By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
This week's Department of Justice "Catch of the Week" goes to Morgan Stanley. Yesterday, the company agreed to pay a $2.6 billion penalty "for misleading investors about the subprime mortgage loans underlying the securities it sold" in the period leading up to the financial crisis. As part of the agreement, Morgan Stanley admitted that it failed to disclose critical...
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
This State Enforcement Spotlight features HSBC. On Friday, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a $470 million joint state-federal settlement with mortgage lender and servicer HSBC to address mortgage origination, servicing, and foreclosure abuses. The terms will prevent past foreclosure abuses, such as robo-signing, improper documentation and lost paperwork. See NY AG...
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team
On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) announced that Deutsche Bank will pay $258 million for New York Banking Law violations stemming from financial transactions it made on behalf of countries and entities subject to US sanctions. Specifically, the government found that from at least 1999 through 2006, Deutsche Bank conducted more than...
By Richard Pike
As we announced earlier this week, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed new rules to promote whistleblowing. This post discusses the new requirements and identifies some shortcomings.
Readers outside the UK will need some background to put the new rules in context. The existing whistleblower regime in the UK does not go down the US route of providing financial rewards for...
By Marlene Koury
A new whistleblower platform and campaign was launched this week in hopes of encouraging banking and financial sector employees to blow the whistle on unfair practices and corruption. The campaign -- Whistleblow Wall Street – will include billboards on Wall Street, along with a leaflet campaign in New York, Washington D.C., St. Louis, and Orlando.
The campaign aims to connect with anyone...
In the wake of the Great Financial Crisis, there was both a public and private battle cry of "Never Again!" Dodd-Frank was passed with its sweeping regulations to keep Wall Street in check, and federal and state enforcers went on regulatory rampage extracting 9 and10-figure settlements from a who's who list of the world's top financial firms. Not many Wall Street...
BlackRock Advisors LLC agreed to pay a $12 million penalty to settle SEC charges it breached its fiduciary duty by failing to disclose a conflict of interest created by the outside business activity of a top-performing portfolio manager. The firm also must engage an independent compliance consultant to conduct an internal review. See SEC Press Release
According to the...
By Jason Enzler
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a decision that many had hailed as one of the first to really hold Wall Street accountable for its behavior in the years leading up to the Great Recession. The opinion, issued yesterday, found that New York District Court Judge Jed Rakoff abused his discretion in rejecting a deal brokered between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup,...