All articles by Bruce Carton – Page 10
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Innocent Attorney Tries to Clear Name He Shares With Securities Fraudster
Itamar Cohen, age 52, of Thornhill in Ontario, Canada recently pleaded guilty in New Jersey to a $17 million stock fraud. This has created considerable stress and drama for Itamar Cohen, age 53, of Thornhill in Ontario, Canada -- an innocent attorney who is the victim of this unfortunate coincidence.
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SEC 'Invites' ALJ to Submit Affidavit on Pressure to Find for Agency
Yesterday, the SEC issued an unusual order In the Matter of Timbervest LLC et al., an administrative proceeding currently before the agency. The Commission invited the ALJ in the case to file an affidavit addressing the existence of any pressure to rule in favor of the Division of Enforcement in ...
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SEC's Pinterest Page Highlights Achievements of Women SEC Officials
The SEC has found another interesting use for its "Pinterest" page. It recently created a Women's History Month board on the popular social media site to help gather information and photos, and celebrate the achievements of many of the most influential women employees in in its history.
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Sen. Warren is Triply 'Disappointed' in SEC Chair White
Sen. Elizabeth Warren would like SEC Chair Mary Jo White to know that Sen. Warren is disappointed in her. In a 13-page letter this week, Sen. Warren expressed this very sentiment repeatedly, prompting Chair White and others to defend her leadership of the agency and its accomplishments.
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Premiering Tonight -- '(Dis)honesty: The Truth About Lies'
A documentary premiering tonight on CNBC includes an in-depth look at the audacious insider trading scheme carried out by trader Garrett Bauer and attorney Matthew Kluger. The film examines how people rationalize and justify behavior, and considers what can be done "to stem an epidemic of cheating."
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Australian Stock Trader Tries Out 'Costanza Defense' in Sentencing Hearing
Australian stock trader facing sentencing for insider trading channels his inner George Costanza ("Was that wrong? Should I have not done that?")
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SEC: BHP Billiton Went Too Far on Hospitality
Image: The SEC has settled FCPA charges against BHP Billiton for inviting 176 government officials and employees of state-owned enterprises to attend the 2008 Summer Olympic Games at the company’s expense. Andrew Ceresney, head of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said the invites occurred “while they were in a position to ...
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Ceresney Breaks Down Recent Results of Busy SEC Litigation Docket
SEC Director of Enforcement Andrew Ceresney recently provided some detailed updates on the work and recent results of the Enforcement Division’s national litigation program. He characterized the litigation docket as “busy,” with approximately 130 litigators in the national trial unit who are currently litigating more than 550 cases. He stated ...
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SEC Commissioners Gallagher and Aguilar Prepare to Depart Agency
SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher has notified the White House that he will be departing the agency as soon as his successor is confirmed by the Senate. With fellow SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar also leaving the agency soon, the search for potential successors is reportedly underway.
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Former SEC Chairman Cox Weighs in on Administrative Proceedings
In detailed remarks on Wednesday, former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox weighed in on the growing controversy concerning the SEC's use of administrative proceedings. Chairman Cox offered insights into how the present situation came to be and how it might be resolved.
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SEC Gives Views on Courts vs. Administrative Hearings
News sure to please corporate compliance and legal officers everywhere: The SEC has finally published guidance on how it decides whether to bring enforcement matters to court or in-agency administrative proceedings. The SEC has been bringing more actions against companies as administrative proceedings, sparking complaints that targets’ due process rights ...
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SEC's White Squares Off With Senate Committee Over FY 2016 Budget
This week, SEC Chair Mary Jo White appeared before a skeptical Senate Appropriations Committee in support of the agency's request for $1.722 billion in FY 2016 -- a 15 percent increase over the SEC's budget in FY 2015.
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Point72 Adds Former DOJ/SEC Prosecutor Kevin O’Connor as GC
Steve Cohen's Point72 announced that this week that it has hired former DOJ prosecutor and SEC enforcement attorney Kevin O’Connor as its new general counsel.
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Russian Artist's 'Bribe Envelopes' Quickly Sell Out
A Siberian artist has taken a humorous poke at Russia's growing reputation for corruption in business and government through the creation of specialized "bribe envelopes."
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UK Insider Trader Returned to Prison For Failure to Repay Illegal Profits
In the UK, insider trading prosecutions are pretty rare. Indeed, there had never even been a criminal insider trading case in the UK until 2009, and to date there have only been a total of about two dozen criminal convictions for insider trading in the UK. Pardip Saini is one ...
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Selerity Strikes Gold with Early Look at Twitter Earnings Release
This week, a data services company called Selerity used an automated system and some very aggressive digging to obtain early -- and highly lucrative -- information about Twitter's earnings.
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Judge Rakoff's New Securities Law Focus: Re-Defining Insider Trading
Image: Having already left his mark on how the SEC handles deferred-prosecution agreements and other settlements, U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff now appears to be focused on another key securities enforcement issue: the definition of insider trading. More inside.
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SDNY Names New Chief, Deputy Chief of Securities Fraud Task Force
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has named Katherine Goldstein as Chief and Telemachus Kasulis as Deputy Chief of that office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.
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FBI Agent David Makol Rejoins SEC as Forensic Accountant
Back in 2012, I recommended a "must-read" article by WSJ reporters Susan Pulliam, Michael Rothfeld and Jenny Strasburg about FBI agent David Makol. The article provided some fascinating insight into the tactics that Makol, then the FBI's go-to guy for "flipping" suspects in insider trading investigations, used so successfully in ...
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Advocacy Groups Looking for an SEC Superhero
From the depths of the D.C. Metro system comes a social media campaign from an advocacy group that depicts SEC Chairman Mary Jo White as a superhero. The campaign revolves around the concept of White with a cape and an MJW logo, taking down the scourge of “dark money.” See ...