Bitcoin Trader Accused of $600K Ponzi Scam

The CEO of a New York hedge fund has been charged with operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors whom they had solicited to participate in a fund for trading Bitcoin.The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Nicholas Gelfman, chief executive of Gelfman Blueprint Inc. (GBI), raise...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 22, 2017

CPA Accused of Illegal Trades on Drug Firm News

A former senior accountant at Celator Pharmaceuticals and three others have been charged with trading on inside information about two market-moving announcements by the company, realizing $411,000 in illicit profits.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the accountant, Evan Kita, tippe...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 1, 2017

Why Stand Alone Against Cyber Risk?

While most companies now have insurance policies that cover specific cyber risks, a growing number are getting their cyber liability coverage as part of broader policies that cover other property-casualty exposures, according to survey results released on Thursday by the Risk and Insurance Manage...

By David Katz • Aug. 24, 2017

Fraudsters Fare Worse When Whistles Blow

Finance executives that “cook the books” not only have to worry about being exposed by a whistleblower, they and their companies also are more likely to be hit with financial penalties — and likely to pay far higher ones — when a whistleblower is involved in a government enforcement process.A new...

By David McCann • Aug. 16, 2017

Uber Settles FTC Case Over Privacy Violations

Uber has agreed to submit to regular audits of its privacy safeguards to settle allegations that it failed to monitor employee access to customers’ personal information and reasonably secure sensitive consumer data stored in the cloud.The settlement announced Tuesday concludes a U.S. Federal Trad...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 15, 2017

Six Ways to Curb the Costs of a Data Breach

For those paying attention, 2017 has provided a steady and impressive litany of data breach victims, from video games to hotels to burrito shops to nearly every American voter. This is a direct continuation of the trend from 2016, in which roughly 40% of breached companies had under $100 million ...

By Rotem Iram • Aug. 2, 2017

Halliburton Hit for $29.2 Million in FCPA Case

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Halliburton Co. with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company has agreed to pay $29.2 million to settle the case.According to the SEC, Halliburton violated the FCPA’s books and records provisions, as well as the law’s inte...

By David McCann • July 27, 2017

SEC Delivers ‘Jolt’ to Initial Coin Offerings

Digital coin offerings are now likely to come under stricter scrutiny as a result of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.In a report issued Tuesday, the SEC cautioned market participants that federal securities laws apply to offers and sales of digital assets by “virtu...

By Matthew Heller • July 26, 2017

Fraud Charges for Ex-Oil Company Finance Execs

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Penn West Petroleum and three of its former top finance executives with fraud, alleging they improperly moved hundreds of millions of dollars from operating expense accounts to capital expenditure accounts.The SEC said former CFO Todd Takeyasu, f...

By William Sprouse • June 29, 2017

EU Hits Google with Record Fine

The Internet giant has been ordered to change its practices or face further financial penalties.Google has been hit with a record fine of $2.7 billion after the European Commission found it violated antitrust regulations by manipulating search results.The company must change its behavior within 9...

By William Sprouse • June 27, 2017

Why Cybersecurity Is Financially Undervalued

Like the way in which the Enron fraud scandal led to the development of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, recent cyber scandals (e.g., Target, Sony, Home Depot), which resulted in huge financial losses, may motivate the development of a new cybersecurity-focused corporate accountability movement and/or con...

By Kevin Magee • June 23, 2017

Cybersecurity Demands a Military Mindset

American corporations have a high degree of cybersecurity risk awareness, and yet many enterprises, especially in non-regulated sectors, fall short in their cybersecurity stance.  This is mainly because executives see security as an ROI-less investment mandated by regulation.Even worse, executive...

By Gilad Peleg • June 21, 2017

High Court Limits Scope of SEC Disgorgement

In a major victory for Wall Street firms, the U.S. Supreme Court has narrowed the reach of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “disgorgement” remedy, its principal enforcement tool.The high court on Monday sided with a New Mexico-based investment adviser in ruling that disgorgement is subjec...

By Matthew Heller • June 5, 2017

WannaCry’s Lessons: Patch Windows, Be Real About Risk

The recent WannaCry cyber attack is one of the most widespread we’ve ever seen, and one of the most preventable.In this case, having Windows up to date was enough to thwart the hackers. Updating Windows is not an expensive or difficult thing to do. Thus the fact that organizations around the worl...

By Jonathan Stone • May 30, 2017

Hedge Funders Charged With Insider Trading

Two analysts at Deerfield Capital Management have been charged with generating nearly $4 million in illicit profits for the hedge fund by trading on nonpublic information in advance of market-moving government announcements on Medicare reimbursement rates.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissi...

By Matthew Heller • May 24, 2017

Target to Pay States $18.5M Over Data Breach

Taking another step to put a massive data breach in 2013 behind it, Target has agreed to pay $18.5 million to 47 states and the District of Columbia.The settlement resolves the states’ investigation into the breach, which affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts and exposed co...

By Matthew Heller • May 23, 2017

Man Accused of Making Phony Bid for Fitbit

A Virginia-based mechanical engineer has been charged with manipulating Fitbit’s share price by filing a phony tender offer for the company on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system.The SEC said Robert W. Murray, 24, purchased Fitbit call options on Nov. 10, 2016 minutes befor...

By Matthew Heller • May 22, 2017

OSHA Delays Workplace Injury Reporting Rule

The Trump administration has suspended an Obama-era rule requiring companies to post their worker injury and illness data on a government website, fueling concerns that it is trying to ignore the regulation.The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced earlier this week that it is “...

By Matthew Heller • May 19, 2017

Ex-Nomura Traders Accused of CMBS Fraud

Two former head traders at Nomura Securities International have been charged with generating more than $750,000 in illicit profits for the firm from trading commercial mortgage-backed securities on the secondary market.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said James Im and Kee Chan — both ...

By Matthew Heller • May 16, 2017

Advice to Cyber Insurance Buyers: You Are Not Alone

The cyber insurance market continues to evolve, and the number of companies buying cyber insurance continues to expand. What’s more, that expanding cyber market offers a wide variety of coverage terms at different price points.But companies interested in securing cyber insurance should know that ...

By Lynda Bennett • May 9, 2017

High Court Clears Way for Suits Against GM

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear General Motor’s appeal of a lower court decision that would allow hundreds of customer lawsuits over a deadly ignition-switch defect to proceed.GM’s petition for Supreme Court review focused on the issue of whether the automaker was shielded from liabili...

By Matthew Heller • April 25, 2017

SEC Keeps up High Rate of Enforcement Activity

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement activity continued at a strong pace during the first half of fiscal 2017 despite the uncertainty hanging over the agency since President Donald Trump took office.Between Oct. 1 and March 31, the SEC filed 334 total enforcement actions, compared ...

By Matthew Heller • April 21, 2017

Raymond James to Pay $150M Over Resort Fraud

Raymond James has agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that it helped the owner and president of a failed Vermont ski resort misuse hundreds of millions of dollars raised through the federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program.The case of the Jay Peak resort is the largest EB-5 fraud...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2017

SEC Alleges Insider Trading on Telecom Deal

One or more unknown traders made more than $1 million in illicit profits by trading in General Communication Inc. call option contracts in advance of its acquisition by Liberty Interactive, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged.The identity of the traders was not disclosed in a ...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2017

Two Accused of Insider Trading on Mobileye Deal

In the second insider trading case arising from the $15.3 billion takeover of Mobileye NV by Intel, two Virginia men have been charged with making $925,000 in illicit profits based on nonpublic information about the pending deal.The U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission accused Lawrence Cluff ...

By Matthew Heller • April 7, 2017