These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
District Court Rules Plaintiff Failed To Plead Real Estate Investment Was A “Security” by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate & Securities Law
In ruling on the defendants’ motion, Judge Benitez correctly observed that the plaintiff’s securities law claims require that there be a “security”. He then analyzed the plaintiff’s allegations in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s definition of an “investment contract” in SEC v. Howey, 328 U.S. 293, 66 S. Ct. 1100, 90 L. Ed. 1244 (1946) (“whether the scheme involves an investment of money in a common enterprise with profits to come solely from the efforts of others”). Applying Howey, Judge Benitez ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to allege adequately the existence of a security [More…]
Sessions Dodges, Weaves, Promises on FCPA by Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance
Then again, Sessions also danced around the question of whether zealous U.S. enforcement of anti-corruption laws puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage on the global stage. At one point in his speech, he praised anti-corruption enforcement as a vehicle to reward the many good companies out there that don’t bribe their way to success. [More...]
An app that pinpoints white-collar criminals works like predictive-policing software by Jack Smith IV, Mic
A new app and website called White Collar Crime Risk Zones , which goes by the initials WCCRZ, shows exactly what neighborhoods are chock full of financial criminals, how much damage they’re doing and even what they might look like.
Using data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a team of technologists affiliated with the left-wing magazine New Inquiry created the open-source tool so that anyone can put a face on the labyrinthian world of white collar crime hidden in their own home town. [More…]
Yates Memo – Time for Reassessment? by Sharon Oded in NYU Law’s Compliance & Enforcement
While other U.S. authorities have recognized individual accountability as an important enforcement goal, the DOJ’s policy as promulgated by the Yates Memo demonstrates a more rigorous approach. In contrast to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which consider a company’s disclosure of individuals’ involvement in the misconduct as an important factor in their analysis,[[iii]] the Yates Memo has adopted an “all-or-nothing” approach: it requires corporations to disclose to the DOJ all relevant facts about individuals’ involvement in the misconduct in order to qualify for any cooperation credit. Accordingly, regardless of whether the company has voluntarily reported the misconduct and fully cooperated with the investigation—e.g., by sharing relevant information, facts, analyses and internal investigation reports, making employees available for interviews and facilitating their representation, or taking state-of-the art remediation action to prevent reoccurrence—it cannot benefit from any credit unless it has ‘sacrificed’ the involved employees. [More…]
Does your team botch the NFL draft? Find out here: How every team’s draft picks since 1996 lived up to expectations. by Reuben Fischer-Baum in the Washington Post
By comparing how much value teams should get given their set of picks with how much value they actually get, we can calculate which franchises make the most of their draft selections. Approximate Value (AV), a stat created by Pro Football Reference that measures how well a player performed overall in a season, is useful here. Based on this metric, we find that the Browns draftees have underperformed in the NFL given their draft position, especially when compared to the draftees of a team like, say, the Seahawks .[more…]
