Category: Financial Regulation Law

December 19, 2022

Eight Finance Social Media Influencers Charged In $100 Million Market Manipulation Scheme

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has announced charges against eight finance-oriented social media influencers in an alleged $100 million securities fraud scheme, in which they engaged in “pump-and-dump” market manipulation by leveraging their following on various social media platforms. The securities fraud charges, unsealed on December 13th, name seven defendants with an eighth… Read More

June 13, 2022

Deposit Method Standards and Cryptocurrency in Regulated iGaming and Sports Betting Industries

Despite being the most widespread form of non-fiat money, cryptocurrency has struggled to gain traction as a broader means of exchange and payment, including in the internet gaming (“iGaming”) and sports betting industries. While there are no industry-wide standards for acceptable deposit methods, gaming regulators have tended toward two approaches, neither of which explicitly permits… Read More

February 15, 2019

UPDATE – NOT SO FAST INDEED: DISTRICT COURT BALKS AT SEC’S BLANKET CHARACTERIZATION OF TOKENS AS SECURITIES BUT THEN RECONSIDERS RULING

An issue of major importance to cryptocurrency and digital token markets has been whether tokens were all to be considered securities under U.S. law.  The SEC’s frequent admonishments that it would consider ICOs to be securities offerings has caused a dramatic slowdown in the US ICO market.  In one of the first cases to test… Read More

December 5, 2017

Did the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers Play a Role in the GOP Tax Plan?

Congress is poised to deliver on tax reform this year. As part of the package, both houses are seeking to encourage the repatriation of trillions of dollars that corporations and wealthy individuals have been stockpiling offshore. For decades, corporations and wealthy individuals have been able to avoid taxes legally by transferring assets to tax-friendly jurisdictions… Read More

August 12, 2016

The E-Rate Honey Pot

When you grant access to a $ 4 billion fund and give fund participants relative autonomy in how they use those funds, ne’er-do-wells will sniff their way to the honey pot. Keeping them out can be a challenge. So goes the story of the federally administered Schools and Libraries Program, better known as E-Rate. Established… Read More

April 15, 2016

Good News: The Feds Can’t Freeze Your Assets to Stop You from Hiring a Lawyer

Republished with permission from FEE.org, originally published April 12, 2016 There are limits to what the government can take from you. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Constitution forbids the government from freezing a defendant’s “untainted” assets in advance of prosecution. The ruling is a significant victory for those caught in the government’s crosshairs. It… Read More

March 30, 2016

Online Poker: A New Way to Bank?

In light of Tax Day (note that it’s on the 18th of April this year due to a holiday on the 15th) we want to point out a curious ramification from a federal case concerning online gambling, tax reports, and foreign accounts. In United States v. Hom [1], the defendant, John C. Hom, was an… Read More