The U.K.’s Criminal Finances Act 2017 provides law enforcement with new powers to obtain orders to freeze bank accounts and apply for forfeiture orders, permanently depriving the account holder of the funds contained in the account. These draconian new powers have received little publicity and contain fewer safeguards than unexplained wealth orders and the civil … Continue Reading
Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) extend the powers available to UK law enforcement authorities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), enabling investigators to ask people who are holding assets, which based on their legitimate income they would not be able to afford, to prove that such assets were obtained from legitimate sources. If the … Continue Reading
On Sept. 30, 2018, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill No. 826 (SB 826), California’s new legislation promoting gender balance on the boards of directors of publicly held corporations headquartered in California. The legislation is designed to encourage gender diversity in corporate boardrooms, boost the California economy, and improve opportunities for women in … Continue Reading
In a previous GT Alert, we summarized and analyzed the Supreme Court’s June 21, 2018, decision in Lucia v. Securities & Exchange Commission, 138 S. Ct. 2044 (2018). That GT Alert cited the SEC’s 30-day stay of “all administrative proceedings” “before an administrative law judge” and foretold continued uncertainty concerning the status of administrative law … Continue Reading
Jennifer L. Gray, co-chair of the Consumer Financial Services Litigation Practice, will be speaking at the 2017 Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Legal Issues & Regulatory Compliance (LIRC) Conference. This four-day event will take place May 7-10, 2017, at the InterContinental Miami. Gray will be presenting on the panel “Litigation Forum: TILA, RESPA, ECOA, FHA,” taking … Continue Reading
An increasingly common tactic among claimants’ lawyers in Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitrations is to issue subpoenas to securities regulators, including FINRA itself, calling for the production of investigative files. This is accomplished by asking the arbitration panel to issue a subpoena pursuant to FINRA Rule 12512 (or Rule 13512 in an employee versus … Continue Reading
Right after Christmas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit delivered a lump of coal to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Bandimere v. U.S. SEC,1 ruling that the SEC’s administrative law judges (ALJs) who preside over SEC enforcement actions hold their positions in violation of the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution. … Continue Reading
We have previously provided updates1 on the Navinder Singh Sarao case, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. After being charged in February 2015 with fraud and spoofing related to the 2010 Flash Crash, Sarao, then resident in the United Kingdom, fought a yearlong, multiple-appeal battle against extradition, before he … Continue Reading
Last week, the Ninth Circuit held, in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA that Nevada’s super-lien priority statute, NRS § 116.310, prior to certain amendments enacted in 2015, was facially unconstitutional. Nev. Rev. Stat. 116.3116 establishes that liens resulting from non-payment of homeowners’ association (HOA) have priority over other secured liens for … Continue Reading
Top enforcement chiefs from the SEC, CFTC, DOJ and FINRA participated on a panel discussion of current enforcement trends and issues during the Current Enforcement Issues Panel discussion as part of this week’s SIFMA Compliance and Legal Division annual seminar. The agenda at the SEC dominated much of the discussion. SEC Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney … Continue Reading
The SEC recently brought a settled enforcement action against an SEC-registered investment adviser and its CEO/CCO that represents a continued focus on the calculation of advisory fees. On March 2, 2016, the SEC charged Marco Investment Management, LLC (the Adviser), and its CEO/CCO, Steven Marco (Marco), with charging certain clients advisory fees that were calculated in … Continue Reading
