By: Sara Kropf The NewYorker recently published an interesting article, “Why the SEC Didn’t Hit Goldman Sachs Harder.” The article posits that the SEC let individual executives on Wall Street off the hook for securities fraud after the financial crisis. The article...
By: Sara Kropf One of the primary differences between criminal and civil liability is that criminal liability requires the government to prove that the defendant acted wrongfully. In a civil case, an employer may be held liable under a theory of respondeat superior if...
The SEC finally gave up the ship in its insider trading case against former hedge fund managers Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman. After the Second Circuit reversed their convictions and the Supreme Court denied cert, the SEC decided not to pursue its civil suit...
The advice-of-counsel defense is a powerful one. If you did something because your lawyer said it was legal, then you may have a winning defense against many white-collar crimes. But all good things come with a price. To raise the defense, you must waive the...
By: Sara Kropf A Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) ensures that the Board of Directors, management and employees comply with the rules and regulations of regulatory agencies and the company's own policies and procedures. What happens, then, when the CCO is personally...
By: Sara Kropf How much cooperation with the government does your client have to provide to avoid prison? If portfolio manager Reema Shah is any example, the answer is…over a year. On May 21, 2014, Ms. Shah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and...