German company, KingKong-Tools GmbH & Co KG, and its American subsidiary, King Kong Tools, LLC (collectively “King Kong”), will pay $1.9 million to settle allegations of customs fraud under the False Claims Act. The government alleged that King Kong was falsely labelling its tools as “made in Germany” when, in fact,...

Ex Nuveen Trader LAWRENCE BILLIMEK has pleaded guilty in connection with his participation in a $47 million FRONT RUNNING insider trading scheme.  BILLIMEK was arrested in December 2022 and pled guilty to securities fraud based on insider trading before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe. BILLIMEK and a co-conspirator engaged in these front-running...

FINANCE REGULATION The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Bank of America Securities $24 million for more than 700 instances of spoofing through two former traders. Spoofing is trading in which the asserted trades...

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) administers the rules on when and how companies and individuals do business with sanctioned entities and controls.  Violations of sanctions can lead to serious criminal and civil penalties, with OFAC working closely with other government agencies including...

Yesterday, I wrote about the $1 billion dollar fine against Binance for doing business with users in Cuba, Russia, Syria and Iran for apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs. That is not the only such action taken and there are other pending investigations. In September, The U.S. Securities...

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a fine of $968,618,825 against Binance Holdings Ltd. for 1,667,153 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs, including dealing with users in Cuba, Russia, Syria and Iran. The company has paid the full fine. According to the feds, Binance did business for more...

Irina Dilkinska, a 42-year-old Bulgarian national, the “head of legal and compliance” for OneCoin, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in what the government says was a...

According to an article in CNN, China has created what it says is the world’s most fastest most advanced internet network. It can apparently travel at about 1.2 terabits (or 1,200 gigabits) each second several times...

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid has issued new rules requiring the disclosure of ownership of nursing homes and skilled nursing facilIties, including ownership by private equity firms. Recent research has found that resident outcomes are significantly worse at private equity-owned nursing homes. A recent study found that residents in nursing homes acquired by private...

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed 784 total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2023, a 3 percent increase over fiscal year 2022, including 501 original, or “stand-alone,”...