Zenefits Fined $7 Million Over Insurance Sales

HR software startup Zenefits has agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges that it allowed unlicensed employees to sell insurance and circumvented training requirements for insurance agents.The fine is one of the largest penalties the California Department of Insurance has assessed for licensing...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 29, 2016

Court Blocks Obama’s Expansion of Overtime

A Texas judge has halted enforcement of a new rule that would  qualify millions more workers for overtime pay, finding the Labor Department exceeded its authority in increasing the minimum salary level for eligibility.The rule — a signature Obama administration initiative to expand the middle cla...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 25, 2016

Ally Financial Fined $52M Over MBS Marketing

Ally Financial has agreed to pay $52 million to resolve a federal investigation that found a subsidiary marketed residential mortgage-backed securities despite knowing the underlying loans were toxic.The misconduct involved 10 subprime RMBS offerings in the RASC-EMX series between 2006 and 2007 f...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 22, 2016

Sensing Change

Late afternoon one Friday in July, Lee Spach, global supply chain security director for biotech firm Biogen, received an alert on his phone. Earlier in the day, a multimillion-dollar shipment of a frozen, highly concentrated biologic substance used for making a new drug had been loaded into a ref...

By Yasmin Ghahremani • Nov. 22, 2016

How to Comply With New Human Rights Rules

Many companies are lagging in their efforts to achieve compliance with a spate of new laws and regulations worldwide for reporting on the use of forced labor within their supply chains, according to a report by Deloitte.Driving the sluggishness in some measure is a lack of guidance from regulator...

By David McCann • Nov. 22, 2016

Your Supply Chain Is Riddled with Risk

Speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness are big supply-chain priorities these days, especially for just-in-time products. But the leaner you make a supply chain, the riskier it gets — especially when it comes to the moving parts, like cargo.As your goods wend their way across continents and oce...

By Kevin Ingram • Nov. 22, 2016

808 Renewable Energy CEO Charged With Fraud

The founder and CEO of 808 Renewable Energy Corp. has been charged with orchestrating a scheme to steal millions of dollars from investors to support his lifestyle and pay commissions to sales agents who allegedly helped him perpetrate the fraud.Between 2009 through 2014, 808 Renewable raised mor...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 18, 2016

Ex-Valeant, Philidor Execs Accused of Kickback Scheme

The former CEO of Philidor Rx Services has been charged with paying a former Valeant Pharmaceuticals executive $10 million in kickbacks in return for promoting Philidor’s mail-order pharmacy services to the drugmaker’s management.Both Andrew Davenport, the ex-Philidor CEO, and former Valeant exec...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 18, 2016

SEC Approves New Markets Oversight System

After multiple delays, an effort to improve oversight of U.S. equity and options markets took a major step forward as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the $2.4 billion consolidated audit trail (CAT) system.With Tuesday’s vote, a committee of stock and options exchanges can pro...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 16, 2016

Feds Sue DirecTV over Dodger Channel Blackout

The U.S. government has gone to bat for consumers in a three-year-old dispute between Time Warner Cable and pay-TV companies over a channel dedicated to Los Angeles Dodger baseball games.TWC and the Dodgers agreed in 2013 to an $8.35-billion, 25-year deal to broadcast games but fans have been shu...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 3, 2016

Boards Push Insurers to Quantify Cyber Risks

Galvanized by recent cyber attacks against corporations, boards of directors are pushing their companies’ risk managers as well as the insurance industry to quantify cyber risks. The push for better predictive data on computer breaches stems from directors’ desire for clarity on how to either sel...

