The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will host a virtual event regarding the SEC’s temporary conditional exemption from broker registration requirements for certain municipal advisor activities. The webcast program will be held from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET at www.sec.gov.

Staff from the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets and Office of Municipal Securities will discuss the requirements and conditions of the order. A representative of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) will join to discuss MSRB rules relevant to the order.

Please register for the virtual event here. The SEC and MSRB staff will answer questions from the public regarding the order submitted prior to the event to MAWebinar@sec.gov.

Chairman Jay Clayton will moderate a virtual roundtable entitled “Q2 Reporting: A Discussion of COVID-19 Related Disclosure Considerations,” which will be webcast live on SEC.gov at 4 p.m. ET. Roundtable participants will include: Gary Cohn, Former Director of the National Economic Council; Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island; Tracy Maitland, President and CIO of Advent Capital; and Barbara Novick, Vice Chairman and Co-Founder of BlackRock.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Boston-based pharmaceutical company Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay more than $21 million to resolve charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

According to the SEC’s order, two Alexion subsidiaries made payments to foreign government officials to secure favorable treatment for Alexion’s primary drug, Soliris. The order finds that, from 2010 to 2015, Alexion Turkey paid Turkish government officials to improperly influence them to approve patient prescriptions and provide other favorable regulatory treatment for Soliris. The order similarly finds that from 2011 to 2015, Alexion Russia made improper payments to Russian government health care officials to favorably influence the regulatory treatment of and the budget allocated to Soliris as well as to increase the number of approved Soliris prescriptions....

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the agenda and panelists for the July 9, 2020 staff roundtable on investing in emerging markets, including China.  Further information, including prior statements and actions in this area, are available here.

The virtual roundtable, announced in May, will be webcast live on SEC.gov starting at 9:30 a.m. ET.  Members of the public who wish to provide views on the risks of investing in emerging markets, including China, may submit their views electronically to EmergingMarkets@SEC.gov or use the . Comments may be submitted either in advance of or after the roundtable.

Agenda and Panelist

9:30     Opening Statements by Chairman Clayton and Commissioners

10:00     Panel One:  Investments in Emerging Markets by U.S. Retail Investors

Panelists

The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued an order to update the filing threshold for broker-dealers’ Form 17-H filings made pursuant to Exchange Act Rules 17h-1T and Rule 17h-2T. The threshold, which had not been updated in nearly 30 years, will exempt certain smaller broker-dealers from the reporting requirements of the rules while continuing to provide important information to the Commission on the financial condition of covered broker-dealers and their affiliates.

The order follows the recommendation of the SEC’s Office of Inspector General, published earlier this year, that raising the reporting threshold would, among other things, increase the overall efficiency of the Form 17-H filing intake and review processes and reduce the reporting burden on smaller broker-dealer firms.

“This Commission order will reduce the regulatory burden for certain smaller broker-dealers in a targeted, measured manner that preserves reporting by firms representing...

Chairman Jay Clayton will moderate a roundtable entitled “Q2 Reporting: A Discussion of COVID-19 Related Disclosure Considerations,” which will be webcast live on SEC.gov at 4 p.m. ET. Roundtable participants will include: Gary Cohn, Former Director of the National Economic Council; Glenn Hutchins, Co-Founder of Silver Lake Partners; Tracy Maitland, President of Advent Capital Management; and Barbara Novick, Vice Chairman of BlackRock.

Chairman Jay Clayton will moderate a roundtable entitled “Q2 Reporting: A Discussion of COVID-19 Related Disclosure Considerations,” which will be webcast live on SEC.gov at 4 p.m. ET. Roundtable participants will include: Gary Cohn, Former Director of the National Economic Council; Glenn Hutchins, Co-Founder of Silver Lake Partners; Tracy Maitland, President of Advent Capital Management; and Barbara Novick, Vice Chairman of BlackRock.

The staff of the Division of Investment Management and the Division of Trading and Markets have prepared the following responses to questions about Form CRS and expect to update from time to time our responses to additional questions. These responses represent the views of the staff of the Division of Investment Management and the Division of Trading and Markets. They are not a rule, regulation, or statement of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”). The Commission has neither approved nor disapproved this content. These responses, like all staff guidance, have no legal force or effect: they do not alter or amend applicable law, and they create no new or additional obligations for any person. Current Form CRS can be found here: https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2019/34-86032-appendix-b.pdf. Frequently Asked Questions on Regulation Best Interest are available at https://www.sec.gov/tm/faq-regulation-best-interest.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it obtained court approval of settlements with Telegram Group Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. to resolve charges that Telegram's unregistered offering of digital tokens called "Grams" violated the federal securities laws. The defendants agreed to return more than $1.2 billion to investors and to pay an $18.5 million civil penalty.

On Oct. 11, 2019, the SEC filed a complaint against Telegram, alleging that the company had raised capital to finance its business by selling approximately 2.9 billion Grams to 171 initial purchasers worldwide. The SEC sought to preliminarily enjoin Telegram from delivering the Grams it sold, which the SEC alleged were securities that had been offered and sold in violation of the registration requirements of the federal securities laws. On March 24, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are centered, first and foremost, on the health and safety of our employees and all Americans.  The Commission’s recognition of the corresponding need of market participants to also prioritize health and safety while ensuring the continuity of operations essential to the orderly function of our capital markets, drove the prompt actions of the Commission and its staff in the early stages of the pandemic’s effects in the United States.  We have assessed these actions in light of developments over the past several months, current conditions and our expectations in order to adjust our efforts as necessary or appropriate.  This statement provides a collective, cross-Divisional update based on that assessment.  

Below is a summary of the current targeted, temporary relief and assistance provided by the Commission and staff, along with the staff’s views on...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged NAC Foundation, its Chief Executive Officer Marcus Andrade, and political lobbyist Jack Abramoff with conducting a fraudulent, unregistered offering of AML BitCoin, a digital asset security the defendants claimed was a new and improved version of bitcoin.

The SEC alleges that Nevada-based NAC Foundation raised at least $5.6 million from more than 2,400 investors by selling tokens that could later be converted to AML BitCoin. According to the SEC’s complaints, NAC and its CEO portrayed AML BitCoin as superior to the original bitcoin, with anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, and theft-resistant technology built into the coin on NAC’s own “privately regulated public blockchain.” The SEC's complaints allege that in reality none of the touted capabilities existed and the development of AML BitCoin and its blockchain was in the very early stages.

According to the SEC, NAC and Andrade falsely claimed that multiple...

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Novartis AG, a global pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, has agreed to pay over $112 million to settle charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The SEC's order finds that local subsidiaries or affiliates of Novartis or its former subsidiary Alcon Inc. engaged in schemes to make improper payments or to provide benefits to public and private healthcare providers in South Korea, Vietnam, and Greece in exchange for prescribing or using Novartis or Alcon products. According to the order, these schemes took place between 2012 and 2016 and were known among certain managers of the local subsidiaries or affiliates. The order also finds that Novartis lacked sufficient internal accounting controls within its former Alcon business in China from 2013 to 2015, which used forged...

Five federal regulatory agencies today finalized a rule modifying the Volcker rule’s prohibition on banking entities investing in or sponsoring hedge funds or private equity funds—known as covered funds.  The final rule is broadly similar to the proposed rule from January. 

The Volcker rule generally prohibits banking entities from engaging in proprietary trading and from acquiring or retaining ownership interests in, sponsoring, or having certain relationships with a hedge fund or private equity fund.

Like the proposal, the final rule modifies three areas of the rule by: