Month: November 2021
CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. (“CanaFarma”) was recently indicted by the DOJ and concurrently, the SEC filed a complaint for securities fraud and misrepresentation in their offering documents. Co-founders of CanaFarma, Vitaly Fargesen, and Igor Palatnik, solicited and raised approximately $15 million from its investors. Fargesen and Palatnik failed to disclose that CanaFarma was not creating…
Read MoreBy Managing Partner Christopher Warren and Partner Todd Kulkin So you’re thinking of adding private equity to your investment portfolio. Rather than investing through a public exchange such as the stock market, private equity funds invest directly into private companies or buy out public companies, delisting them from the public market. Capital raised by private…
Read MoreThe North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) released its 2021 Reg BI Phase One report last week. The findings ultimately conclude that Reg BI is not as effective as NASAA had intended, as the percentage of broker-dealers not in compliance with these regulations has increased. For instance, the number of broker-dealers offering more complicated and…
Read MoreThe US Department of Treasury is keeping a suspicious eye on foreign crypto activity after the treasury recently blacklisted Russian-based SUEX for eliciting cyber-criminal activity. The deputy security of the department aims to keep applying pressure to foreign threats by investing in stronger technological resources and cyber-security expertise. The US Treasury has stated that they…
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In the very near future, it is projected that Stablecoins will be widely used by everyday consumers, and with this increased popularity and demand come new sets of regulations as well as traps for the unwary. US Congress is facing pressure from the US Treasury to fill these regulatory gaps and to address how these…
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On October 29th, 2021 the CFTC submitted its annual report to Congress containing information regarding its Whistleblower awards. Notable takeaways from the report: Whistleblowers who have reported information to the SEC or the NFA can also qualify for awards with the CFTC The total sanctions awarded by the CFTC exceeded over $1 billion dollars, with…
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US Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco is enforcing compliance regulations as a means to confront corporate and white-collar crime. Due to the previous administration’s stance on compliance regulations, Monaco’s stance is deemed significant and worth noting to clients. Monaco’s key takeaways from her speech included: Companies need to actively review their compliance programs to ensure…
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Along with Dodd-Frank, the SEC Whistleblower Program allows qualified whistleblowers to be entitled to 10-30 percent of funds recovered by the government due to information provided to assist the SEC. These established regulatory frameworks also provide anti-retaliation protections to the Whistleblower, awarding double back pay and uncapped damages for retaliatory termination. In this most recent…
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