Weekly Stat: Will PPI Continue to Predict Rise in Overall Inflation?

On fourth-quarter earnings calls, anecdotal evidence clearly showed the prices of many goods and services produced by U.S. businesses were outpacing consumer inflation.For example, packaged food company Conagra Brands endured quarterly gross inflation in the double digits. In early January, CFO D...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 22, 2022

The DOJ Targets Fraud: 5 Things to Know

The costs to build and run a company compliance program can run into the millions or tens of millions of dollars. But the cost of non-compliance — in the form of fines, loss of customer trust, lost productivity, and operational expenses related to remediation — can be double or triple that.On Oct...

By Russ Banham • Feb. 18, 2022

Is Your Organization Too Risk-Averse?

Risk is a huge factor in business success. Taking a risk, that is, especially in the form of investments in innovation.Victoria Mendoza, CEO of Media Peanut and a former CFO, said that companies too averse to risk have a “bad strategy.” The pandemic may have added to the problem. It has made some...

By Karen Epper Hoffman • Feb. 9, 2022

Large Deals Meet Resistance

More than 37% of significant U.S. merger investigations resulted in an antitrust complaint or an abandoned transaction in the Biden administration's first year. That’s the highest observed since the Dechert law firm began tracking enforcement activity in 2011. “These outcomes indicate that the vo...

By Matt Heller • Feb. 7, 2022

Do You Spend Enough Time Assessing Strategic Risks?

Strategic risks, such as the potential for a major supply chain disruption, a failed venture, or a massive cyberattack, can be difficult to assess. But companies have found effective ways of drilling into these risks and developing quick-response action plans. This month, we look at the averag...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Jan. 26, 2022

2022 Regulatory Outlook: A Year of Big Developments?

The first year of the Biden administration featured ample discussion on proposed shifts in U.S. regulation. But given the usual changeover in regulatory heads, it was just that: discussion.2022 could be much more interesting. Several hot-button areas of interest to chief financial officers — invo...

By Matt Heller • Jan. 25, 2022

Supreme Court Rejects Workplace Vaccine Mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major blow to the Biden administration’s anti-COVID 19 efforts on Thursday, striking down its vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses.The court’s six conservative justices said the mandate exceeded the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Adminis...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 18, 2022

Three Charged in $4.7M Insider Trading Case

This story has been corrected to clarify the relationship of David Shottenstein to board members of DSW.The founder of designer sunglasses company Prive Revaux has been charged with using inside information to trade in advance of market-moving announcements involving companies with which his fami...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 7, 2022

COVID-19 Costs Insurance Sector $44 Billion

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the third most catastrophic event in history for the insurance industry though policy exclusions may have helped to keep the damage well below initial projections.According to broker Howden, the pandemic has so far cost insurers and reinsurers around $44 billion, be...

By Matthew Heller • Jan. 5, 2022

Taxicab Lender Manipulated Its Valuation and Touted Stock Illegally: SEC

This story was updated at 11:34 a.m. Eastern to include a statement from the company.When ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft decimated the taxi markets in major cities, the business of lending to taxicab owners and operators fell through the floor. Medallion Financial, whose core business ...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 5, 2022

SEC Allows Apple Shareholder Vote on NDAs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared the way for Apple shareholders to vote on a proposal requiring its board to review its use of non-disclosure agreements and other concealment clauses.In the proposal, activist investor Nia Impact Capital said Apple’s concealment clauses do n...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 23, 2021

SEC Issues Risk Disclosure Guidance for Chinese Issuers

In another move to step up its oversight of China-based companies, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new guidance on how they should disclose legal and operational risks to investors.The guidance issued on Monday in a sample comment letter covers both Chinese companies that s...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 22, 2021

Thieves Nab $100M in Pandemic Relief Funds

Fraudsters have stolen nearly $100 million from pandemic relief programs for businesses and the unemployed, according to the Secret Service.The amount of stolen funds represents roughly 3% of the $3.4 trillion dispersed under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Ec...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 22, 2021

Nikola Fined $125M for Investor Fraud

Electric vehicle maker Nikola has agreed to pay $125 million to settle charges that it misled investors about key aspects of its business, including its technology and a partnership with General Motors.The settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission came five months after Nikola’s...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 21, 2021

Walmart Sued for Illegal Toxic Waste Disposal

California officials have sued Walmart for allegedly dumping hazardous waste improperly at municipal landfills over the past six years.Since February 2015, the retail giant has illegally disposed of waste including alkaline and lithium batteries, insect killer sprays and other pesticides, aerosol...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 21, 2021

Ex-McDonald’s CEO Repays $105M Severance Deal

Former McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook has returned a severance package valued at $105 million to the company, ending an unusual legal battle that erupted after he was fired for sexual misconduct.McDonald’s announced on Thursday that it had settled the lawsuit it filed against Easterbrook in Aug...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 16, 2021

SEC Proposes Tighter Insider Trading Rule for Execs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday proposed tightening a rule that shields corporate executives from insider trading liability for making trades as part of a pre-announced portfolio management plan.Rule 10b5-1 applies to plans executed by a third party and set up at a time w...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 15, 2021

Large Employers Hesitant About Vax Mandate

Most large U.S. employers do not appear to be motivated to require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless the Biden administration’s mandate survives legal challenges.In a survey of 1,000 of its members, the Society for Human Resources Management found that 75% of those subject to the...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 14, 2021

FDIC Leaders Clash Over Bank Merger Policy

FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rebuked two Democratic members of its board on Thursday after they said the agency would seek public comment regarding its regulation of bank mergers.The announcement by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra and...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 10, 2021

SEC Chief Outlines Possible SPAC Reforms

SEC Chair Gary Gensler U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said Thursday that SPAC investors should have the same protections as investors in traditional IPOs, citing the potential for “information asymmetries, conflicts, and fraud.”In a speech, Gensler outlined possible op...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 9, 2021

American Renal Execs Charged With Manipulating Revenue

American Renal Associates and three of its former finance executives have been charged with engaging in a multimillion-dollar revenue recognition fraud to boost its financial performance.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint on Monday against ARA, a provider of dialy...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 7, 2021

SEC Finalizes Rules on Chinese Issuers

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has finalized the rules it will use to implement a law that allows it to delist Chinese stocks.Under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), the SEC can ban companies from trading and delist them from exchanges if the Public Company Accou...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 3, 2021

Pharma CFO Charged With Insider Trading

Former Immunomedics CFO Usama Malik and his ex-girlfriend have been charged with using inside information he had obtained about one of the pharmaceutical firm’s drugs to trade in its shares.According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Malik was living with Lauren Wood, Immunomedics’ ...

By Matthew Heller • Dec. 3, 2021

How to Make a Good Impression in Bankruptcy Court

How should a chapter 11 debtor’s financial information be presented to the bankruptcy court to create the best first impression? To give the court an accurate picture of the results of operations during Chapter 11 and for the debtor to get sufficient time in bankruptcy to achieve its goals?The pa...

By Kenneth A. Rosen • Dec. 1, 2021

Musk Warns SpaceX Employees of Bankruptcy Risk

SpaceX founder Elon Musk told employees the space company faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if its biggest reusable rocket Starship cannot meet a flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year, Space Explored reported on Tuesday, citing an internal email.An upset Musk told employees in...

By Vincent Ryan • Dec. 1, 2021