Will Jarkesy Hit the PCAOB Harder Than the SEC?

Audit Watchdog’s Future at Risk After Supreme Court’s SEC Ruling

The viability of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s enforcement proceedings is in question following the US Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, because the PCAOB has no statutory authority to bring such proceedings in federal court.

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PCAOB Chair Erica Williams has emphasized the board’s “renewed vigilance” in pursuing its enforcement agenda. According to the board’s annual reports, total penalties have soared from about $1.2 million in 2021, to more than $20 million in 2023. This past April, the PCAOB announced a record $25 million penalty against one firm.

Jarkesy may change all that. The Supreme Court has treated the PCAOB as part of the government, like the SEC. This suggests the Seventh Amendment, as interpreted in Jarkesy, applies to PCAOB proceedings as well as SEC in-house tribunals. Consequences for the PCAOB may be more far-reaching than for the SEC for several reasons.

Seeking Nominations for Securities Docket’s “Enforcement Elite” for 2024

At Securities Enforcement Forum D.C. 2024 (set for November 6, 2024), Securities Docket will announce its “Enforcement Elite” for 2024 – our list of the best securities enforcement defense counsel in the industry. Specifically, this list honors professionals who not only have the right stuff to handle bet-the-company matters, but are also the kind of defensive specialists critical to have on speed-dial should the SEC’s Division of Enforcement come calling.

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If you would like to nominate someone for the Enforcement Elite for 2024, please let us know in 200 words or less why your nominee should be included in this extraordinary group. Please email your nomination to [email protected] with the Subject line “Enforcement Elite”.

FBI ‘Pressure on Companies’?: DOJ Launches New Whistleblower Awards Program

A whistleblower awards program launched by the U.S. Department of Justice Aug. 1 creates a new dilemma where companies may face prosecution if they fail to self-report corporate wrongdoing to the feds before individual whistleblowers come forward, according to Big Law white-collar criminal defense experts.

The DOJ’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program is “very similar” in style and structure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program created by Section 922 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, according to Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer partner Jane Norberg, a former SEC whistleblower chief who advises clients on sensitive whistleblower matters.

The SEC’s whistleblower program awarded nearly $600 million to 68 individual whistleblowers in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2023, but one key difference is the Justice Department can bring “criminal obstruction charges,” Norberg said Monday in an interview with the National Law Journal.

Is Bitcoin Still a Store of Value?

On days like this, it’s easy to scoff at bitcoin (BTC) – specifically, the claim that the original cryptocurrency is a store of value, the digital equivalent of gold.

BTC tumbled along with the broader financial markets Monday and briefly dipped below $50,000, its lowest level since February, before retracing some of its losses. Early afternoon New York time, the asset was off 9% on a 24-hour basis, at $53,387.67.

U.S. SEC Asks NY Court to Deny Coinbase’s ‘Breathtakingly Broad’ Subpoena Request

Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are pushing back against what they describe as Coinbase’s “breathtakingly broad” subpoena requests searching for “essentially all documents that in any way relate to crypto.”

The court documents, filed Monday, are the latest jab in the ongoing fight between the SEC and Coinbase over the crypto exchange’s attempt to subpoena the agency and its employees, including Chair Gary Gensler, for communications and other records that could potentially be useful for Coinbase’s defense in its upcoming trial against the regulatory agency.

State pension funds eye crypto investments, cheered on by lobbyists

U.S. pension funds are beginning to explore investments around bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a move that could expose millions of former teachers, police officers, firefighters and other retirees to the wild ups and downs of a largely unregulated financial product.

In at least five states, industry lobbyists have aggressively hawked the idea, aiming to woo local lawmakers with the promise that digital assets can deliver sky-high profits — often without fully acknowledging the possible risks.

Dispatch From Trump Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville – Bloomberg

It was easy to see why he was fired up. The conference at which Trump would be speaking, put on by Bailey’s company, is for Bitcoin’s true believers—maximalists who believe it’s the one true crypto coin and the future world currency. Just a few years ago, the conference was as fringy as a furry convention or the Gathering of the Juggalos, and Trump was publicly calling Bitcoin a “scam against the dollar.” Now he would be jetting in to get onstage and endorse their digital money. It was as if he was slathering his face with black-and-white clown makeup, Juggalo-style, and getting onstage to rap with Insane Clown Posse.

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Bitcoiners now call it a “store of value.” They refer to it as “digital gold” and talk about how only 21 million Bitcoin will ever be created, unlike government-issued currencies, which central banks print at will. To a skeptic, it seems as if the main thing they care about is Bitcoin’s price going up. Sometimes it sounds more like they’re describing a pyramid scheme. In this view, Trump represents the ultimate mark, someone who could bring the US government into the base of the pyramid, spur a worldwide competition to snap up Bitcoin and make those at the top unbelievably rich and powerful.