These are some of the compliance related stories that caught my attention.
SEC Provides Conditional Regulatory Relief and Assistance for Companies Affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it is providing conditional regulatory relief for certain publicly traded company filing obligations under the federal securities laws. The impacts of the coronavirus may present challenges for certain companies that are required to provide information to trading markets, shareholders, and the SEC. These companies may include U.S. companies located in the affected areas, as well as companies with operations in those regions.
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-53
To address potential compliance issues, the Commission has issued an order that, subject to certain conditions, provides publicly traded companies with an additional 45 days to file certain disclosure reports that would otherwise have been due between March 1 and April 30, 2020. Among other conditions, companies must convey through a current report a summary of why the relief is needed in their particular circumstances. The Commission may extend the time period for the relief, with any additional conditions it deems appropriate, or provide additional relief as circumstances warrant. Companies and their representatives are encouraged to contact SEC staff with questions or matters of particular concern.
How’s Your Business Continuity Plan?
Bruce MaCEwen
Adam Smith, Esq.
Doing all you can to support the professionals and staff who work for you, to provide ongoing reassurance to clients, and to be, to the best of your ability, a genuinely helpful and calming resource to those who might be hit more severely, is your professional and ethical duty.
https://adamsmithesq.com/2020/03/hows-your-business-continuity-plan/
Emergency Preparedness Plan
Joshua M Brown
The Reformed Broker
There’s a regulation in place for investment advisory firms like ours that an emergency preparedness plan must be in place in the event that employees are unable to reach their primary place of business. When regulators come in to a registered investment advisor’s office, they will usually request a copy and check to see if the firm’s plans are up to date and appropriate. It’s part of their normal course of protecting the public.
https://thereformedbroker.com/2020/03/05/emergency-preparedness-plan/
Mapping the Landscape of Comments to the SEC’s New Proxy Rules
Jens Frankenreiter
The CLS Blue Sky Blog
A couple of interesting features of this graphical representation stick out immediately. First, comments by institutional authors (which mostly appear in the upper half of the graph) seem to be qualitatively different from comments by private senders (which mostly appear in the lower half). Second, there are several tight clusters of documents, indicating nearly identical letters. In fact, a simple plagiarism tool indicates that 67 documents (roughly 13 percent) share 50 percent or more of their text with at least one other document. Most of these documents can be found in clusters 6, 7, and 8. On the other hand, 384 documents (around 73 percent) contain language deemed to be at least 90 percent unique, suggesting that a majority of authors produced highly bespoke opinions (rather than relying on a copy-and-paste template).
https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2020/03/04/mapping-the-landscape-of-comments-to-the-secs-new-proxy-rules/
Russia updates crypto regulations after string of scandals
Selva Ozelli
The FCPA Blog
With plans to launch its own cryptocurrency later this year, Russia has updated its anti-bribery and AML laws to aid its burgeoning digital economy while dealing with corruption risks associated with the new technology amid reports the Federal Security Service (FSB) allegedly tried to extract a bribe worth $1 million in bitcoin from a media mogul last year.
https://fcpablog.com/2020/03/04/russia-updates-crypto-regulations-after-string-of-scandals/
In A Setback For The DOJ, Judge Grants Hoskin’s Motion For Acquittal Of All FCPA Charges
FCPA Professor
[I]n a setback for the Department of Justice and its FCPA theory of prosecution, Judge Janet Bond Arterton (D. Conn) granted Hoskin’s motion for acquittal on the seven FCPA charges he was convicted of by the jury (See here for the decision. The judge denied Hoskin’s motion for acquittal on the five money laundering charges he was convicted of by the jury).
http://fcpaprofessor.com/setback-doj-judge-grants-hoskins-motion-acquittal-fcpa-charges/
Prosecutors urge the judge to deny early prison release for Bernie Madoff
CNBC
Over 500 victims had written to a Manhattan federal court judge to oppose early release for the 81-year-old Madoff from a 150-year sentence imposed in 2009, while only 20, or 4% of letter writers, supported it, prosecutors said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/prosecutors-urge-the-judge-to-deny-early-prison-release-for-bernie-madoff.html
Compliance Patterns in Raked Leaves
Tom Fox
FCPA Compliance & Ethics
Patrick Taylor has said that AI allows the compliance practitioner to understand the “subtle clues in that pattern of activity that will clue me in to take a different look.” He likened it to seeing “patterns in raked leaves” which allows you to then step in and take a deeper and broader look at an issue, either through an audit or investigation. This is where compliance practitioner can step back and literally keep an eye on the big picture and longer term as opposed to just the immediate numbers and information in front of them. It may also be the best hope for finding that kind of systemic fraudulent behavior.
http://fcpacompliancereport.com/2020/03/compliance-patterns-raked-leaves/
