Former Heads of New York-Based Non-Governmental Organization Charged with Bribing Elected Officials of the Marshall Islands Extradited to the United States from Thailand

DOJ

Two Marshall Island nationals, Cary Yan, 50, and Gina Zhou, 34, arrived in the United States today after being extradited from Thailand. Yan and Zhou are charged with allegedly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), money laundering, and conspiracy to commit those offenses in connection with a scheme to bribe elected officials of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in exchange for passing certain legislation. They are expected to make their initial court appearance on Sept. 6 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. read more »

SEC Charges Perceptive Advisors for Failing to Disclose SPAC-Related Conflicts of Interest

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged New York-based investment adviser Perceptive Advisors LLC with failing to disclose conflicts of interest regarding its personnel’s ownership of sponsors of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) into which Perceptive advised its clients to invest. read more »

CFTC Charges Swap Dealer for Failure to Supervise Valuation Activities on Two Derivatives Trading Desks

CFTC

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued an order filing and settling charges against Natixis, a global bank and swap dealer, for failure to diligently supervise traders on the bank’s New York-based Interest Rate Derivatives Desk (IRD Desk) and its Equity Derivatives Flow and Solution Trading Desk (FAST Desk). The traders on the IRD Desk and FAST Desk separately engaged in misconduct by mismarking their positions for the purpose of either inflating profits and minimizing losses, or to “smooth” out returns, respectively. The order requires Natixis to pay a $2.8 million civil monetary penalty, cease and desist from violating applicable provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, and comply with certain conditions and undertakings. read more »