Kevin J. Harnisch (US)

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SEC adopts climate-related disclosure rules

On 6 March 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules by a 3-2 vote that would require domestic and foreign registrants to provide climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and annual reports. Read our full update here.… Continue Reading

Webinar: The impact of California’s new ESG climate disclosure legislation

On 18 January 2024, members of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP hosted a webinar to discuss the sweeping impact of California’s new ESG climate disclosure legislation. The session provides an update on some of the key aspects of California’s recently enacted legislation that requires certain public and private US companies doing business in California to … Continue Reading

US SEC adopts wide-reaching rules for private fund advisers

On August 23, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted highly controversial new rules and rule amendments to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 in an effort to further regulate the private funds industry. These new rules attempt to “increase transparency, competition and efficiency in the private funds market.” Our client update can be found … Continue Reading

US Federal Court issues mixed ruling in watershed SEC action on Ripple’s XRP

On July 13, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a mixed decision as to whether various sales and issuances of the XRP token (XRP) by Ripple Labs, Inc. (Ripple) and two of its executives (collectively the defendants) constituted the sale of an unregistered security in violation of … Continue Reading

New briefing note: SEC adopts heightened reporting requirements for private funds

In our latest briefing note we look at the SEC’s adoption of new amendments enhancing disclosure requirements for private funds. The amendments are designed to ‘enhance the ability of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to assess systemic risk and to bolster the Commission’s oversight of private fund advisers and its investor protection efforts’.… Continue Reading

New FinTech Pulse podcast: US federal regulators’ regulatory enforcement activity against crypto exchanges

In a special edition of our FinTech Pulse podcast series, US partners Stephen Aschettino, Andrew Lom and Kevin Harnisch discuss the recent uptick in regulatory enforcement activity from federal regulators against crypto exchanges, with the SEC issuing a Wells Notice to Coinbase and suing Beaxy, and the CFTC suing Binance and seeking permanent injunctions to … Continue Reading

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our readers

To all of our global readers we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will resume posting material following the festive period on 9 January 2023 although if there are any significant developments we will endeavour to provide an update.… Continue Reading

Another sky-high settlement: Airline fined more than US$150m for FCPA violations

On September 15, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL), an airline headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, agreed to pay more than US$150m to resolve parallel investigations by criminal and civil authorities in the US and Brazil, stemming from … Continue Reading

US DOJ announces corporate criminal enforcement policy revisions

Following Deputy AG Lisa Monaco’s remarks at the White Collar Conference last year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) created a Corporate Crime Advisory Group to revise DOJ’s Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies. On September 15, 2022, Monaco announced the group’s first major round of revisions. The revisions reiterate a focus on individual accountability, voluntary disclosure, and … Continue Reading

US SEC prevented from expanding fraudulent scheme liability

In a decision with significant implications for securities litigation and enforcement, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently rebuffed an attempt by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to broaden the scope of “scheme liability” under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 17(a) of the … Continue Reading

The SEC Plans to Continue Its Brisk and Broad Rule making

On June 22 2022, the SEC published its Spring 2022 regulatory agenda in which it outlined the Commission’s short and long-term regulatory interests. The SEC appears intent on proceeding with its fast-paced stream of proposed rule makings that have dominated the first half of this year. The agenda includes rule making related to climate change, … Continue Reading

US SEC proposes new ESG disclosure rules for funds and advisers

On May 25, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new rules to enhance the regulatory framework for disclosures concerning investment funds and investment advisers’ environmental, social and governance-related (ESG) investing strategies (the Proposed Rules).  If adopted, the Proposed Rules would require SEC-registered advisers to include ESG factors and strategies for investors in fund … Continue Reading

US SEC settlement demonstrates the risks to investment advisers of using ESG investment decision-making metrics

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been increasingly vocal about its view that environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures can be material to investors. To help combat ESG disclosure violations, the SEC created a Climate and Risk Task Force within the Division of Enforcement. As a result of the Task Force’s efforts, on … Continue Reading

Return of the monitorship: SEC and DOJ settle US$84M FCPA claims and impose monitorship on medical waste services company

In October 2021, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced revised US Department of Justice (DOJ) guidance on corporate monitorships, signaling a sharp change in the declining trend of the tool over the past few years. (NRF has previously examined the DOJ’s policy changes.) Recently, the DOJ and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced … Continue Reading

Happy Easter to our readers

To all of our global readers we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Easter. We will resume posting material on 26 April although if there are any significant developments we will endeavour to provide an update.… Continue Reading

NRF contributes chapter to GIR’s Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations

The UK and US white-collar crime teams have again authored the chapter Production of Information to the Authorities in the sixth and latest edition of Global Investigations Review – The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations. Information requests from regulators continue to raise a host of complex legal and practical issues for entities and individuals. The chapter sets … Continue Reading

Not Fair, But Not False

On January 27, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit acquitted two former traders, Matthew Connolly and Gavin Campbell Black, who had been convicted by a jury for wire fraud as well as conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud in a scheme to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”).  … Continue Reading

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our readers

To all of our global readers we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will resume posting material following the festive period on 6 January 2021 although if there are any significant developments we will endeavour to provide an update.… Continue Reading

House Passes Bill Directing Disclosure of ESG Metrics

On June 16, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1187, the “ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021” (“Act”), by a 215-214 vote. The Act, if passed by the U.S. Senate and signed into law by President Biden, would direct the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) to issue rules requiring public … Continue Reading

Post script: Airbus subsidiary pleads guilty to corruption offence

On 28 April 2021, Airbus’ UK subsidiary GPT Special Project Management Ltd (GPT) was convicted of corruption and sentenced to pay penalties of over £30m by the Crown Court in London. This case preceded the wider investigation into Airbus culminating in its US$3.9 billion global deferred prosecution agreement in 2020 (see our previous article here). … Continue Reading

Regulation Tomorrow Podcast – Episode 6 out now

Episode 6 of the Regulation Tomorrow Podcast is out now. In the latest edition of our monthly podcast, we take a look at some of the main regulatory news stories from across the globe in the financial services space. We begin with a look at the Woolard Review in the UK with Matthew Gregory, who … Continue Reading
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