Written by: Jay B. Gould On September 17, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced enforcement actions against 23 firms for short selling violations as the agency increases its focus on preventing firms from improperly participating in public stock offerings after selling short those same stocks. The enforcement actions…
Written by: Kimberly V. Mann The Security and Exchange Commission’s recent enforcement action against Lawrence D. Polizzotto serves as a reminder to all issuers that Regulation FD enforcement is alive and well. The Polizzotto Case Polizzotto, the former vice president of investor relations at First Solar, Inc. (and, ironically, a…
Jay Gould discussed the SEC’s vote to lift a ban on hedge fund advertising with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves.”
Written by: Jay B. Gould and Jessica Brown On July 10, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to lift the ban on general solicitation and advertising by private funds (and other private company issuers) as mandated by Congress in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”). In addition…
Written by: G. Derek Andreson The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is poised to modify its “no-admit, no-deny” policy to seek more admissions of wrongdoing from defendants as a condition of settlement in enforcement cases. The change comes on the heels of recent criticism of the policy from two…
Written by: Jay B. Gould On June 21, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) entered a cease and desist order (technically called an “Order Instituting Administrative and Cease-and-Desist Proceeding”) against the former President of Stanford Capital Management, Jason A. D’Amato. You may read the full SEC Order here. Because…
Written by: Jay B. Gould The SEC recently proposed rules to reform the way money market funds, which currently have over $2.9 trillion in assets, operate in order to make them less susceptible to large redemptions that could harm investors. Specifically, the SEC proposed two alternatives that could be adopted…
Written by Cindy V. Schlaefer, Gabriella A. Lombardi and Laura C. Hurtado Rule 10b5-1 trading plans are in the limelight due to investigations initiated by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the SEC into possible abuses by corporate executives of such plans. Now, more than ever, companies and their boards of directors…
On April 8, 2013, we reviewed a recent speech by David Blass, the Chief Counsel of the Division of Trading and Markets of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), in which Mr. Blass provided his views on whether certain investment fund managers might be operating in a way that…
This article was published by CounselWorks and is reprinted here with permission. April 12, 2013 Dear Friends, Yesterday, the SEC testified before Congress providing an update on the implementation of the JOBS Act. Regarding the implementation of the lift on the prohibition against general solicitation, the SEC said its staff…