Corporate Finance

October 16, 2020

On October 13, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a COVID-19-related Advisory “to alert financial institutions to unemployment insurance (“UI”) fraud observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.” It is the fourth in a series of Advisories related to financial crimes arising from the pandemic (we covered previous Advisories on medical scams, imposter and money mule schemes, and cyber-enabled crime). This latest Advisory “contains descriptions of COVID-19-related UI fraud, associated financial red flags…

Money Laundering Watch

Regulatory Round Up: FinCEN Solicits Comments on Due Diligence for Correspondent and Private Bank Accounts

By Diana M. Joskowicz & Peter D. Hardy

October 15, 2020

Final Post in a Three-Post Series Regarding Recent Regulatory Action by FinCEN On September 29, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a request for comment on existing regulations regarding enhanced due diligence (“EDD”) for correspondent bank accounts. The notice seeks to give the public an opportunity to comment on the existing regulatory requirements and burden estimates. Written comments must be received on or before November 30, 2020. Currently, Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”)…

The Securities Edge

The SEC Fixes those Pesky M&A Financial Disclosure Requirements

By Lina Angelici

October 15, 2020

While we have been busy in 2020 learning how to social distance, wear masks and do Zoom meetings, the SEC has spent the year turning out a relentless tsunami of new rules and amendments of old ones. Among the latter are extensive amendments to the financial disclosure obligations of a public company when it acquires or disposes of a business. Adopted in May 2020, these long-awaited amendments go into effect on January 1, 2021, so a summary seems…

Gravity Legal Blog

Episode 17: How do clients make hiring decisions? And how can decision science help you in your practice? An interview with Nika Kabiri of Kabiri Consulting.

By Dan Lear

October 15, 2020

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Nika Kabiri is a JD, a PhD a decision science consultant, teacher, and writer. If that’s not enough for you, just know she’s a rock star. Previously Nika was the Director of Strategic Insights at the online legal marketplace Avvo. Whether through market research, tireless and effective advocacy, or her amazing public speaking skills in that role Nika helped Avvo and the legal industry better understand the legal consumer.…

LIBOR Transition Blog

ISDA Announce Launch Date and Effective Date for IBOR Supplement and Protocol

By Jennifer J. Kafcas, Lauren J. Blaber & Harry Poland

October 14, 2020

Following the DOJ’s favourable business review letter published on October 1, 2020 (as discussed in our earlier blog post), on October 9, 2020 ISDA released a statement from its Board of Directors in relation to the IBOR Fallbacks Supplement and Protocol. In it, they state that they have kept the Australian, Canadian, EU and other competition authorities fully informed of the issues covered in the DOJ’s letter, and that they do not anticipate any…

Broker- Dealer Law Corner

FINRA Is About To Make It MUCH Harder To Obtain Expungement – Part Two

By Chris Seps

October 13, 2020

Here is the second part of Chris’s blog on FINRA’s effort to make expungement harder and more expensive to obtain. It is remarkable to me just how blatant FINRA has been here in admitting the reasons for the rule amendments. Anyone who thinks that FINRA is a membership organization that actually cares for its members is sadly mistaken. – Alan The second dramatic change to the expungement process under the proposed rules relates to who…

Covington Competition

New era of FDI in the European Union – EU FDI Regulation now in full force and effect

By Peter Camesasca, Horst Henschen, Katherine Kingsbury & Sarah Hachmeister

October 13, 2020

On October 11, 2020, the EU FDI Screening Regulation (EU) 2019/452 – the “Regulation”) entered fully into force. The Regulation, which was approved and adopted in March 2019, establishes a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) by EU Member States in which decision-making powers rest at the Member State level. Significantly, from October 11, an element of EU-level cooperation in FDI is introduced and in particular will bring into effect (i) regular…

The Securities Edge

Perquisites Disclosure: “How Many Times Do I Have to Tell You?”

By Robert B. Lamm

October 13, 2020

Remember when you were a kid and you didn’t clean up your room or do something else you were supposed to do, and a parent would say “How many times do I have to tell you…?” Well, the same holds true for perquisites disclosure. Not quite four months ago, I wrote about an SEC enforcement action involving perquisites and the importance of paying close attention to perks. Well, the SEC has done it again. Two…

Money Laundering Watch

CFTC and DOJ Charge BitMEX and Executives With Illegally Trading in Digital Assets and Ignoring BSA/AML Requirements

By Peter Jaslow, Peter D. Hardy & Marjorie J. Peerce

October 12, 2020

Incorporating in the Seychelles but Allegedly Operating in the U.S. Spells Trouble for Company and its Founders The Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, or BitMEX, is a large and well-known online trading platform dealing in futures contracts and other derivative products tied to the value of cryptocurrencies. Recently, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) filed a civil complaint against the holding companies that own and operate BitMEX, incorporated in the Seychelles, and three individual co-founders and co-owners…

Gravity Legal Blog

The ethics of subscription legal services (Part 3)

By Dan Lear

October 10, 2020

Note: This is the third in a series of posts on the what, why, and how of subscription legal services. You can find our first post “What are subscription legal services?” here. Our second post, “The ‘why’ of subscription legal services (Part 2)” is here. We at Gravity Legal recently launched a suite of tools that make offering subscription legal services easy. If you’d like to learn more about the tools we’ve built,…