Sam Waldon Named Acting Director of SEC’s Division of Enforcement

SEC-CFTC Merger Sounds Like a Win for DOGE. Don’t Be Fooled

So, while it’s possible that a combined SEC and CFTC could be run with fewer employees and a smaller budget, the gains do not result from the combination but from subsequent layoffs and closures, which might not happen as planned. This is partly why the idea has been proposed and rejected at regular intervals since the 1990s.

The other claimed virtue of combination is rationalizing and simplifying rules with a single authority instead of two. There’s also less here than meets the eye. Disagreements that were formerly hashed out between two separate entities — such as the long-running battle over who gets to regulate financial derivatives and cryptocurrencies — will now be internal debates. There’s little reason to think that means they will be resolved faster or better. Moreover, nothing in the federal government is really internal, each department will have external allies among legislators, regulated entities, other bureaucrats and the public.

NYDFS Penalizes PayPal $2 Million for Cybersecurity Violations

Enforcement takeaways (according to DFS allegations in the Consent Order with PayPal):

• NYDFS found customer data was exposed after PayPal implemented changes to make 1099-K forms available to more of its customers, after teams tasked with implementing these changes failed to follow proper procedures before the changes went live.

• Malicious actors leveraged compromised credentials to access Form 1099-Ks, and PayPal discovered that its platform contained unmasked consumer information, including names, dates of birth, and full Social Security numbers.

• NYDFS determined the data teams were not sufficiently trained on PayPal’s systems and application development processes. It also alleged PayPal failed to maintain written policies addressing access controls, identity management, and customer data, and failed to use effective controls to protect against unauthorized access to Nonpublic Information or Information Systems.

US Says Ex-Celsius VP Profited $1.6M From Insider Trading

A former Celsius Holdings Inc. vice president is accused of profiting more than $1.6 million off insider trading when he left the company, the federal government said Friday.

Stephen George accessed material non-public information on his final day of employment with Celsius in April 2023 to gauge the company’s financial performance, the US said in a criminal information document. George allegedly then leveraged that information just days later to buy thousands of shares of Celsius common stock and call options before the company announced its first-quarter financial results.