Under its new leader, the New York Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) has staked out high ground for itself by self-identifying as the “regulator of the future” DFS’s pronouncement came in a July press release issued about a month after Linda Lacewell was confirmed as the agency’s third superintendent. The press release, issued to announce the creation of a new Research and Innovation Division, signals that DFS is attempting to harness the increasing technological tools…

On May 7, 2019, Representative James Himes (D-Conn) introduced the “Insider Trading Prohibition Act” (H.R. 2534). The proposed legislation would amend the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, §§15 U.S. Code § 78a et seq. (the “Act”) by inserting a new section that defines the elements of criminal insider trading. The bill’s objective is to eliminate the ambiguity of the offense as it is conceived under current law. It would also significantly expand the…

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Controls (“OFAC”) both issued guidance regarding their expectations for corporate compliance programs. Both documents are geared towards establishing more rigid frameworks for assessing compliance programs. A common theme among both pieces of guidance appears to be the identification and allocation of responsibility to individuals, especially management. Additionally, the fact that the agencies released their guidance…

On April 29, 2019, just months into her new job at the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”), acting DFS Superintendent Linda Lacewell announced a significant reorganization within the financial and insurance regulator. The new Consumer Protection and Financial Enforcement Division (the “CPFED”) combines seven previously separate divisions and units – Enforcement, Investigations and Intelligence, the Civil Investigations Unit, the Producers Unit, the Consumer Examinations Unit, the Student Protection Unit, and the Holocaust…

Once again, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) efforts to hold a trader accountable for misrepresentations made during negotiations met with stiff resistance from the courts. On March 4, 2019, Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California granted Robert Bogucki’s motion to dismiss the indictment in the middle of his criminal trial, ruling that the Government failed to prove that Bogucki’s statements could not possibly amount to fraud because there is no expectation of…