Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Ex-Employer Wants Would-Be Whistleblower’s Appeal Dismissed In Light of the US Supreme Court’s Ruling Over Alien Tort Statute Claims

Published on: May 8, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In light of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum Co., the attorney for GE Energy (USA) wants the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to dismiss would-be whistleblower Khaled Asadi’s appeal to have his lawsuit, contending that his firing violates the protections provided to him under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, reinstated. Asadi filed his complaint against the company last year claiming that his former employer had violated the whistleblower anti-retaliation provisions. The dual Iraqi and US citizen says that he was let go from his job after he told GE Energy’s ombudsman and his supervisor about a hiring situation that could violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

A district court, however, threw out his case, finding that, per the Supreme Court’s ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., applying the anti-retaliation provisions to behavior that happened abroad is precluded. Asadi then went to the Fifth Circuit, arguing that Dodd-Frank protects employees that report violations of any rule, law, or regulation that is under SEC jurisdiction. He claims that these protections extend to US citizens who work abroad and report information about securities violations.

Asadi believes that the way Dodd-Frank incorporates the FCPA supports his claim that the whistleblower protections do have “extraterritorial applicability.” He noted that the anti-corruption statute has a “clear statement rule” that is applicable to individuals and companies outside the US.

SEC Submits Request for Data on Whether to Make Brokers & Investment Advisers Abide by Uniform Fiduciary Standard

Published on: April 4, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities and Exchange Commission has put out its request for information to help it decide whether to impose a uniform standard of care on both investment advisers and broker-dealers that give advice to retail customers. The comment period ends 120 days after the data request, which was issued on March 1, is published in the Federal Register.

Responding to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s Section 913, the SEC conducted a study on the effectiveness of the current standards for investment advisers and brokers. Following its examination, Commission staff recommended that the regulator take part in rulemaking to establish a uniform fiduciary standard for those that provide customized retail investments. However, last year, after then-SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro announced that the agency was putting together a request for information so it could decide whether to follow this recommendation, the initiative had to be delayed due to a lack of support from other commissioners.

Now, in this latest request request, the Commission was quick to stress that it has yet to decide whether such a rulemaking needs to happen or what one would entail. It also asked for data regarding others areas impacting both investment advisers and brokers that could benefit from harmonization, including business conduct rules, licensing advertising, registration, and books and records.

SEC Whistleblower Office Will Place More Emphasis on Anti-Retaliation Provisions and Publicity This Year

Published on: January 29, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Securities and Exchange Commission Office of the Whistleblower Chief Sean McKessy, the unit will take a more aggressive approach to publicizing its activities and figuring out how to better enforce the anti-retaliation provisions of its bounty program. McKessy spoke at the DC Bar organized enforcement conference earlier this month and noted that his views were his own and not necessarily that of the SEC.

McKessy said that despite the Commission’s efforts to offer whistleblower provisions that incentivize internal reporting, some corporations have still not told employees about the bounty program. Per the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the SEC can now offer 10-30% of a monetary penalty greater than $1 million that is collected because of “original information” voluntarily offered up by an informant.

Also, per the statute, the SEC has the authority to enforce its anti-retaliation provisions, which protects whistleblowers that provide this information, or commit certain other lawful acts, from retaliatory actions—particularly from employers. McKessy, however, noted that it is too soon to know whether the agency will incorporate an anti-retaliation action to its whistleblower program.

SEC Roundup: Lawmakers Question Structural Reform Costs, Enforcement Director Khuzami to Step Down, & New Commission Chairman Names General Counsel is Named

Published on: January 9, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Lawmakers Question the SEC About Costs Related to Structural Reform

Per the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s Section 967, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been tasked with assessing how to restructure its operations to better its use of internal communications and resources. The restructuring plan is being referred to as the Mission Advancement Program. However, lawmakers are concerned that this effort may be too expensive—especially because of the costs associated with retaining independent consultant Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. to help with the restructuring.

Earlier this month, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked the SEC for information about how much the Commission expects to save through the Booz Allen-recommended reforms, its 2012 fiscal year budget for Office of the Chief Operating Officer, CEO Jeffery Heslop’s yearly compensation, the May 2011 contract between the agency and Booz Allen, and the payments that have been made to the latter.

GAO Says Most Financial Regulators Don’t Have the Procedures/Policies to Coordinate Dodd-Frank Rules

Published on: December 24, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to a recent Government Accountability report, the majority of regulators don’t have the formal procedures and policies needed to coordinate with each other on the interagency rules that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is requiring. As of earlier this month, regulators had reportedly coordinated on just 19 of the 54 substantive regulations that the GAO had examined. The GAO’s report is the yearly review that is required by Congress of how well Dodd-Frank is being implemented.

Per the Act, interagency consultation and coordination on specific rules has to take place. Coordination is also occurring when at least two regulators work together of their own volition to eliminate regulation overlap or duplication.

Yet, said the GAO, seven of nine agencies don’t even have written procedures and policies to facilitate rulemaking coordination. The two that do are the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. One agency that has made some progress in this matter since last year is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Securities Roundup: Study Recommends Against Additional Money Fund Reforms, Lawmakers Disagree on Whether Dodd-Frank Wiped Out “Too Big to Fail” & An SEC Committee Approves Recommendations to Proposed General Solicitation Ban

Published on: October 31, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Per a study released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it is “ill-advised” to regulate money market mutual funds further due to the effective reforms that the SEC already implemented two yeas ago, including revisions that made the funds more transparent and liquid and not as high risk. The study comes in the wake of debate between lawmakers, market participants, and regulators about more regulations to the industry. For example, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro has been pushing for the additional reforms because she believes the money market mutual fund industry continues to be a threat to the financial system.

