On March 18, a federal court ordered El Mundo Feliz, a Partnership (El Mundo), and Daniel Martinez Jr. to begin paying employment taxes to the United States on a timely basis, the Justice Department announced today.

A Lake Worth, Florida, businessman pleaded guilty today to tax evasion and willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank or Financial Account, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a precedential opinion on Friday, April 24, 2020, affirming a district court decision that a transaction designed to generate massive foreign tax credits (referred to as the STARS tax shelter) lacked economic substance and business purpose and was subject to the accuracy-related penalty for negligence, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

On April 24, 2020, a federal appellate court upheld an order enforcing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) summons directed to the Taylor Lohmeyer Law Firm PLLC, the Department of Justice announced. The summons directed the law firm to provide information about clients who used the law firm’s services to create and maintain foreign bank accounts and entities. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the trial court’s enforcement of the summons and rejected the law firm’s “blanket” claim that all responsive materials were protected by the attorney-client privilege. It explained that revealing the fact that the clients participated in specific types of transactions would not necessarily reveal any confidential communication of legal advice protected by the attorney-client privilege.

Jeffrey A. Rosen, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Richard E. Zuckerman, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Don Fort, the Chief of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announced today the guilty plea of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. and filing of criminal charges against Bank Hapoalim B.M. for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide more than $7.6 billion in more than 5,500 secret Swiss and Israeli bank accounts and the income generated in these accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS).  BHS’s Chief Executive Officer appeared on behalf of the bank to enter the guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.

The Department of Justice today filed a statement of interest in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, in N.P. et al. v. The State of Georgia, et al.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to adopt rule amendments to implement certain provisions of the Small Business Credit Availability Act and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act relating to business…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it is providing temporary, conditional exemptive relief for business development companies (BDCs) to enable them to make additional investments in small and medium-sized businesses, including…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settlements with David Kwon and Igor Sabodakha, two traders who allegedly profited from trading on nonpublic corporate earnings information hacked from the SEC’s EDGAR system. The settlement…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Natasha Guinan has been named Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA). As Chief Counsel, Ms. Guinan will provide legal guidance to the Chief Accountant and the other OCA groups in…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former executive of a financial services company with orchestrating a bribery scheme to help a client to win a government contract to build and operate an electrical power plant in the Republic of…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it has voted to issue two exemptive orders in order to move Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) implementation forward: (1) establishing a phased CAT reporting timeline for broker-dealers, and (2) permitting…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has voted to propose a new rule that would establish a framework for fund valuation practices.  The rule is designed to clarify how fund boards can satisfy their valuation obligations in…

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Louis Gracia and Vanessa Horton have been named Associate Directors of the Investment Adviser/Investment Company (IA/IC) examination program in the agency's Chicago Regional Office. Together, Mr…

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on May 4, 2020, by remote means.  The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. ET, is open to the public via live webcast, and will be archived…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it is premiering new multimedia resources to support teachers in connection with Teacher Appreciation Week. This content builds on the Commission’s longstanding efforts to serve teachers in both their…

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on May 21, 2020 by remote means.  The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. ET, is open to the public via live webcast, and will be archived on…

Documents filed on July 25, 2019

• Plea Agreement and Sentencing Stipulations [Lori K. Detloff]
• Plea Agreement and Sentencing Stipulations [Jeffery J. Detloff]
• Plea Agreement and Sentencing Stipulations [Detloff Marketing]

This conference offers a great opportunity for CCIPS, the Department, and each of our law enforcement colleagues gathered at the table today to discuss our shared efforts in IP enforcement, and to hear your comments about the latest successes and challenges. It’s an event that benefits all of us.

Seattle – A 21-year-old Palmdale, California, man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to federal crimes related to his computer hacking scheme and his possession of child pornography found on his digital devices, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.

The head of a Houston-based company that was the subsidiary of a Chinese company that developed stolen trade secrets was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $330,000 by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the District of Columbia.

A superseding indictment was returned yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei), the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, and two U.S. subsidiaries with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a 16-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the U.S. government as part of a scheme to defraud the U.S. government.

SAN JOSE - Anthony Scott Levandowski submitted documents today requesting that the court accept his plea of guilty to theft of trade secrets charges, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett. The documents include a request to William H. Alsup, United States District Judge, to accept a proposed plea agreement and a request to schedule a date for a sentencing hearing.

Federal authorities announced today that an ongoing cooperative effort between law enforcement and a number of private-sector companies, including multiple internet domain providers and registrars, has disrupted hundreds of internet domains used to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to commit fraud and other crimes.