Bruce Carton

As I have previously discussed here in detail, the SEC announced in 2013 that it would be greatly sharpening its focus on accounting fraud cases. Among other things, the agency established a Financial Reporting and Audit Task Force in July 2013 staffed with lawyers and accountants specifically focused on generating new financial reporting and accounting fraud cases […]

As I observed here last week, there has been a recent flurry of cases filed by respondents in SEC administrative proceedings claiming that the SEC’s use of these “APs” is unconstitutional for various reasons. Indeed, on Friday of last week, one such constitutional challenge was brought by a person who believes that an AP against […]

In recent months, defendants in multiple SEC cases that the agency has brought as administrative proceedings have shot back as plaintiffs in federal court claiming that the SEC’s use of these “APs” is unconstitutional. On December 11, 2014, the SEC prevailed in the first of these challenges to be decided by a federal court in […]

On December 8, 2014, the SEC announced that it had filed an administrative proceeding against a computer programmer for “operating two online venues that traded securities using virtual currencies Bitcoin or Litecoin without registering the venues as broker-dealers or stock exchanges.” The programmer, Ethan Burnside, agreed to settle the case by by paying $58,387.07 in […]

2014 was another eventful year in the world of SEC enforcement, with a number of “first-ever” cases and other key developments in areas including insider trading, whistleblowers, admissions, trials, administrative proceedings and the SEC’s use of new technologies. In a webcast I moderated yesterday, a panel consisting of four former senior SEC enforcement attorneys and […]

Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department announced that Andrew Weissmann has been named chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Weissmann is rejoining the Justice Department, where he previously served as  director of the Enron task force.

In June 2014 I wrote here about how the concept of hackers demanding ransom from companies in exchange for the hackers leaving them alone and moving on to other targets was new to me. Just seven months later, we have the U.S. government accusing foreign countries of hacking massive companies like Sony and making ransom-like demands if […]

According to whistleblower lawyer Erika Kelton, companies that fear Dodd-Frank whistleblower programs are aggressively trying to squash potential tips to the SEC through a practice the agency has dubbed “pre-taliation.”   Kelton, a partner at law firm Phillips & Cohen LLP who recently helped one of her clients obtain the largest SEC whistleblower reward ever […]

The SEC marked the end of 2014 by tweeting “Top 10” lists of both the most-viewed news stories of 2014 on SEC.gov, as well as the most-searched terms on SEC.gov. Here are 2014’s Top 10 most-viewed news stories on SEC.gov:  See the list: 2014’s most-viewed news on http://t.co/kacEcWakdu pic.twitter.com/zrASY0Ia9j — SEC_News (@SEC_News) December 31, 2014 […]

The FBI is actively trying to hire a new wave of Special Agents with specialized cyber skills to help it “protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes.”  In a recent FBI job posting for “Special Agent (Cyber),” the FBI emphasized that the position is for applicants with cyber backgrounds only, and laid […]