While SEC investigations can target accounting firms, individual accounting professionals can find themselves individually targeted as well. This can range from individual audit partners to individual staff accountants. It should also be noted that…
Generally, yes, provided you can adequately demonstrate a lack of funds to pay the civil monetary penalty. The SEC’s Enforcement Manual expressly places the burden of proving an “inability-to-pay” on the respondents, and it…
Rule 10b5-1 provides traders with an “affirmative defense” against insider trading liability. Under the Exchange Act, it protects those who execute written plans to trade securities before having “material nonpublic information” in their possession.…
The SEC investigation and the criminal investigation are not the same proceeding. They are frequently the same facts, viewed through different statutory frameworks by different agencies that share information freely. Securities fraud occupies a…
The case is built before you are informed of it. The indicators are present earlier than people expect. Federal criminal investigations are designed to reach a point of sufficient evidentiary development before the subject…
The government does not need to prove that you made money. It needs to prove that you traded while possessing information that the public did not have,...
The Commission Has Already Formed Its Theory Before You Receive the Letter \n\n Most people who become subjects of an SEC investigation learn of it too...