By David Katz • Oct. 31, 2016

SEC Eases Restrictions on Intrastate Offerings

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has updated its rules on intrastate offerings of securities to allow issuers to solicit financing outside of their states while still avoiding the burdens of federal registration.The commission acted in response to concerns that its Rule 147 was out of ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 28, 2016

Tenn. Bank Director Accused of Insider Trading

A former director of Pinnacle Financial Partners has been charged with insider trading for buying shares in the target of an impending merger after learning of the deal at a meeting of the board’s executive committee.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said James C. Cope, 67, made his fir...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 26, 2016

Judge OKs $14.7B Settlement in VW Scandal

Volkswagen on Tuesday took a major step toward extricating itself from its diesel emission cheating scandal as a California judge approved a historic $14.7 billion settlement with 475,000 vehicle owners.The deal, the largest-ever reached with an automaker accused of misconduct, gives owners of Vo...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 25, 2016

TelexFree Founder Pleads Guilty to Massive Scam

The founder and former CEO of TelexFree has pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges for his role in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that targeted investors in the internet phone service company.James Merrill, 55, accepted a plea agreement just weeks before he was set to go to trial on nine co...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 25, 2016

Energy Services Vendor, Execs, Settle SEC Fraud Case

An energy services provider and four of its former executives has settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges of taking part in an accounting fraud scheme that booked tens of millions of dollars in improper revenue, some from non-existent accounts, over a two-year span.Without admitting or...

By Sean Allocca • Oct. 20, 2016

SEC Fines ‘Fantasy Sports for Stocks’ Company

The operator of a mobile phone app that allowed users to make “fantasy stock” picks has been charged with illegally offering security-based swaps.The Forcerank app has been described as “fantasy sports for stocks,” offering contests in which players would rank a group of stocks or exchange traded...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 14, 2016

SEC Hit Record Enforcement Highs in 2016

It’s been a busy year for the SEC —  in fact, one of the busiest on record. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced its enforcement results for fiscal year 2016, posting record numbers for actions filed and money forfeited.The SEC filed 868 enforcement actions, in the year ending Sept. 3...

By Sean Allocca • Oct. 13, 2016

Court Finds Structure of CFPB Unconstitutional

A federal appeals court has ruled that the single-director structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional but stopped short of shutting the controversial agency down.The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said having a single director who can only be removed by the President...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 12, 2016

Joint Ventures: Proceed with Caution

As joint venture agreements gain in popularity, corporate executives should be aware of the legal challenges and pitfalls that present themselves in these unique commercial arrangements.Jonathan Cogan The benefits of joint venture (JV) agreements are clear: They provide a framework for deeper col...

By Jonathan Cogan and Will Rosenzweig • Oct. 10, 2016

Mylan Underpaid U.S. on Rebates for EpiPen

Mylan NV underpaid the federal-state Medicaid program in rebates owed on sales of EpiPen by misclassifying the emergency allergic reaction treatment as a generic drug, according to a federal regulator.Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CM...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 6, 2016

Tenet Settles Kickback Charges for $513M

Tenet Healthcare has agreed to pay $513 million to settle charges that its hospitals in Georgia and South Carolina paid kickbacks to an operator of prenatal clinics in return for referrals.The hospital chain said Monday it had finalized a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice that resolves bot...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 4, 2016

A Foreign Government Blocks a Huge Customer Payment. Now What?

[Editor’s note: the following is a fictional scenario.]It was 4:30 a.m. and the phone must have just rung five times, probably waking up everyone in the house. Bleary-eyed, I could see that the call was coming in from Jimmy Callaghan, chief operating officer of my company’s Latin America division...

By Marc Wagman • Oct. 3, 2016

Och-Ziff Settles Africa Bribery Case for $412M

In the first U.S. foreign bribery case against a hedge fund, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has agreed to pay $412 million to settle charges that senior employees paid off government officials in Africa to secure business for the firm.Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., said Och-Ziff “posit...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 30, 2016

Puma Biotech Exec Accused of Insider Trading

A former Puma Biotechnology executive has been charged with making more than $1.1 million in illicit profits by trading in the company’s shares ahead of positive news about its breast cancer drug.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Robert Gadimian, 46, learned sensitive, nonpublic in...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 30, 2016