Regulatory Enforcement

The Securities and Exchange Commission has amended its rules on short-swing dealings by officers and directors to make clear that profits made from certain merger and acquisition transactions are exempt from restrictions on insider profit-making. The SEC’s actions come in the wake of a court decision by the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit two years ago limiting […]

There is little question that, since The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted, the issues of executive accountability, insurance and indemnification have garnered greater attention by directors and officers of public companies. Benowitz Companies have always had to concern themselves with liability issues, but, “that concern has been elevated since Enron and SOX,” notes Robert […]

When the Securities and Exchange Commission recently filed enforcement actions against three former executives of i2 Technologies, one of them—former president and CEO Gregory Brady—fired off a press release vowing to “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit and prevail at trial. RELATED INSIGHTS The following related guest columns by SEC veterans were published in Compliance Week […]

This month’s indictment of two former executives of Bristol-Myers Squibb highlights the government’s increasing use of “deferred prosecution agreements,” under which companies insulate themselves from criminal liability by agreeing to assist in the prosecution of employees. On the same day that federal prosecutors announced that they were pursuing ex-CFO Frederick Schiff and Richard Lane, who […]

Mirant Corp. and its creditors committee have filed a lawsuit against its former parent, Southern Co., asserting, in effect, that the Atlanta-based holding company played a role in Mirant’s bankruptcy due to the way it structured the spin-off of Mirant in April 2001. The plaintiffs are seeking to recover at least $2 billion in connection […]

Asecurities fraud suit might be able to go forward under Sarbanes-Oxley even though it clearly would have been barred under the pre-SOX law, a federal appellate court has ruled. The decision could potentially open the courthouse doors to many securities lawsuits presumed dead. Several appellate courts have held in recent months that SOX—which expanded the […]

Wal-Mart Stores is the subject of a whistleblower complaint for the second time in three weeks. A complaint filed Friday with the U.S. Labor Department asserts that Rickey Armstrong, a quality auditor in Wal-Mart’s Dallas Optical Laboratory, was fired by the retailing giant on March 12 in violation of Section 806 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act […]