Regulatory Enforcement

Know your customer” is sage advice for any good business. For companies that export goods or technology overseas, a recent case in Canada serves as a reminder that it’s also a compliance obligation. Canadian authorities charged a Toronto man in April with attempting to ship nuclear technology to Iran, after first purchasing the equipment from […]

When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Tellabs v. Makor decision in 2007, setting a high standard for what plaintiffs must prove in a class-action securities lawsuit, Corporate America celebrated. Three more recent court rulings have proven that the Tellabs standard is here to stay. Specifically, Tellabs spelled out how much “scienter,” or knowing […]

In last month’s column, I noted the arrival of a new Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement director, Robert Khuzami. I suggested that Khuzami had to hit the ground running and discussed the flood of suggestions from within the SEC and from the outside that Khuzami had already received as to what he should prioritize and […]

The Federal Trade Commission has extended for another three months its delay of enforcement of the new Red Flags Rule to give creditors and financial institutions more time to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. Like the previous enforcement delay, the latest delay, in effect until Aug. 1, 2009, is limited to the […]

Robert Khuzami began his new job as director of the Enforcement Division at the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30. His arrival marks the first change in leadership for the Enforcement Division since 2005. Khuzami joins the SEC from Deutsche Bank AG in New York, where he was a top lawyer on its staff. […]

One year has passed since JDS Uniphase defeated shareholders in a rare class-action securities lawsuit that went to trial. Defense lawyers involved in the case, however, say companies faced with similar lawsuits are still learning valuable lessons from the Uniphase dispute. A maker of telecommunications equipment, JDS Uniphase had been a star of the dot-com […]

Securities class-action lawsuits are nothing new in the United States. Now that trend is slowly creeping across the Canadian border. That’s according to a first-of-its kind report by NERA Economic Consulting to analyze securities lawsuits in Canada. The report found that in 2008, a record nine securities class actions were filed, up from the four […]

The SEC’s focus on options backdating cases has, by its own admission, diminished greatly. Indeed, the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, which had been leading that charge, stated in November 2008 that it had brought the final options backdating case that it expected to file. In the home office in D.C., however, it appears that […]