- Posts by John A. Lightbourne
AssociateJohn represents clients across a wide range of banking, securities, and financial regulatory and supervisory matters. His practice focuses primarily on advising large financial institutions, investment advisers and ...
As discussed in our prior blog post, on December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (“District Court”) issued an order preliminarily enjoining enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act and the associated beneficial ownership information reporting rules (the “CTA”) nationwide (the “preliminary injunction”).
On December 3, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (“Court”) entered a sweeping order enjoining enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act and the associated beneficial ownership information reporting rules (the “CTA”) nationwide. The immediate effect: notwithstanding the CTA’s stated reporting deadline of December 31, 2024, no entity is currently required to file with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) information about itself, its owners or the persons otherwise controlling the entity.
On October 2, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced it had settled enforcement proceedings against Thrivent Investment Management, Inc. (“Thrivent”), a SEC dually-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, stemming from Thrivent’s alleged failure to update a calculator tool utilized by its representatives to determine which shares in certain 529 College Savings Plans are recommended to its retail customers.
On Sunday, September 29, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed California Senate Bill 1047, which would have established novel safety regulations on large artificial intelligence (AI) models. Known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, SB 1047 would have required developers of covered models, which are defined to include only large, high-cost and power-intensive AI models, to, among other things.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) jointly proposed a rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that would impact existing confidential reporting obligations of private equity funds and other collective investment vehicles not registered as an “investment company” (referred to as, “Private Funds”). The rule proposes changes to the Form PF, a non-public report for certain SEC-registered investment advisers to Private Funds, which get submitted to the SEC (and CFTC ...
A Bloomberg article last week suggests potentially more bad news is on the way for Coinbase Global Inc. (“Coinbase”). Coinbase is reportedly facing an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) into whether it let customers trade digital assets that the SEC believes should have been registered as securities. Rumors of investigations by the SEC do not necessarily suggest problems for the company at the center of those rumors, but the timing of a recent SEC complaint (SEC v. Wahi) may explain why this report had such a negative effect on Coinbase’s ...
On June 8, 2022, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) released industry guidance applicable to U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins issued by NYDFS-regulated entities (the “Guidance”). The Guidance focuses on NYDFS requirements relating to the redeemability of these stablecoins, the asset reserves that back them (the “Reserves”), and auditor examination and attestations regarding management’s assertions concerning the sufficiency of the Reserves.
By way of background, a stablecoin is a type of digital asset that is intended to ...
On March 30, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Examinations released its exam priorities for fiscal year 2022 (the “2022 Priorities”). As in years past, these exam priorities naturally follow from SEC rulemakings, statements, risk alerts and other guidance issued in the past year, and reflect practices or topics that may pose higher risk for referral to the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
The 2022 Priorities include broader thematic “Significant Focus Areas,” which may be applicable to both broker-dealers and registered ...
About MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog
As government authorities around the world conduct overlapping investigations and bring parallel proceedings in evolving regulatory environments, companies face challenging regulatory and criminal enforcement dynamics. We help keep our clients up to date in these fast-moving areas and to serve as a thought leader.
The latest from MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog
- Nationwide CTA Injunction Remains in Place Following First FinCEN Stay Request; Second FinCEN Stay Request Pending Before Fifth Circuit
- CFTC Advisory On The Use of Artificial Intelligence: Buzzword or Bogeyman?
- CTA Nationwide Injunction Suspends Obligation to File Beneficial Ownership Information Reports
- OCC Revises Recovery Planning Guidelines for Large Banks