“Equifax, the credit reporting firm, is facing more than 240 class-action lawsuits from consumers — in addition to suits from shareholders and financial institutions — over the way it handled a massive data breach that affected 145.5 million Americans. The lawsuits were detailed in the company’s third-quarter earnings report Thursday, its first since revealing the breach in September. The incident prompted three top officials to leave the company, including former chief executive Richard Smith. Equifax also said in its filings that it had received subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia “regarding trading activities by certain of our employees in relation to the cybersecurity incident.” Shortly after news of the breach broke, reports circulated that top officials had sold Equifax stock after the company found out about the breach, but before disclosing it to the public. Equifax said this week that it had cleared its executives of wrongdoing after an internal investigation found that the executives did not personally know about the breach before their stock sales. To date, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has not confirmed or denied that the SEC is investigating those executives for insider trading, according to the Associated Press.”
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Category Archives: Securities Law
Google – Updating our Transparency Report and electronic privacy laws
“Today, we are releasing the latest version of our Transparency Report concerning government requests for user data. This includes government requests for user data in criminal cases, as well as national security matters under U.S. law. Google fought for the right to publish this information in court and before Congress, and we continue to believe… Continue Reading
Secure EDGAR data breach exploited for possible insider trading w updates
Statement on Cybersecurity Chairman Jay Clayton, Sept. 20, 2017 “…Notwithstanding our efforts to protect our systems and manage cybersecurity risk, in certain cases cyber threat actors have managed to access or misuse our systems. In August 2017, the Commission learned that an incident previously detected in 2016 may have provided the basis for illicit gain… Continue Reading
SEC Filer Manual – Volume II EDGAR Filing July 2017
July 2017 EDGAR Filer Manual (Volume II) Notice – “Use this EDGAR® Filer Manual when making electronic filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or “Commission”). See Rule 301 of Regulation S-T. The EDGAR Filer Manual consists of three volumes. EDGAR Filer Manual (Volume I) General Information introduces the requirements for becoming… Continue Reading
Guide to Social Media and Securities Laws
Jay Baris and Bradley Berman, MOFO Jumpstarter, August 14, 2017. “The growing use of social media has created challenges for federal securities regulators, who must enforce antifraud rules that were written at a time when the prevailing technology was the newspaper. This Guide summarizes how regulation has evolved in the face of the growing use… Continue Reading
Search SEC filings by zip code
Use: https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar/ [via Terese Mulkern Terry] and see also this FAQ – Searching With EDGAR Header Fields. Continue Reading
Search SEC historical EDGAR filings
“Welcome to the archive of historical EDGAR documents. This search allows you to enter complex queries to retrieve all but the most recent day’s EDGAR filings (from 1994 through 2017). If a simple search will suffice or if you need real-time, up-to-the-minute filings, please visit the main EDGAR Search page for other choices.” Continue Reading
Sqoop – free data journalism site makes it easier to find and track public records
Data Driven Journalism: “Just because there’s a duty to disclose, doesn’t mean there’s a duty to make it easy. This seems to be a universally true when it comes to public records, regardless of the country or government making them available. The consequences for journalists can be profound: hours of time spent digging through messy… Continue Reading
Securities and Commodities Exchange Litigation Up 37 Percent
“The latest available data from the federal courts show that during May 2017 the government reported 128 new securities and commodities exchange civil filings. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, monthly filings when compared with those of the same period in the previous year were… Continue Reading
SEC: Payments for Bullish Articles on Stocks Must Be Disclosed to Investors
News release: “The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced enforcement actions against 27 individuals and entities behind various alleged stock promotion schemes that left investors with the impression they were reading independent, unbiased analyses on investing websites while writers were being secretly compensated for touting company stocks. SEC investigations uncovered scenarios in which public companies… Continue Reading
Sentieo Trump Tracker: Follow The President’s Impact on Your Investment
Senteio Blog: “Today, we are excited to introduce the Trump Tracker. It’s a bot that constantly scans new public financial documents for mentions of President Trump. These documents include all SEC filings, conference call transcripts, investor presentations, press releases, and more. The bot instantly surfaces new mentions of Trump as soon as they’re published, while… Continue Reading
Report on Distributed Ledger Technology: Implications of Blockchain for Securities Industry
FINRA – “This paper provides an overview of distributed ledger technology, highlights some key applications being explored in the securities industry and potential impact of the technology, and discusses key implementation and regulatory considerations for broker-dealers. FINRA welcomes an open dialogue with market participants to help proactively identify and address any potential risks or hurdles in… Continue Reading
