Year: 2022

In remarks to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, SEC Commissioner Gensler applauded the growing adoption by market participants of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). At issue is how the interest rates applicable to trillions of dollars of financial instruments are to be calculated.  Until recently, the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) was widely employed…

With FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, in bankruptcy, various key constituencies, including creditors, investors and account holders of the platform, may be in for a long wait to receive any recoveries. FTX faces the potential of years of bankruptcy litigation as well as probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. …

As of June 30, 2023, the target date for the replacement of LIBOR, nears, there is a growing acceptance of alternative benchmark rates for financial contracts.  That was the message to a Bloomberg-sponsored event of Chairman Rostin Behnam, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”), an independent agency of the US government…

Link: https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/MicroNews.aspx?id=ERA2022-9 On November 18, 2022, Nasdaq issued an “Equity Regulatory Alert” (the “Regulatory Alert”) related to the initial public offerings (“IPOs”) of a variety of “small-cap” companies, many of which raise less than $25 million. In connection with such IPOs, the pricing of the newly-registered equities typically spikes immediately. Then, the IPO securities experience…

The stockholders of business entities issuing equity have compelling reasons to ensure such shares meet the requirements associated with qualified small business stock (“QSBS”). When selling QSBS upon the business having achieved a successful outcome like being acquired, the holder thereof may not be taxed on all or a part of any relevant capital gains…

In Kirschner v. JPM, briefs are being submitted in an appellate action which seeks to reverse a 2020 Federal District Court determination that a term loan issued in connection with a credit facility was appropriately characterized as a loan, as opposed to a security. In its decision, the District Court granted a motion of the…

In a November 2, 2022 speech to the Practising Law Institute, a provider of legal educational programs, Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exhange Commission (“SEC”), detailed his agency’s record of vigorous oversight and regulatory measures targeting a number of boldface corporate names. As the SEC executes on its mission of overseeing markets,…

SEC policy makers are considering a new service provider rule proposals for US registered investment advisers. Currently, 15,000 of such entities in the United States provide advice to 60 million account holders with $100 trillion in assets under management. These include pension funds, endowments, retail investors and accounts in other spaces of the US and global economies….

On October 18, 2022, CoinDesk, a periodical, reported on the plans of Voyager Digital, a lender in the digital asset space, to enter into a settlement with two of its executives over decisions they made regarding a loan extended by Voyager to Three Arrows Capital (“3AC”), a hedge fund in the crypto space. Voyager, which…

On October 18, 2022, the New York Times detailed the actions taken by the U.S. Justice Department against Lafarge, a French construction conglomerate, for its dealings with the Syrian offshoot of ISIS, a terrorist organization also known as Islamic State. Operating from a plant near the Turkish border, Lafarge executives attempted to navigate the chaos…