SEC Enforcement & Securities Regulation: White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement

Crowell & Moring's SEC Enforcement and Securities Regulation practice covers the full range of securities fraud investigations, including by federal and state grand juries, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, and other regulatory and investigative bodies. From compliance advice to trials, our attorneys, including former senior SEC enforcement officials and federal securities fraud prosecutors, offer a wealth of experience in resolving all manner of securities regulatory and SEC enforcement issues.

Our team has successfully resolved regulatory, civil and criminal securities fraud matters on behalf of companies, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, broker-dealers, investment advisers, executive officers, directors, in-house and outside counsel, individual employees and accounting professionals accused of securities fraud and regulatory violations. These matters include: accounting fraud; insider trading; inadequate disclosures; FCPA violations including improper payments, books and records inaccuracies and internal control deficiencies; improper reserve manipulation; municipal bond issuance disclosure deficiencies and bid-rigging; market manipulation; offering fraud; improper revenue recognition; late trading and market timing; improper trade practices; and other forms of securities fraud.

We have regular interactions with the SEC's Enforcement and Examination staffs across all SEC offices, and have represented clients in all stages of examinations and investigations, including subpoena compliance, informal interviews, proffers, testimony, Wells submissions and litigation. Our attorneys also frequently handle inquiries and enforcement investigations on behalf of our clients conducted by FINRA's Division of Enforcement, Division of Market Regulation and its Office of Fraud Detection and Analysis.

Examples of the SEC investigations and enforcement actions include:

SEC examination of Registered Investment Adviser arm of a hedge fund with over $9 billion assets under management
Representing the former controller of a large sub-prime lender in a civil securities fraud case filed by the SEC following two years of parallel investigations by the US Attorney and the SEC
SEC investigation of Big 4 accounting firm partner on synthetic leasing accounting issues (Client not charged)
Representing multiple issuers and privately held companies and executives in the midst of parallel SEC and DOJ investigations concerning alleged FCPA violations
Representing clients involved in insider trading investigations, including company executives, outside counsel, board members and outside bankers
SEC investigation of periodic disclosures concerning the subprime crisis and the issuance of mortgage backed securities
SEC litigation against a former CFO of leading provider of satellite ground systems concerning alleged disclosure violations
Representing a Registered Investment Adviser in connection with an SEC examination and an industry-wide SEC investigation related to Collateralized Debt Obligations
Representing a publicly-traded healthcare company in connection with a FINRA insider trading inquiry
SEC investigation of 16 current and former employees of large provider of management and technology consulting services on charges of securities fraud involving false financial reporting (Clients not charged)
Representing a high-frequency trader in connection with a FINRA Division of Market Regulation investigation
Representing multiple registered representatives in connection with various FINRA insider trading inquiries
Representing a former financial insurance company insurance executive in connection with a litigated SEC enforcement proceeding
SEC investigation of CFO of a computer software company with regard to round-tripping and revenue recognition problems in connection with another company
SEC investigation of CEO of a publicly traded company with regard to allegations of improper revenue recognition (Investigation dropped)
Representing issuers in SEC investigation regarding various GAAP and disclosure issues (Issuers not charged)
Representing 12 executives, including all of top management, in an SEC investigation following a restatement (SEC investigation closed without any enforcement action and we are now representing the clients in connection with a follow-on PCAOB inquiry)
Representing outside counsel for a fund that raised capital through private placements in a parallel SEC/DOJ investigation