Bruce Carton

If you’ve been reading this blog or my Compliance Week column for a while you may know that I am fascinated by that tiny subset of insider trading cases where people actually sit down and try to plan ways that they can obtain inside information on which they can trade. Hence my long-time focus on […]

The slides used in today’s webcast at Securities Docket (“Examining the Bankruptcy Trustee’s Controversial ‘Clawback’ Tool”) are now available and can be obtained at the following link: (click here). In addition, the archived version of the webcast is now available and can be viewed below:

An Ontario judge ruled yesterday that Livent Inc. co-founders Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb were guilty of fraud and forgery for manipulating the financial statements of Livent in the 1990s. The verdict, which came after an 11 year prosecution by the Crown attorneys, has sparked debate in Canada over the sufficiency and effectiveness of that […]

I was preparing to write a post here about 20 of my favorite securities litigation and SEC enforcement-related websites and blogs that you might also find useful. Now I don’t have to, however, and here is why. LinkedIn.com has groups that its users can join. The idea is to enable professionals with similar interests to […]

SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter testifies today before the House Committee on Financial Services. Her prepared testimony is a lengthy (32 pages) discussion of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, but it is largely just a recap of the Division’s mission and recent cases. Among the items in her testimony that appeared to be new information (new […]

Commissioner Luis Aguilar joined the SEC in July 2008. In his short time at the SEC, Aguilar has quickly positioned himself as the SEC Commissioner with the strongest interest in enforcement issues. In several speeches over the past eight months, Aguilar has taken strong positions advocating changes in the enforcement program and even being critical […]

The SEC today announced a settlement with Darrel T. Uselton and his uncle, Jack E. Uselton, defendants in a case that the SEC brought back in 2007 that alleged a massive e-mail spam campaign to drive up the demand for low value stocks the two men owned. The case was noteworthy for at least two […]

A report by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) shows that French legislation restricts prosecutors in investigating international corruption cases. The report, which the EU Observer writes was published on March 12 and approved by the French government, states that “France has severely restricted its jurisdiction and its ability to prosecute […]

In her testimony yesterday before the House Subcommittee on Financial Services, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro told Congress that President Obama’s increased budget request of $1.026 billion for the agency in FY 2010, a 9 percent increase over the FY 2009 appropriation, will be critical to allowing the SEC to properly function. She said that she […]

Remember our first (and last) “Enforcement Action, Oncology Edition” back in September 2008 where two cases in a span of two days prompted us to ask “which is worse — inducing shareholders to purchase $6.5 million of your company’s stock by falsely depicting the company as being on the verge of success curing cancer? Or […]