‘Enforcement 40’ for 2020
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Join the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group on LinkedInCoinbase Gets Wells Notice From the SEC on Lend Product – Bloomberg
Coinbase Global Inc. was warned by the Securities and Exchange Commission against launching a product that would allow consumers to earn interest on their crypto holdings. The U.S.’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange said it received a Wells notice saying the agency will bring an enforcement action if the company goes ahead with its Lend product. Coinbase […]
Elizabeth Holmes Transforming From CEO to Victim for Jurors
Jurors have not been told yet about the details of the defense Holmes’s lawyers will likely present that she was subject to a “decade-long campaign” of abuse by her former boyfriend and onetime president of Theranos, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. Balwani has denied any abuse. Still, jurors who will decide her case are “being exposed to […]
In Silicon Valley, Criminal Prosecutors See No Evil – The New York Times
But behind the spectacle is the reality that criminal prosecutions in Silicon Valley are a rarity. Even a guilty verdict against Ms. Holmes is unlikely to change that. Federal prosecutors in Northern California took on only 57 white-collar crime cases in the 2020 fiscal year, down from 94 in 2019, according to researchers. Although 2021 […]
Regulatory Scrutiny of ESG Greenwashing Is Intensifying – Bloomberg
Pressure is increasing on managers of ESG-labeled investment funds to show they’re being truthful with customers about what they’re selling. The heat was really turned up last week when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and BaFin, Germany’s financial regulator, initiated a probe into allegations that Deutsche Bank AG’s DWS Group asset-management arm has been […]
SEC Charges The Kraft Heinz Company and Two Former Executives for Engaging in Years-Long Accounting Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged The Kraft Heinz Company with engaging in a long-running expense management scheme that resulted in the restatement of several years of financial reporting. The SEC also charged Kraft’s former Chief Operating Officer Eduardo Pelleissone and its former Chief Procurement Officer Klaus Hofmann for their misconduct related to the […]
Ex-SEC Chair Joins Crypto Firm; Coinbase Japan Goes Live — The Information
Jay Clayton, who served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission under former President Donald Trump, has joined the advisory board of Fireblocks, a digital asset custodian that raised $310 million at a $2 billion valuation last month from investors including Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital and Coatue Management. Source: Ex-SEC Chair Joins Crypto […]
Law Firms Respond to Recent Lawsuits Targeting SPACs | Arnold & Porter
On August 30, 2021, more than 55 leading law firms, including Arnold & Porter, took the unusual step of issuing a collective Statement in response to a recent set of lawsuits that challenge the legality of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and allege that SPACs should be considered investment companies under the Investment Company Act of […]
SEC Charges Global Crypto Lending Platform and Top Executives in $2 Billion Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has filed an action against BitConnect, an online crypto lending platform, its founder Satish Kumbhani, and its top U.S. promoter and his affiliated company, alleging that they defrauded retail investors out of $2 billion through a global fraudulent and unregistered offering of investments into a program […]
Robinhood Stock Drops After SEC Chairman Warns on Payment for Order Flow – WSJ
Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc. tumbled on Monday after the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission signaled that he was open to banning payment for order flow, a practice that accounts for most of the online brokerage’s revenues. Robinhood shares closed 6.9% lower after Barron’s published an interview with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler in […]
Jury Selection Begins in Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes’s Trial – WSJ
Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes heads to court Tuesday, as her legal team seeks to help assemble a group of impartial jurors to weigh the criminal-fraud charges filed against her, a task her lawyers say is challenging, given her case’s notoriety. Ms. Holmes’s legal team and prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern […]