Regulatory Enforcement

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the overall constitutionality of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Monday, striking down only a narrow portion of the law and defusing what could have been a huge headache for Washington and Corporate America alike. In its June 28 decision Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, the Court said SOX will remain “fully […]

After much debate and numerous counter offers, the conference committee working on the financial regulation reform bill finally reached agreement Thursday night to adopt the original Senate bill language on proxy access, with a modification requested by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) that would allow the Securities & Exchange Commission to exempt small businesses from the […]

As negotiations on the massive financial reform bill continue this afternoon, what, if anything, the legislation will say about proxy access is still very much up in the air. The issue is one of few remaining items left for conferees to hammer out as they try to wrap up their work today, in an effort […]

Enforcement officials have been hammering home the message for more than a year, but if any global corporations still want proof: A new report has more hard evidence that enforcement of anti-bribery laws is increasing, albeit slowly, around the world. The study, released this month by anti-bribery group TRACE International, shows that while the United […]

As efforts to revamp U.S. financial regulation move closer to the finish line, a panel of current and former Securities and Exchange Commission officials recently offered their thoughts on what the new regulatory landscape will mean for corporate board directors. A House-Senate conference committee began work last week to reconcile the differences in the financial […]

As if complying with current e-discovery rules is not challenging enough, social networking Websites such as Facebook and Twitter are creating new headaches for corporate compliance and legal departments. “The old ways of addressing electronic discovery and preservation don’t necessarily work when it comes to social media,” says Timothy Gordon, a partner with law firm […]

The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Corporation Finance has updated a hodgepodge of Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations practitioners will want to check out. The June 4 interpretations update Securities Act sections, rules, and forms, Regulation S-K, Exchange Act rules and Form 8-K, and Regulation FD. Since the staff updated seven different […]

When Neil MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told The Wall Street Journal in May that he was putting together a new “investigative taskforce” to crack down on financial crime and securities fraud, the news didn’t strike many as a significant development. After all, most federal prosecutors’ offices have various taskforces or […]

All you executives in charge of corporate disclosure or investor relations, take heart: The Securities and Exchange Commission feels your pain. So says Meredith Cross, head of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, who spoke this morning at the National Investor Relations Institute annual conference in San Diego. I’m at the NIRI conference as well […]

Attendees at the Compliance Week 2010 conference last week got a refresher course in the compliance challenges and litigation risks stemming from bribery and corruption—and given the fast-changing regulatory landscape around corruption, Corporate America needs the extra help. “We’re in a world where you’re not just dealing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the […]