An increased number of corporate transactions and mergers have been observed in the oil and gas sector on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in recent years. Several oil majors and traditional utilities and downstream companies have reduced their presence and, to some extent, been replaced by smaller companies, including start-ups backed by private equity ...
Guatemalan respected Judge Erika Aifan issues a historical ruling in a criminal case brought against construction companies. A plea bargain was reached under an abreviated process allowed under Guatemala´s Criminal Law where senior executives for the companies accepted making facilitation payments to the ex-Minister of Construction in order to accelerate backed payments owed for previous construction deals ...
In Texas, tenants who are obligated to reimburse property owners for property taxes have a right to protest the appraised value of the property if the property owner does not file a protest relating to the property. To facilitate this right, the Texas legislature enacted a law (Section 41.413 of the Tax Code) that requires the property owner to give all such tenants a copy of the notice of appraised value received by the property owner within 10 days of receiving the notice ...
Increase in merger and acquisition deals notified in Ireland In recent months there has been 27 merger deals notified to Ireland's Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ("CCPC") which is up 42% from the 19 notifications as of the same date last year.This increase is following a pattern of sustained increases, for example, there had been 72 notifications across the whole of 2017 which was an increase on 2016's total of 67 ...
On January 3, 2018, San Francisco’s State Senator Scott Wiener introduced a bill (SB 827) that would all but abolish the city’s famously strict land use controls—and those of virtually all California’s urban neighborhoods. It is considered the most radical of all the pro-housing legislation introduced during the last year in California ...
As with every year, the 2018 legislative session will impact education in West Virginia in a variety of ways. Today, we want to bring to your attention two bills that will make minor – but important – changes in the way schools operate, both of which were signed by the governor last week. The first is Senate Bill 244, related to possession of deadly weapons on school grounds or at school activities ...
The Finance (No 2) Act 2017(“FA”) received royal assent on 27 December 2017 and was introduced to amend theIncome Tax Act 1967, the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976 (“RPGTA”), the Goods and Services Tax Act 2014and the Finance Act 2013. This article will discuss the amendments to the RPGTA as provided in sections 16, 17 and 18 of the FA. The amendments to the RPGTA came into operation on 1 January 2018 ...
As of recently, state aid control is a part of theMontenegrin Competition Agency's (the "Agency") scope of authority ...
The 2018 West Virginia legislative session was a busy one regarding consumer finance law. Legislators focused on the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act and the West Virginia Safe Mortgage Licensing Act. The West Virginia Legislature passed at least three bills this past session that affect consumers or financial transactions ...
By one account, “the cost of global ransomware attacks will exceed $11.5 billion annually by 2019, up from $5 billion last year and $325 million in 2015” – a 35X increase in just four years.1Relative to other cyber crime, ransomware is an equal opportunity enterprise—striking individuals as well as businesses of all kinds ...
In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission expanded the reach of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in several respects. Petitioners appealed Declaratory Ruling 15-72 challenging four findings that turned TCPA law on its head. On March 16, 2018, the DC Circuit issued a decision on that petition in ACA International v. FCC, et. al, setting aside two major FCC rulings and upholding two others ...
This article provides a brief review of MSHA enforcement data and a look at MSHA’s regulatory agenda. MSHA Enforcement Data (data from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017) MSHA issued 104,412 enforcement actions to mine operators in 2017, an increase of approximately 11,793 or 11.3 percent from 2016. Of these, 58,083 (or 55.63 percent) were issued to metal/nonmetal operators while 46,329 (or 44.37 percent) were issued to coal operators ...
On March 1, 2018, at the American Bar Association’s National Institute on White Collar Crime, top Department of Justice (DOJ) officials signaled expansion of DOJ’s self-disclosure policy to non-Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases ...
As described in our earlier client alerts, since 1993, a central tenet in the structure of senior real estate lending documentation is the prevention of what is commonly referred to as “cram down ...
Last week, United States Attorney General Sessions announced the creation of the Department of Justice Prescription Interdiction & Litigation (PIL) Task Force to combat the prescription opioid crisis. According to the Department of Justice (Justice), the PIL Task Force will rely on “all available criminal and civil enforcement tools” to hold those at “at every level of the [opioid] distribution system” accountable for unlawful conduct ...
With collective sales on the rise again, it is timely to examine factors that challenge such deals in the current cycle. It was a saga worthy of a soap opera. In 2007, Horizon Towers was on the verge of breaking the then en bloc price record when, over a period of more than two years and several flip-flopping court and Strata Titles Board (STB) decisions, minority owners eventually blocked the transaction ...
In West Virginia, we are approaching another Personnel Season (for Personnel Season deadlines for the 2017-2018 school year, click here). We are often asked about the listing of individual employee names on county board of education agendas ...
Earlier this year the European Commission published a draft Withdrawal Brexit Agreement. It is a draft treaty to embody the key principles from the Joint Report of the Commission and the UK on the first three elements of the Brexit negotiations (i.e., People, Ireland and Money - the "PIM" Phase). The draft Agreement sets out a roadmap for the EU's vision of the withdrawal process.This is a negotiating move by the EU - it is not an agreed draft. It is a move by the EU in the Brexit chess match ...
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly narrowed the scope of the Dodd-Frank Act's anti-retaliation measures. The decision resolved a split in authority by excluding from Dodd-Frank's whistleblower protections those persons reporting suspected violations only within their companies. In reversing the Ninth Circuit, the Court held that "Dodd-Frank's anti-retaliation provision does not extend to an individual who has not reported a violation of the securities laws to the SEC ...
Given the housing crisis, the city has enacted regulations that attempt to force a property owner to legalize an illegal unit, unless the owner can prove certain things to the satisfaction of San Francisco Planning Staff or the San Francisco Planning Commission. Long gone are the days in which an unhappy tenant or neighbor will report an illegal unit to the city and the city will fine the owner unless the illegal unit is removed ...
READ: SEC Enforcement Division Announcement On February 12, 2018, the SEC Division of Enforcement announced the Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative self-reporting initiative (the SCSD Initiative) ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) has announced its 2018 examination priorities. The 2018 priorities provide insight into what activities OCIE believes present the highest risks to investors and, as such, what the examiners will be highlighting during their examinations of registered entities this year ...
As the new year started, two Department of Justice memoranda began circulating that may bring a change in the way the United States focuses its efforts in the FCA arena. The first, entitled, “Factors for Evaluating Dismissal Pursuant to 31 U.S.C ...
On February 7, 2018 the SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued the 2018 National Exam Program Examination Priorities. In introducing the examination priorities for 2018, OCIE describes the four pillars upon which the work of OCIE is based: promoting compliance; preventing fraud; identifying and monitoring risk; and informing policy. OCIE includes in the examination priorities factual data relating to the increase in examinations of investment advisers ...
IN THIS ISSUE: SEC Releases Update to 2018 Agenda of Regulatory Priorities The SEC Enforcement Division’s Initiatives Regarding Retail Investor Protection and Cybersecurity ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS: F-Squared Investment, Inc ...
