By Porter Wright on The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has adopted its Final Rules to implement a whistleblower program mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The CFTC stated that it sought to harmonize its rules with those recently adopted by the SEC.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The SEC announced that its Whistleblower Rules, adopted on May 25, 2011 became effective today and the Commission launched its new web page (here) for that particular office. In addition, in his first speech since being appointed as Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower, Sean McKessey addressed some misunderstanding about certain hotly debated issues … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The SEC and Rajat Gupta have agreed to settle their dispute regarding the forum in which they should litigate the allegations of insider trading by the former Goldman Sachs director by dismissing the pending actions against each other. Specifically, the SEC has dismissed its Administrative Proceeding against Mr. Gupta alleging insider trading and the parties … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Thursday, July 21, 2011 (the first anniversary of the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act), SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs regarding the Commission’s efforts to fulfill its responsibilities under the Act. During her testimony, she advised the Committee that "the new responsibilities assigned to … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Monday, July 11, 2011, New York federal Judge Jed Rakoff denied the SEC’s Motion to Dismiss in Gupta v. SEC, No. 11-cv-1900 (S.D.N.Y.). The Plaintiff, Rajat Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs, has been accused by the SEC of having provided material nonpublic information to Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Management, who was recently … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on At an open meeting on Wednesday morning, the SEC adopted final rules to implement Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Act regarding securities whistleblower incentives and protection. One of the significant highlights of the final rules is that the Commission has sought to struck a compromise between the importance of the corporation’s compliance programs on the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In March 2011, an individual accused of participating in an insider trading scheme filed a Complaint against the SEC in federal court in New York, arguing, among other things, that the SEC should be enjoined from retroactively applying the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act in an administrative proceeding against him. On Friday April 1, 2011, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On March 10, 2011, the Boston Consulting Group ("BCG") submitted a Report to Congress examining the internal operations, structure and need for reform at the SEC. As part of its work, BCG reviewed extensive documentation and conducted over 425 interviews. The Report (available here) recommended a series of initiatives designed to optimize the SEC’s resources, but … Continue Reading