With Clock Ticking Faster on Its Cases, the S.E.C. Faces a Quandary

The Supreme Court has given the Securities and Exchange Commission a difficult choice: Work faster or get Congress to change the law.

At issue is the court’s ruling a year ago in Kokesh v. Securities and Exchange Commission. The decision imposed a five-year window on the agency to seek repayment of any ill-gotten gains. Already, the decision has resulted in the dismissal of an overseas bribery case because the S.E.C. took too long to file the charges and has spurred a lawsuit demanding that the agency repay billions of dollars it has recovered in other cases.

The challenge for the S.E.C. will be whether it can adjust to the restrictions without their hindering its enforcement. If the agency can’t, it will have to persuade Congress to give it more time to pursue charges when the underlying misconduct might not come to light until years later. read more »

Goldman Insiders Cashed In $3 Billion of Crisis-Era Options

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives and board members may have reaped as much as $3 billion from stock options granted during the 2008 financial crisis, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In December of that year, the bank granted 36 million options with a strike price of $78.78 to about 350 partners and directors. The securities have generated an estimated $3 billion of gains as the firm’s stock has tripled, the newspaper reported Monday, citing a review of regulatory filings.

The awards were granted to incentivize top performers even as the global credit crisis endangered the New York-based firm and pushed its shares down 61 percent in 2008, forcing Goldman to slash compensation costs. read more »

Owner of Sleep Study Businesses Convicted of Fraud Conspiracy

A federal jury convicted a Sterling, Virginia woman today on health care fraud and tax charges for operating a fraudulent sleep study clinic in Northern Virginia.

After a two-week trial, Young Yi, 44, a citizen of South Korea, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, seven counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one count of filing a false tax return.  She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 2 by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady of the Eastern District of Virginia, who presided over the trial and remanded her into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

“Young Yi fueled her lavish lifestyle by misleading patients, withholding information from physicians, and using doctors’ identifying information without their permission in order to steal millions of dollars from Medicare and private insurers,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. read more »