The authors of the study derived their findings from money fund investment data that had been filed with the Commission, as well as from information on commercial paper from the Federal Reserve. Among its conclusions is that the reforms in 2010 made the funds more liquid and better equipped to deal with significant redemption changes. Also, in the last two years, the funds have begun to shift “more dynamically” through geographies and asset classes in reaction to “evolving risks.”

Another area that has been up for debate is whether the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has, in fact, ended “too big to fail” and outlawed bailouts. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) issued an analysis earlier this month that said that the law does. However, another report, by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala), disagrees.

Govt. Not Prepared for Next Inevitable Financial Crisis, Says Ex-SEC Chair

Published on: July 30, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to ex-Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt, another financial crisis could happen before the end of the year and still the government isn’t more ready to deal with it than the last one. He shared his views at a US Chamber of Commerce-organized panel on July 25.

Pitt said that rather than the regulations in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, “three things” are required to keep future crises from happening.

1) A “steady flow” of pertinent information about anyone who takes funds from investors and may be able affect capital markets.

Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Protection Amendment Must Be Applied Retroactively, Said District Court

Published on: July 21, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that a Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 amendment to Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 must be applied retroactively to clarify congressional intent. The amendment specifies that public company subsidiary employees, and not just parent company employees, are protected under the whistleblower statute. The court, however, did not reach merits of the plaintiff’s claim regarding his firing and told the parties to turn in a joint letter about what steps will need to happen to get the matter ready for trial.

The lawsuit, Leshinsky v. Telvent GIT SA, involves whistleblower claims made by plaintiff Phillip Leshinsky. He contends that Telvent GIT SA (TLVT), Telvent Caseta Inc., Telvent Farradyne Inc., and a number of individuals wrongly fired him while violating Sarbanes-Oxley’s whistleblower provisions. Leshinsky, who was employed by nonpublic subsidiaries of the publicly traded Telvent GIT, contends that he was let go when he expressed opposition to using allegedly fraudulent information to secure a contract with the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority. His claims pertain to a period prior to the 2010 Dodd-Frank amendment.

The court noted that while before the Dodd-Frank amendment, Sarbanes-Oxley only protected employees who worked for publicly traded companies from retaliation when they blew the whistle, the 2010 revision does apply retroactively “as a clarification of the statute.” Leshinsky is therefore covered under Section 806.

SEC Investor Advisory Committee Members Warn the Commission Not to Neglect Its Rulemaking Duties Even While Working to Implement the JOBS Act

Published on: June 21, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee are cautioning that it is imperative that the SEC not ignore its rulemaking obligations that it was tasked under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act even as it seeks to implement the new capital formation statute. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act was enacted in April.

The investor advisory committee, which is a new group at the SEC that was created under Dodd-Frank to provide the Commission advise about regulatory priorities, disclosure requirements, and investor protections, held their inaugural meeting on June 12. The committee takes the place of a prior one that was disbanded in 2010.

The JOBS Act
The JOBS Act is focused on helping smaller businesses gain access to capital. Per the statute’s Title II, the SEC has to allow general advertising and solicitation for private placement sales and offers under 1933 Securities Act Rule 144A and Regulation D Rule 506 as long as the buyers are accredited investors. The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance associate director and chief counsel Thomas Kim has said that staff members are in the process of trying to determine how to practically implement the requirements so that investor protection isn’t compromised even as issuers are given some flexibility. Also, seeing as status or assets have resulted in a number of “prongs” for determining which entities or individuals are “accredited investors,” Kim noted that it was “reasonable” that issuers would take different steps to confirm accreditation depending on the accredited investor’s category.

Kim also spoke about how the crowdfunding rulewriting deadline of 270 days, which the SEC was given (under Title III of the JOBS Act) to come up with a registration exemption for crowdfunding, which involves “crowds” of investors sourcing small fund amounts, would be challenging to meet. A regulatory framework currently exists for the Title II modification to Rules 144A and Rules 506. However, the SEC would have to essentially make up from “whole cloth” a regulatory structure that incorporates disclosure requirements, funding portals, and other aspects from a completely new category of exempt offerings.

“An intense battle is being fought in Congress over Dodd-Frank efforts to ‘re-regulate’ the securities industry after the debacle caused by the ‘deregulation’ of that industry over the previous decade,” said Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas Founder and Stockbroker Fraud Attorney William Shepherd. Many believe such changes, if any, are months if not years away. Meanwhile, legislation to lower the bar in the issuance of new securities is sailing through at breakneck speed – proof positive as to who our representatives represent.”

JOBS Act (PDF)

More Blog Posts:

Advisory Performance Fee Rule Limit Adjusted by the SEC, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, July 30, 2011

Dire Predictions For Wall Street Reforms: Not Complete Until 2013, Even Longer to Implement, Half May Not Survive, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, May 12, 2012

Dire Predictions For Wall Street Reforms: Not Complete Until 2013, Even Longer to Implement, Half May Not Survive

Published on: May 12, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on May 2, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel K. Tarullo said he did not think that federal agencies would complete their rulemaking duties that are mandated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act until next year. He also said that full implementation of these rules would take even more time. Tarullo is in charge of overseeing efforts by the Fed to draft and execute these regulatory reforms.

He said that the process of completing the rules is a complicated one and challenges have inevitably arisen. To finish rulemaking duties sooner would likely have resulted in “inconsistencies and open questions” that would have inevitably led to “another round of changes.” Tarullo also spoke about how the complexities of certain US regulations have posed added challenges. For example, regulatory reforms must conform to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Basel III framework.

Tarullo also said that “instability” from the shadow banking system warrants a need for more regulatory reforms. He warned of new forms of shadow banking that could be lurking on the horizon especially if greater regulation of the large financial firms leads to elements of the shadow banking system going into “largely unregulated markets.”