Sky Blog
The capstone of regulatory reform in the wake of the financial crisis can be characterized as an effort to change the financial industry by getting bankers to behave more ethically. Regulators have emphasized the importance of “culture” set by a …
Fraud incidents have increased by over 130 percent in the past year, resulting in significant monetary and reputational losses for financial institutions. Many of these incidents — including high-profile crimes such as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (“SWIFT”) …
On July 19, 2017, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held in United States v. Allen, No. 19-CR-898 (JAC), 2017 WL 3040201 (2d Cir. 2017) that the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition on the use of compelled testimony in American criminal …
The Supreme Court’s decision last December in Salman v. United States[1] settled important issues concerning Rule 10b-5’s reach over trades based on a tip of confidential material information. One important question, however, remains unanswered: In tipping cases based on …
Culture often helps explain the behavior of individuals and firms. The general finding in the law and economics literature is that certain societal norms, such as attitudes toward corruption, persist even when individuals relocate to a very different legal and …
In my most recent article, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Corporate Crime, I argue that modern large-scale corporate crime is driven and shaped by ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ incentives.[1] ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ enforcement based on disclosure polices …
When then-Judge John Gleeson ruled in early 2016 that the public had a right to see a report by an independent monitor on how HBSC was faring since it entered into a controversial five-year deferred prosecution agreement, he noted that …
Perhaps not since the early 20th century has there been so much outrage about the malfeasance of the large corporation, and particularly the relationship of senior managers to such conduct. The sentiment is understandable. In reckoning with the wrongs of …
The era of large corporate penalties certainly looks to be over, and it is an open question whether we will continue to see companies pleading guilty or settling cases with deferred prosecution agreements. The notion of not imposing costs on …
Are regulatory interventions in financial markets delayed reactions to market failures, or can regulators pre-empt corporate misbehavior? Given the high economic and social costs associated with corporate scandals, and the substantial resources countries dedicate to preventing such misconduct, the answer …
The 2008 financial crisis was catastrophic for the U.S. banking industry. Between 2007 and 2014, 510 banks failed. Another 700-plus banks received some type of federal monetary assistance. Unsurprisingly, this led to calls to hold bank directors and officers legally …
Law is full of vague standards, legally relevant facts are frequently unclear, sanctions and damages are often uncertain, and the likelihood of detection is rarely known precisely. In our forthcoming paper, we ask how these sources of uncertainty, common in …
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide an unusual, yet important, case brought by investors in bonds issued by Lehman Brothers, the infamous investment bank that collapsed in September 2008. The case, CalPERS v. ANZ Securities, Inc., is not …
Corporations have been making news recently with repeated violations of the law. In some cases, such as financial services, the violations have occurred across large segments of an industry. Enforcement officials have imposed billions of dollars in sanctions against all …
Three pending cases – United States v. Martoma, and the habeas corpus cases Gupta v. United States and Whitman v. United States[1] – will allow the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to examine United States …
The Obama administration had a mixed record on white collar crime. On one hand, it extracted $4 billion and a guilty plea from BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill. On the other hand, it allowed HSBC, then …
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has specific elements that must be met in order for there to be a violation. However, with increasing frequency it appears that the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have transformed FCPA …
Corporate settlements are proliferating in form and function. They include consent decrees, corporate integrity agreements, deferred prosecution agreements, non-prosecution agreements, leniency agreements, and plea bargains. Enforcers at the federal and state level now enter an array of administrative, civil, and …
On January 19, 2017, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC“) issued an Enforcement Advisory describing the factors that will be considered to evaluate the cooperation provided by companies that are the subject of CFTC investigations and / …
President Trump made many statements during the campaign regarding actions he plans to take to reverse Obama administration sanctions policies.[1] These included revisiting the agreement to ease sanctions on Iran, rolling back the sanctions program against Russia, and reversing …