Throughout the week over at
Securities Docket, I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web on the subjects of SEC enforcement and securities litigation. Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending September 3:
- The SEC Departs from an Important Safeguard
- Harvard Law School Forum on Corp. Gov. | Wayne M. Carlin | Sep 2, 2010
- Recently, the SEC made permanent the delegation of its statutory formal order investigation authority to the Director of the Division of Enforcement. The formal order delegation is a serious departure from one of the Commission’s important traditional safeguards – the Commission’s oversight of the investigative process. The Commission must provide transparency in how it is carrying out this oversight function in order to ensure there is fairness in the conduct of its enforcement program.
- When Money Talks, Do Individuals Walk?
- The FCPA Blog | Richard L. Cassin | Sep 1, 2010
- With so much money at stake, you'd expect FCPA units at the DOJ and SEC to be growing, and they are. Our question, though, is whether those agencies still want to prosecute individuals who violate the FCPA when they can instead deal with cooperating companies?.... But no one from Siemens, which Mr. Breuer himself called "arguably the most egregious example of systemic foreign corruption ever prosecuted" by the DOJ, has been indicted in the U.S. Even if that's because of jurisdictional problems, the Siemens executives walked on the FCPA violations. It's the same with the brass from U.K.-based BAE. The company paid $400 million to settle an FCPA case last year. But no one from BAE has faced U.S. charges. Again, Daimler AG paid $185 million in penalties this year, and so far no one from that company has been charged here
- Inside A Merger: Impact of the FCPA
- FCPA Professor | Mike Koehler | Sep 1, 2010
- A recent proxy statement provides an informative glimpse into how FCPA issues affect real business decisions. Among other things, interested purchasers of PBSJ: held meetings with PBSJ's outside counsel (Greenberg Traurig) and its in-house counsel to discuss the FCPA investigation; requested the opportunity to meet with DOJ representatives regarding the FCPA investigation; and requested access to attorney-client privileged documents regarding the FCPA investigation.
- Former Securities Class Action Lawyer Promises to Be an 'Agent of Change'
- NY Law Journal | Nate Raymond | Aug 31, 2010
- Last fall, Sean Coffey told his partners at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann he would quit the firm and try something different—a run as New York's next attorney general. "When he came to tell me, I said, 'Sean, maybe you should go on vacation,'" said Max Berger, who co-managed the firm with Mr. Coffey. "'You can't possibly be serious about this, look what you'd be giving up.' And he said, 'No, no, this is what I want to do.'"
- Starving the SEC Won’t Fix Wall Street
- AlterNet | Zach Carter | Aug 31, 2010
- Complaining that the SEC is getting some bloated new budget is still totally wrong-headed. The SEC’s job is to police all of corporate America for financial fraud. The supposedly outrageous new budget that the agency will receive next year is . . . wait for it . . . $1.2 billion. That’s roughly 6 percent of the 2009 bonus pool for financiers who work in New York City alone.
- Guest Post: Bill Lerach on Whether Companies Underperform After Settling Securities Suits
- The D&O Diary | Bill Lerach | Aug 31, 2010
- After reading Kevin's description of this study concerning the post settlement performance of companies sued for securities fraud and his own evaluation of the paper I don't know whether to characterize them both as silly or stupid. They're probably a combination of both. Almost everything about the study and the associated commentary ignores the basic realities of the circumstances that surround the vast majority of securities fraud litigations.
- Disqualifying Counsel: A New SEC Enforcement Tactic?
- Akin Gump | William E. White and Heather J. Pellegrino | Aug 31, 2010
- Amid the rebuilding of the SEC's enforcement program, a new trend may be emerging — interference by the enforcement staff with the relationship between witnesses and their counsel. In a number of public speeches, senior division leadership has suggested that the SEC’s new cooperation tools and the rewards that they provide to early cooperators will create conflicts for counsel representing multiple witnesses in the same investigation.
- Siemens' Second Chance
- The FCPA Blog | Richard L. Cassin | Aug 30, 2010
- During its billion-dollar internal investigation, Siemens discovered and documented 4,283 illegal payments related to 332 projects around the world. The total value of bribes paid was at least $1.4 billion, resulting in fines and penalties in the U.S. and Germany of about $1.6 billion. That was 2008. What has Siemens done since then about compliance?