SEC Division of Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal and several high-ranking officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the FBI spoke on November 29, 2022 at a conference sponsored by Sandpiper Partners LLC concerning hot topics in SEC and DOJ enforcement. The panelists all made clear that the views they expressed were their own, but those views are worth hearing.
sanctions
SEC Issues New Guidance Regarding Russia Sanctions and Public Company Disclosures
In response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February, the U.S. government announced sweeping sanctions against Russia. As the conflict nears the three-month mark, businesses around the world are continuing to address compliance with these sanctions. To that end, the SEC recently issued guidance on how companies affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine should disclose how the conflict is affecting their operations, including the impact of evolving sanctions.
The Government May Not Hold on to Illegally Seized Rent, Says the Second Circuit
By Seetha Ramachandran & Lucas Kowalczyk on
The Second Circuit has recently held that the Government must account for rental income it denied a property owner during a period of illegal seizure even though the Government was able to establish probable cause at a post-seizure hearing. The appeal stemmed from a decades-long sanctions and civil forfeiture action…
FINRA Introduces Revised Sanction Guidelines
By Daniel Nelson, Harry Frischer & Philip Arnold on
FINRA recently released updated and revised Sanction Guidelines and an accompanying Regulatory Notice that, among other things, call for stricter penalties against broker-dealers who commit fraud or violate suitability rules. The revisions are effective as of May 12, 2015.
The Sanction Guidelines, first published in 1993, are intended to assist FINRA’s adjudicators in determining the appropriate disciplinary penalties for violations of the FINRA rules. Rather than provide predetermined or fixed sanctions for particular violations, the Sanction Guidelines provide a suggested range of penalties for such violations and allow adjudicators to consider various factors in determining the appropriate penalty. The Sanction Guidelines provide members and associated persons with an understanding of the sanctions associated with particular violations, thereby facilitating settlements.