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White House Announces Nominations for SEC Commissioner
On October 20, the White House announced two intended nominations for Daniel Gallagher’s replacement as SEC Commissioner, Hester Maria Pierce and Lisa M. Fairfax. Currently, Ms. Pierce is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of Financial Markets Working Group at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Previously, she served as a Staff Attorney at the SEC in the Division of Investment Management and as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins. Ms. Fairfax is a professor at George Washington University Law School, where she serves on the Executive Board and as Director for Programs for the George Washington Center for Law, Economics and Finance.
SEC Settles with Swiss Bank Over Misconduct of Issuing Complex Structured Notes
On October 13, the SEC announced a $19.5 million settlement with a Swiss bank for allegedly misleading U.S. investors by making false and misleading statements and omissions in connection with the offering of complex retail structured notes. Among other things, the SEC’s Cease-and-Desist Order alleges that, between December 2009 and November 2010, the Swiss bank failed to disclose to investors (i) taking unjustified markups; (ii) participation in hedging trades with non-systematic spreads; and (iii) trading prior to certain hedging transactions. The SEC further alleged the bank’s conduct “negatively impacted or, in the case of trading before hedging transactions, had the potential to negatively impact, pricing inputs used to calculate the” currency index. Without admitting or denying the charges, the bank agreed to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of $11.5 million and a civil money penalty of $8 million. $5.5 million of the disgorgement and prejudgment funds will be distributed to investors affected by the bank’s actions. According to the SEC, the action is the agency’s first case to involve misstatements and omissions by an issuer of retail structured notes.
SEC to Accept Requests to Vacate Certain Securities Sanctions due to Court Ruling
On October 9, the SEC announced that it would not seek further review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s July ruling prohibiting the SEC from retroactively applying the Dodd-Frank Act’s sanctions provisions to violations occurring before the Act’s effective date. Koch et al. v. SEC, No. 14-1134 (D.C. Cir. Jul. 14, 2015). In addition, the SEC further advised that persons subject to an existing SEC order that may be impacted by the Koch decision, because the conduct involved occurred before the July 22, 2010 effective date of Dodd-Frank, may apply for relief from the Commission’s order.
New Jersey Resident Charged with Securities and Wire Fraud
On October 1, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a complaint against New Jersey fund manager William J. Wells charging him with running a “Ponzi” scheme which raised over $1.5 million from investors. According to the complaint, Wells “engaged in a fraudulent scheme to obtain investments by falsely representing that he had achieved consistently positive trading returns in the U.S. equity markets, including through the successful use of options to hedge risk.” Wells allegedly misled investors by claiming that (i) his trading was generating positive returns when it was not; (ii) investors held investments in certain stocks when, in fact, neither Wells nor his firm did; and (iii) sub-accounts had been created for clients, but no such sub-accounts were ever funded. Wells was charged with one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud, each carrying a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a maximum fine of $5 million, or two times the gross gain or loss from the offense.
In a parallel action, the SEC filed a complaint charging Wells with violations of the Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and the Investment Advisers Act.
SEC Appoints New Head of Examination Program in Atlanta Regional Office
On September 29, the SEC named William Royer as the Atlanta Regional Office’s Associate Director of the examination program. Since June of this year, Royer has served as the examination program’s Acting Associate Director. In his role, Royer will supervise staff responsible for the examination of broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, transfer agents, along with other SEC registrants. Prior to joining the SEC in 2013 as an Assistant Director within the Office of Compliance and Inspections and Examinations’ Office of the Chief Counsel, Royer worked as a securities attorney in private practice and served as General Counsel for two international investment management firms.
Former Chief Credit Officer Sentenced to Over Eight Years in Prison for Role in Securities Fraud Scheme
On September 1, Ebrahim Shabudin, the former Chief Credit Officer of a San Francisco-based bank, was sentenced to 97 months in prison for his involvement in a securities fraud scheme stemming from the bank’s 2009 financial collapse. In 2008, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) gave the bank roughly $298 million in federal funds. The FDIC took over the bank in 2009 and stated that it was “the ninth largest failure since 2007 of a bank insured by the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund.” In 2013, the FDIC estimated that the bank would accrue losses exceeding $1.1 billion; however, with the United States’ economic recovery, the estimated loss dropped to approximately $677 million.
