Melissa Klein Aguilar

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Dodd-Frank Act rulemaking frenzy is kicking into overdrive with two open meetings to propose or adopt new rules scheduled in the days ahead. Asset-backed securities, say-on-pay votes, the “accredited investor” definition and reporting obligations for advisers to private funds are all on the SEC’s rulemaking agenda during the next week. […]

The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance has posted 10 new compliance and disclosure interpretations for registered companies about their disclosure obligations related to their accountants. The CDIs, posted on Jan. 14, include seven new questions related to Item 304 of Regulation S-K, Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on […]

A Securities and Exchange Commission watchdog is investigating allegations that the agency’s enforcement director gave Citigroup executives preferential treatment during negotiations over the firm’s $75 million settlement to resolve SEC charges that it misled investors about its exposure to subprime mortgage-related assets. The Office of Inspector General launched the investigation after anonymous messages were sent […]

Supply chain transparency will be a hot topic in 2011, thanks to a controversial Securities and Exchange Commission proposal aimed at curbing violence in the war-torn African Congo. The Dodd-Frank Act directs the SEC to write rules requiring companies to disclose whether their products use or contain conflict minerals originating in the Democratic Republic of […]

The Federal Trade Commission and the Commerce Department recently issued reports outlining their latest thoughts on consumer privacy, giving Corporate America a framework for acceptable practices around data collection and hints on where enforcement policy might go in the future. The agencies are soliciting comment on separate reports detailing their respective views on steps businesses […]

Corporate America take note: Use of deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements, now mainstays of the government’s effort to combat corporate crime, climbed to their second highest level of the decade in 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice entered into 32 such agreements in 2010, up from 21 agreements in 2009, according to a tally […]

In a rare move, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has reversed course on a no-action request, clearing the way for Navistar shareholders to vote on a Teamsters’ proposal related to golden parachute agreements. The proposal urges the board to adopt a policy of obtaining shareholder approval for future severance agreements that contemplate […]

More data for those tracking how frequently U.S. companies plan to put their executive pay programs to a shareholder vote: A recent poll by Towers Watson shows most companies expect to hold annual say-on-pay votes. Among 135 U.S. public company executives surveyed, 51 percent expect to hold annual say-on-pay votes, according to a Towers Watson […]

Multinational companies beware: That promised new era of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement has already arrived. The number of FCPA enforcement actions jumped 85 percent in 2010, shattering the prior record set in 2009, according to data tracked by the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange […]