In a unanimous decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the SEC’s “Private Fund Advisers Rule.” The Fifth Circuit determined that existing law did not provide the SEC the authority to issue rules covering private investment funds.
Read the full US Regulatory Intelligence article, SEC Strikes out on “Private Fund
On April 21, 2021, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed Bill 38 into law allowing Wyoming to recognize decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as limited liability companies. The bill was sponsored by Wyoming’s Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology and takes effect July 1, 2021.
Generally, a DAO is an organization controlled by
Once relegated to the fringe of the crypto/FinTech communities, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have recently exploded to the forefront of modern pop culture and are taking on an ever increasing number of forms—from collectible digital kittens, to sport highlights, to music albums, to pieces of art auctioned off by Christie’s for US $69.3 million.
But what,
The National Defense Authorization Act became law on January 1, 2021, after the U.S. Congress overrode a presidential veto. Division F of the Act is the “Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020” (AMLA).
In her latest The New York Law Journal column, “ AML Act of 2020: Topics of interest for international banks,” Kathleen Scott
On February 26, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Examinations (the “Division” and formerly known as “OCIE”) released a Risk Alert (the “Risk Alert”) reminding market participants – investment advisers, broker-dealers, exchanges, and transfer agents – of the framework surrounding digital assets that are securities (“Digital Asset Securities”). The Division also set
On December 8, 2020, BlueCrest Capital Management Limited (“BlueCrest”), a UK-based investment adviser, agreed to a $170 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to settle charges involving insufficient and misleading disclosures to investors that BlueCrest was also operating a proprietary, internal fund, moving its best traders to such fund and replacing the
When banks and certain other financial institutions open accounts for entities, among other anti-money laundering (AML) customer identification requirements, they must obtain beneficial ownership information on individuals owning 25% or more of the entity and a person with significant control over the entity such as a president or chief executive officer. We have published several
In a December 9, 2020, letter, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) extended its no-action relief to broker-dealers in securities (“broker-dealers”) that wish to rely on investment advisers to perform the broker-dealer’s obligations under US federal anti-money laundering (“AML”) customer identification program and beneficial owner identification regulations. First provided in 2004 regarding customer
On November 2, 2020, in an effort to harmonize and modernize the exempt offering framework under the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a final rule entitled “Facilitating Capital Formation and Expanding Investment Opportunities by Improving Access to Capital in Private Markets.”
In a
In a much-anticipated decision with important implications for the cryptocurrency industry, a second New York federal judge has now ruled that an offeror’s use of a two-stage “Simple Agreement for Future Tokens” or “SAFT” structure for issuing cryptocurrency tokens will not suffice to exempt the offering from the reach of US securities law. In this