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Inflation Reduction Act
Municipal Advisor Firm and Principal Charged with Fraudulent Practices and Breach of Fiduciary Duty as SEC Continues Enforcement Focus
The SEC charged registered municipal advisor Malachi Financial Products, Inc. and its principal Porter B. Bingham with violations of Sections 15B(a)(5) and 15B(c)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) Rule G-17...
DOJ Issues New Policy Encouraging Self-Reporting FCPA Violations
On November 29, 2017 the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Rod J. Rosenstein, announced a new FCPA enforcement policy 1 that seeks to incentivize voluntary self-reporting by providing companies with more certainty regarding potential outcomes...
Former Mayor Charged by SEC and DOJ with Securities Fraud and Pay-to-Play Scheme
On December 1, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois charging David Webb, Jr. (“Webb”), mayor of Markham, Illinois from 2001 until May 3, 2017...
CFTC Annual Enforcement Update
On November 22, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) released its annual enforcement report for fiscal year 2017. As in previous years, this year’s report highlights the agency’s continued commitment to enforcement and aggressive pursuit of those viewed as...
FERC Annual Enforcement Update
FERC Annual Enforcement Update On November 16, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) released the Office of Enforcement’s (“OE”) annual report on enforcement activities (“ Annual Report ”) for fiscal year 2017 (“FY 2017”). Although the...
New Tactics, Same Result: Local Efforts to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing Continue to Falter Despite New Approaches to Regulation
Despite numerous attempts in recent years by local governments to regulate oil and gas activities at the municipal level, recent developments in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado signal a continued trend favoring states’ authority to regulate these issues as matters of...
Federal District Court Vacates BLM’s Postponement of the Waste Prevention Rule
On October 4, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a decision vacating the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM’s”) June 15, 2017 notice that indefinitely postponed compliance dates for sections of BLM’s Methane and Waste...
OCIE Releases Risk Alert Regarding Advertisements of Investment Advisers
On September 14, 2017, OCIE published a Risk Alert identifying issues associated with Rule 206(4)(1) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advertising Rule”). 1 The Risk Alert was based on observations of the OCIE staff after over 1,000...
Statute of Limitations Bars FERC Penalty in Preeminent Market Manipulation Case
On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California handed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) a significant defeat by concluding that FERC’s action against a former trader of Barclays Bank PLC accused of participating...
The CFTC Wants You To Turn Yourself In
On September 25, 2017, James McDonald, Director of the Division of Enforcement (“Division”) at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) gave a speech at New York University in which he discussed the mission of the Division of Enforcement...
Cyberattacked: The SEC Joins the Club
On September 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its system for electronic filing for public company disclosures, EDGAR, was compromised last year and that hackers may have used exposed information for illicit trading. The disclosure, which provided few...
Pennsylvania District Court Agrees That Google Must Give Up Foreign Server Data
On August 17, 2017, a Pennsylvania district court upheld a magistrate judge’s order that Google comply with warrants issued pursuant to the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”) and produce to the FBI data that was stored, in part, on servers abroad...
New Commission Approves City Power Manipulation Settlement
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order approving a settlement agreement between FERC’s Office of Enforcement and City Power Marketing, LLC, and its owner, K. Stephen Tsingas (together, City Power). The order resolves the Commission’s claims that...
Nationwide Healthcare Prosecutions Targeting an Array of Practices . . . Is "Just The Beginning"
On July 13, 2017, the Department of Justice ("DOJ"), in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), continued its annual tradition of coordinating the filing of charges and sweeping arrests in nationwide, unconnected, health care fraud prosecutions...
DC Circuit Vacates EPA’s Initial Stay of Methane Rule Requirements
On July 3, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision vacating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA’s”) initial 90-day stay of parts of the 2016 rule establishing methane emissions standards for the...