Category Archives: SEC Investigation

Initial Coin Offerings and What the SEC Might Think About Them: An Update

Posted on December 14, 2018 by

By Daniel Portnov Earlier this week I attended the DC Bar’s Communities program “Crypto Update: Current Issues Relating to Blockchain, Digital Assets and ICOs” featuring two members of the Commission’s staff – Assistant Director Jennifer Leete from the Enforcement Division and … Continue reading →

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SEC Investigations 101: Establishing the Pace and Scope

Posted on November 27, 2018 by

This post is the third in a series of posts for non-lawyers, or non-securities lawyers, who might suddenly find themselves on the wrong end of a Securities and Exchange Commission document request, subpoena or call from SEC’s Enforcement division staff. … Continue reading →

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SEC Investigations 101: Making Contact

Posted on November 14, 2018 by

By Dan Portnov This post is the second in a series of posts for non-lawyers, or non-securities lawyers, who might suddenly find themselves on the wrong end of a Securities and Exchange Commission document request, subpoena or call from SEC’s … Continue reading →

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SEC Investigations 101: How It All Begins

Posted on November 1, 2018 by

By Daniel Portnov This post kicks off a series for non-lawyers, or non-securities lawyers, who might suddenly find themselves on the wrong end of an SEC document request, subpoena or call from SEC Enforcement division staff. Receiving a call from … Continue reading →

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Latest Developments in the SEC’s Cryptocurrency Enforcement

Posted on October 17, 2018 by

  By Daniel Portnov It’s been a busy 2018 for cryptocurrency enforcement by the SEC. Following statements by Chair Jay Clayton and Co-Director of Enforcement Stephanie Avakian announcing various cryptocurrency concerns, sweeps and initiatives,[1] several recent Commission enforcement actions have … Continue reading →

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Supreme Court Rules SEC Administrative Judges Are Unconstitutional, But Special Counsel Mueller is Safe

Posted on June 22, 2018 by

By Dan Portnov Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Lucia v. SEC, holding that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s five-member commission must appoint the agency’s Administrative Law Judges (“ALJs”), as these in-house judges are “inferior officers” under the Constitution’s appointments clause. … Continue reading →

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Surviving Parallel Proceedings

Posted on June 19, 2018 by

  By Dan Portnov Late last week the other shoe finally dropped for Theranos founder and ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes, as she and fellow executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were indicted on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Following … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Investigation, DOJ policy and practice, SEC Investigation, SEC policy and practice, Wiretaps | Leave a comment

Initial Coin Offerings and SEC Enforcement: Protecting Investors (Part I)

Posted on May 30, 2018 by

  By Dan Portnov The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (“OIEA”) came in hot last week with its HoweyCoin initial coin offering pre-sale – a mock ICO designed to teach cryptocurrency-hungry investors the lesson that some ICOs may … Continue reading →

Posted in CFTC case, Due Diligence, Investor fraud, SEC Investigation, Securities fraud | 1 Comment

Bring in the SEC Taint Team

Posted on March 19, 2018 by

by Dan Portnov Let’s say that you or your company find yourselves in the unfortunate position of receiving a document request by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with limited resources for representation. You’ve retained a moderately-priced, hyper-efficient securities enforcement … Continue reading →

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SEC Charges Firm with Not Snitching Enough

Posted on July 5, 2017 by

Regular readers of this blog know that I resent when the government forces private industry to do the government’s job. Internal investigations are a good example. Companies spend millions conducting them into possible wrongdoing—hoping for leniency—and then turn over the … Continue reading →

Posted in SEC Investigation, Securities fraud, Uncategorized | Leave a comment