SEC Blocks WhatsApp, Texting on Staff Work Phones

SEC Targets Its Own Staff’s Texting, Nixes WhatsApp on Work Phones

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has blocked third-party messaging apps and texts from employees’ work mobile phones, bringing its own practices closer to the standards it’s enforcing for the industry.

The SEC’s decision to block disappearing-messaging apps will help improve record-keeping and address potential security vulnerabilities at the agency, which saw one of its social-media accounts compromised earlier this year. It follows about $3 billion in fines imposed on financial firms to settle allegations that they failed to keep adequate records of work-related communications on mobile devices and apps such as Signal and Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp.

Tesla Calls for New Vote on Elon Musk’s Pay Package

Nearly three months ago, a Delaware court voided Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package that Tesla’s board — and most shareholders — had given him in 2018, contending that the process to decide it was “deeply flawed” and that the company didn’t properly disclose it to investors.

On Wednesday, Tesla said that it would ask shareholders to vote again on that same pay package, now valued at about $47 billion, at its annual meeting on June 13. The company’s board is effectively asking shareholders, now armed with all of the information that was revealed about the negotiations in court, to make the court’s ruling moot.

SEC Market Surveillance Called Unconstitutional in New Suit

The US Securities and Exchange Commission was sued by a conservative think tank and a pair of individual investors who claim the regulator’s new market surveillance tool violates their constitutional privacy rights.

Filed Tuesday in federal court in Waco, Texas, the suit led by the National Center for Public Policy Research accuses the SEC of acting without authority to create the Consolidated Audit Trail, a database intended to collect virtually all US trading data.

According to the suit, the CAT will “impose dystopian surveillance, suspicionless seizures, and real or potential searches on millions of American investors.”

Diagnostic Testing Company Hit With COVID-Related Securities Suit

The COVID-19 pandemic was a disruptive event with the consequences continuing to reverberate through the economy and the business environment, in ways that not only affect companies’ operations and financial performance, but, for at least some companies, in ways that lead to securities class action litigation. So even though the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. was over four years ago, businesses continue to experience operational consequences from the pandemic, in some cases resulting in securities suits. The latest example is the lawsuit filed late last week against medical testing and diagnostic company QuidelOrtho Corporation, whose testing services revenue declined as the coronavirus transition to endemic status….

Hunterbrook

Hunterbrook was back yesterday with a big investigative report on Posco, the Korean conglomerate, which Hunterbrook Media accuses of complicity with the junta in Myanmar….

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But right at the top there is a statement that “Hunterbrook Media’s investment affiliate, Hunterbrook Capital, did not take any positions related to this article.”

Why not? Why would Hunterbrook invest resources in doing a big international investigation, find alleged wrongdoing at a publicly traded company, and then not trade?….

German watchdog finds EY’s Wirecard audits grossly negligent

EY’s audits of collapsed payments group Wirecard were “at the very least” negligent and in some cases grossly negligent, according to people with direct knowledge of the details of an investigation by the German audit watchdog.

Apas, however, did not establish criminal intent in the Big Four firm’s conduct and while its assessment is unflattering, it has been greeted with relief inside EY for this reason, said people familiar with the firm’s internal discussions.

DOJ Expands Leniency for Criminal Tipsters After NYC Pilot

The Justice Department is providing more detail on when it will avoid prosecuting criminally-exposed individuals who report corporate misconduct, building out a Manhattan-specific initiative to the rest of the country.

A nationwide pilot program posted online Monday covers individuals who voluntarily disclose to DOJ’s Criminal Division money laundering violations, foreign or domestic bribery, health care fraud and other white collar schemes. They’ll be eligible for a non-prosecution agreement, provided they fully cooperate, return ill-gotten profits, and meet other conditions, the department said.