of this churn means that policy initiatives will be on hold until the new Chair can set the regulatory direction for the agency. In the trenches, nothing really changes, as the Staff will continue reviewing registration statements and periodic reports and conducting Enforcement investigations, regardless of who is in charge. Speaking from my own experience,…