By Ken Berg on Posted in Administrative Proceedings,appeal,Defenses,SECHere is an important post by my partner, Ken Berg, regarding SEC administrative proceedings, and what we can expect following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lucia. – Alan By now everyone knows the US Supreme Court declared the SEC’s administrative proceedings unconstitutional because the ALJs were improperly hired by the SEC staff instead of… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in Defenses,Disciplinary Process,Enforcement,FINRA,Rule 2010I am on the record, many times, with my belief that, at least in theory, FINRA should never lose any Enforcement cases it files. This is for the simple reason that if FINRA has any genuine doubts about its ability to prevail in front of a hearing panel, due to the quality of the evidence… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in Defenses,Disciplinary Process,Enforcement,SEC,SettlementsA little over a year ago, the SEC announced a stunning settlement with Merrill Lynch regarding its violation of SEC Rule 15c3-3, commonly known as the “Customer Protection Rule.” This is an important rule whose name gives away its purpose: it is designed to ensure that if a broker-dealer ever fails, customer assets can be… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in Administrative Proceedings,Defenses,Disciplinary Process,SECThis one belongs in the “truth is stranger than fiction” category. By now, you are probably familiar with the exploits of Dawn Bennett, former hostess of her radio show, “Financial Myth Busting.” She was the one who the SEC permanently barred last year after she elected not to appear at her administrative hearing (after her… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in CCO,Defenses,Disciplinary Process,Enforcement,FINRA,SupervisionThere’s a claimant’s lawyer I’ve litigated against several times who is very good at his job, and who I personally like very much. Part of the reason for his success is that he is very engaging, so even when he utterly lacks any decent facts on which to base his claim – which is often… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in Defenses,Disciplinary Process,Enforcement,FINRA,Sanctions,SupervisionRemember a few weeks ago? Remember I blogged about Robert Cook, FINRA’s new CEO? And how he was saying all the right things about FINRA perhaps being juuuuust a bit too Enforcement oriented? I expressed hope – sincere but wary hope – that given his remarks, it was possible that the pendulum might actually start… Continue Reading
By Ken Berg on Posted in Administrative Proceedings,Defenses,Disciplinary Process,SECIn my second post on constitutionally-based affirmative defenses to SEC administrative proceedings, I discussed the shift of momentum in favor of the defense that the process of hiring SEC ALJs violates the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This post examines the defense that the process of removing SEC ALJs violates the separation of power… Continue Reading
By Ken Berg on Posted in Administrative Proceedings,Defenses,SECThis is the first in a series of posts by my partner, Ken Berg, discussing the constitutional defenses to SEC administrative enforcement actions, which we are called upon regularly to defend. Each subsequent post will discuss one of the constitutional issues and report the current state of the law as to that defense. Ken’s next… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in 17(a)(3),Administrative Proceedings,appeal,Defenses,Enforcement,FINRA,SECYears ago, I handled the defense of a FINRA Enforcement case that still galls me. The client sent a series of emails, over many months, about a particular security to customers who already owned the stock. The point of the emails was largely to provide updates, and, from time-to-time, to suggest that the customers consider… Continue Reading
By Blaine Doyle on Posted in Compliance,Defenses,Disciplinary Process,FINRAIn Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, Odysseus and the crew of his ship are faced with the impossible choice of either sailing closer to Charybdis, a whirlpool capable of sinking their entire ship, or, alternatively, to Scylla, a sea monster just as deadly. Odysseus’ dilemma sprang to mind as I listened to a presentation last… Continue Reading
By Alan Wolper on Posted in Defenses,Disciplinary Process,Enforcement,FINRA,Settlements,Wells processWith any luck, you can go your entire career in the securities industry without ever participating in the dreaded “Wells process.” And that’s a good thing, as the Wells process occurs only after FINRA has completed an examination and has concluded that whatever it has encountered is so serious that a formal disciplinary action is… Continue Reading
