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SEC Notches Win in Cryptocurrency Registration Battle
Scoring a victory for the Securities and Exchange Commission in its efforts to qualify digital tokens as securities, a New Hampshire federal court ruled this week that tokens sold by LBRY Inc., known as LBC, are securities and subject to...
TSA’s New Cyber Directive for Freight & Passenger Railroad Carriers are the Agency’s Latest Move to Keep the Nation on Track
In its continued efforts to enhance the cybersecurity of transportation and other critical infrastructure systems across the country, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued on October 19, 2022 a new security directive for passenger and freight railroad carriers. The Enhancing...
DOJ to Companies: If You Step Up & Own Up, You Might Not Have to Pay Up
Late last year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced material changes to the way it intended to investigate, prosecute, and resolve corporate cases. The changes were aggressive, leading us to title our update “ DOJ’s Torpedoes Are in the Water...
CSB Releases Guidance on Accidental Release Reporting
On August 30, 2022, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (“CSB” or the “Agency”) issued a guidance document aimed at helping owners and operators of stationary sources and similar stakeholders understand and comply with CSB’s Accidental Release and...
Check It Once, Check It Twice: OFAC Requests Daily Screenings of SDN List for Sanctions Compliance
A recent OFAC enforcement action against MidFirst Bank highlights the five essential components of an effective sanctions compliance program that will serve to mitigate exposure in the event of a violation: Senior management commitment to developing a culture of compliance...
Federal Privacy Legislation – Is it Finally Happening?
Proposed federal privacy legislation is not a new thing. But the latest iteration – the American Data Privacy and Protection Act – has many wondering if this will be the legislation that finally goes the distance. This is the first...
Antitrust Enforcement in Federal Procurement – DOJ's New Lawsuit to Block a Merger Suggests that Things May Be Getting Interesting
In November 2019, the Department of Justice formed the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (“PCSF”) to focus the government’s enforcement resources on “deterring, detecting, investigating and prosecuting antitrust crimes, such as bid-rigging conspiracies and related fraudulent schemes, which undermine competition in...
Supreme Court Resolves Circuit Split Over 28 U.S.C. § 1782
On Monday, the Supreme Court resolved a circuit split and issued a long-awaited decision holding that broad U.S.-style discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 is not available in private foreign arbitrations. In the past decade, litigants in international arbitrations had...
More Wiggle Room for White Hat Hackers?
On May 19, 2022, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced significant clarifications to its policy on charging Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) violations that give some comfort to cyber security consultants who engage in network testing and related operations...
CFTC 2022: A New Commission, A New Agenda, Same Aggressive Enforcement
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission” or “CFTC”) experienced a year of transition on both the enforcement and regulatory fronts during its Fiscal Year 2021, which runs from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 (“FY 2021”). The Division...
Fifth Circuit's Constitutional Carve-Back of the SEC's ALJ Enforcement Proceedings Likely to Lead to More Federal Court Cases
On May 18, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) dealt a major blow to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) enforcement program. In Jarkesy v. SEC , the Fifth Circuit ruled...
Sanctions and Cyber and Crypto, Oh My: The Convergence of Emerging Regulatory and Enforcement Risks Requires Nimble Responses Across Sectors
At a sanctions conference held in Washington, DC on May 5, government officials, practitioners and corporations highlighted the government’s broadening focus on anti-corruption enforcement, across more traditionally siloed areas. While Russian sanctions are a hot topic in and of themselves...
SEC Brings First Major ESG Enforcement Action
More than a year after creating its Climate and ESG Task Force in March 2021 , the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ESG-related enforcement goals are finally being realized. The SEC recently brought a fraud action against Vale S.A., a publicly...
FCPA Alert: Lessons Learned From Last Week's Trial Conviction of Roger Ng Relating to the 1MDB Malaysian Bond Deals
On Friday, after a two-month trial and just over three days of deliberation, a jury in the Eastern District of New York returned its verdict in the case against Roger Ng, finding the international banker guilty on all counts. Bracewell...
Supreme Court Takes Up Andy Warhol's "Prince Series" Fair Use Circuit Split
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to review the Second Circuit’s decision that Andy Warhol’s well-known “Prince Series” was not a “transformative” fair use of the copyrighted Lynn Goldsmith photograph that Warhol used as source material (see Bracewell’s earlier...