The DOJ charged Shabudin with “conspiring with others within the bank to falsify key bank records as part of a scheme to conceal millions of dollars in losses and falsely inflate the bank’s financial statements.” Shabudin allegedly falsified records filed with the SEC and the FDIC pertaining to the bank’s 2008 third and fourth quarters and year-end earnings per share. On March 25, 2015, Shabudin was found guilty on seven charges: (i) conspiracy to commit securities fraud; (ii) securities fraud; (iii) falsifying corporate books and records; (iv) false statements to accountants; (v) circumventing internal accounting controls; (vi) conspiracy to commit false bank entries; and (vii) false bank entries. In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge White ordered the former Chief Credit Officer to undergo three years of supervised release and pay $348,000 in restitution. Both the bank’s CFO and Senior Vice President pleaded guilty to similar charges last year and currently await sentencing.
FinCEN Issues NPRM Establishing BSA/AML Requirements for Investment Advisers
On August 25, FinCEN issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking to adopt minimum Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) standards that would be applicable to investment advisers. Under the proposal, investment advisers would be required to implement AML programs and report suspicious activity, among other safeguards. The NPRM states that the proposal would cover investment advisers registered or required to register with the SEC. The proposal would also add such investment advisers to the definition of “financial institution.” This would result in investment advisers being required to file currency transaction reports and to comply with recordkeeping and other requirements applicable to financial institutions. With respect to supervisory authority, FinCEN stated that it would delegate its authority to the SEC for purposes of examining investment advisers for compliance with the proposed requirements.
SEC Adopts Final CEO Pay Disclosure Rule
On August 5, the SEC adopted a rule requiring public companies to disclose the pay ratio of their CEO to the median compensation of their employees. The rule gives companies some flexibility in the method of determining the pay ratio while providing investors with information to assess the compensation of CEOs. Methods companies may employ to identify the median employee include using (i) a statistical sample of the total employee population; (ii) payroll or tax records that contain a consistently applied compensation measure; or (iii) yearly total compensation as calculated under the existing executive compensation rules. The total compensation for CEOs and total compensation for average employees must be calculated in the same manner. Under the new rule, companies must also disclose the methodology used for identifying the median employee’s annual compensation. Companies will be required to provide disclosure of their pay ratios for their first fiscal year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2017. Smaller reporting companies, emerging growth companies, foreign private issuers, MJDS filers, and registered investment companies are exempt from the pay ratio rule, which will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
SEC Opens FIFA-Related Investigations
Although not yet confirmed by the SEC, media reports suggest that the SEC has opened several investigations of publicly traded companies who contracted with FIFA. Indictments in the FIFA cases have alleged that certain companies paid kickbacks to officials of FIFA and related organizations in order to win marketing and apparel contracts. The specific companies targeted in the SEC’s new probe have not yet been named. Without the apparent involvement of a foreign official in the FIFA cases, presumably the SEC will be focusing on the books and records and internal controls provisions of the FCPA, along with other potential violations.
Previous BuckleySandler coverage of this investigation can be found here.
DC Circuit Bars Retroactive Application of Dodd-Frank Act Provisions Permitting SEC to Bar Association with Municipal Advisors and Rating Organizations
On July 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Dodd-Frank Act provisions authorizing the SEC to punish certain misconduct by barring association with municipal advisors and rating organizations may not be applied with respect to misconduct that took place prior to the effective date of the provisions. Koch et al. v. SEC, No. 14-1134 (D.C. Cir. Jul. 14, 2015). The Koch appeal arose from an SEC finding that the defendants had violated the securities laws by engaging in a market manipulation practice known as “marking the close,” and the SEC’s imposition of sanctions that, among others, prohibiting Koch from associating with municipal advisors and rating organizations. The DC Circuit upheld the finding of violations, but vacated the part of the order barring Koch from associating with municipal advisors and rating organizations on the basis the relevant Dodd-Frank provisions authorizing that sanction had not been enacted at the time of the misconduct. The court determined that applying those provisions was impermissibly retroactive, as there was no showing that Congress intended the provisions to apply retroactively and because it triggered additional legal consequences not existing at the time of the misconduct. The court did not disturb the other remedial orders in the case, including bars to association with other securities industries.