Just one business day after I asked, “Who Will Be the Next SEC Chairman?” the SEC announced today that current SEC Chair Mary Schapiro will step down on Dec. 14, 2012. Schapiro has been SEC Chair since January 2009, when she was appointed by President Barack Obama. Chairman Schapiro previously served as a commissioner at […]
Bruce Carton
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Who Will Be the Next SEC Chairman?
An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal notes that Mary John Miller, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for domestic finance, is being considered by the White House to be the next SEC chairman. Miller has “attracted a significant amount of attention,” sources told the WSJ. Although current SEC Chair Mary Schapiro has not announced any specific […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Convictions of Two Accounting Execs May Wrap Up Prosecutions for Stanford Ponzi Scheme
In federal court in Texas yesterday, prosecutors in the Stanford Financial case won convictions against Gilbert Lopez Jr., the former chief accounting officer for Stanford Financial Group, and Mark Kuhrt, the former global controller of Stanford Financial Group Global Management. The convictions appear to mark the end of the many criminal prosecutions that resulted from the […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
No ‘Fast Times’ in SEC Insider Case, But SEC Says Defendants Created Fake Research to Justify Trades
“SEC Charges Ring of High School Buddies with Insider Trading in Health Care Stocks” The headline above crossed my radar today, and I assumed this case was going to involve some “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”-type of allegations, with kids cutting out of wood shop class to call their brokers to buy health care stocks. […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
BP Pleads Guilty in Deepwater Horizon, Agrees to Over $4.5 Billion in DOJ and SEC Penalties
Yesterday, SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami joined Attorney General Eric Holder, Assistant AG for the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, and other top officials to announce criminal charges and a guilty plea, as well as a massive SEC settlement, related to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig stationed at the Macondo well site […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Enforcement in Fiscal Year 2012, By the Numbers
The SEC announced today that it brought 734 enforcement actions in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2012, just one shy of the record 735 enforcement actions it brought in 2011. SEC Chair Mary Schapiro observed that in each of the last two years, the SEC has brought more enforcement actions than ever before, and […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
DOJ and SEC Issue Joint ‘Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’
This morning, the DOJ and the SEC released a 120-page “Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” The guidance has been eagerly awaited by corporations and lawyers practicing in the FCPA area, and comes on the eve of the National Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, at which DOJ Assistant Attorney General Lanny […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Ending Frivolous M&A Litigation
Shareholder litigation challenging a merger or acquisition now follows nearly every deal. In fact, a report released by Cornerstone Research earlier this year found that no less than 91 percent of deals valued at more than $100 million became the subject of lawsuits in 2010 and 2011. The percentages were even higher for larger deals, […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Wordplay, Volume I: Football Coaches, Movie Stars, Astrologists and Doctors
I’ve noted here before that the SEC loves to engage in wordplay in its press releases, particularly when the case involves someone with a distinctive job or background. I found yet another example of that today, so I am going to create an ongoing series of posts here to make sure I capture all of […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Web Watch: Best of the Week Ending November 9
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 November 9. Litigating Post-Close Merger Cases Boris Feldman, The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate […]
