Are Corporate Monitorships on the DOJ's Chopping Block?

US prosecutors may end oversight tool in corporate criminal cases

The US Department of Justice may axe an important tool used to ensure companies that have broken the law do not do so again: monitors who continue to scrutinise corporate conduct after criminal cases have been resolved.

The move is part of an effort to loosen corporate enforcement policies, including for companies that already accepted monitors as a condition of government settlements, according to people familiar with department leadership’s thinking. The DoJ declined to comment.

Federal Workforce Transition Resources

Resources for Affected Government Lawyers

Pursue an LL.M. (50% discount)

Georgetown Law is offering a substantially reduced LL.M. tuition rate of 50% to lawyers who have a J.D. from a U.S. accredited law school who have recently left government service.

The Stock Market Loves Bitcoin

The basic situation is that US public equity markets will pay about $2 for $1 worth of Bitcoin. I don’t know why this is, and I am not especially happy about it, but it’s true. If you have one Bitcoin, you can sell it on a crypto exchange for about $93,000, or you can sell it on a US stock exchange for about $186,000. Therefore, you should sell Bitcoins on the stock exchange, so people do.

The most famous example is MicroStrategy Inc. (now just Strategy), which has built a perpetual motion machine out of buying $1 worth of Bitcoin, seeing its stock go up by $2, and selling more stock to buy more Bitcoin. Because this keeps working, people keep copying it, and I keep talking about them….

What Jurisdiction Is the SEC Claiming in the Crypto Area

Questions regarding the limits of the SEC’s jurisdiction in the crypto asset area have blossomed again since its decision to in the Kraken case early this year. There, the agency at least suggest that it was revising its approach to crypto assets if not outright exiting the area. Earlier this week the agency stepped into the crypto area again in its decision in ClS Global. But now the agency has settled one count of an action in which investment contracts were being sold while dismissing with prejudice others claims that appeared to involve crypto assets. SEC v. Nova Labs, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:25-00539 (S.D.N.Y.). […]

If the SEC is not claiming to have jurisdiction over crypto, or abdicating the area, its participation in this case is at best questionable. If the agency is only asserting “selective” jurisdiction, the question is on what basis and by what authority is it asserting jurisdiction in that manner? It is time that the SEC clarifies its position.

Celsius Investors Urge Severe Punishment for Founder Mashinsky

A slew of disgruntled investors in the failed crypto lender Celsius Network urged a federal judge to throw the book at founder Alex Mashinsky when he is punished next month after admitting to fraud in connection with the 2022 collapse of the company.

Prosecutors on Wednesday submitted more than 200 statements from people who put their money into Celsius, coming from throughout the globe and many different walks of life – including a postal worker in Australia, an M&A banker in Copenhagen and a stuntman in New York. While a few of the investors urged US District Judge John Koeltl to go easy on Mashinsky at his May 8 sentencing, the vast majority asked him to impose the highest possible punishment allowed by law – with some suggesting he spend the rest of his life in prison.