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CFTC Settles Gas Index Manipulation Claim While FERC Allegations Remain
CFTC Order Accepting Settlement with Total Gas & Power North America, Inc. & Therese Tran for Attempted Manipulation of Natural Gas Monthly Index Settlement Prices On December 7, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC" or the "Commission") issued an...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: November 2015
November's Highlight In November there were a significant number of disciplinary actions across the exchanges related to pre-arranged trading, including the execution of block trades. The exchanges clearly continue to focus on these types of violations and market participants should...
Immigration Issues Included in the Omnibus Appropriation Bill
Congress has agreed on the omnibus appropriations bill, which will provide discretionary funding for the government through the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2016. The bill includes a number of immigration-related issues which were highly debated in the...
FAST Act - Capital Markets Provisions
On December 4, President Obama signed a $305 billion transportation bill, referred to as the FAST Act, into law. While primarily a transportation bill, the FAST Act includes a number of key capital markets provisions aimed at enhancing the JOBS...
Dangerous Waters in the Safe Harbor: The EU-U.S. Safe Harbor for Data Transfer is Safe No More
On October 6, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), abolished the 15 year old Safe Harbor agreement between the EU and the U.S. Over 5,000 businesses have relied on the Safe Harbor to receive personal data from EU member...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: October 2015
October's Highlight October saw the first criminal conviction pursuant to Section 4c(a) for spoofing. A jury concluded that for approximately three months, an individual used a computer algorithm to place orders he did not intend to execute for the purpose...
What Constitutes a Reasonable and Prudent Operator?
The English Commercial Court interprets the definition of the standard of a "Reasonable and Prudent Operator" in the context of a dispute relating to long term gas sales agreements The phrase "reasonable and prudent operator" is frequently used in commercial...
IRS Issues Final Regulations Regarding Allocation of Bond Proceeds to Mixed-Use Projects; SLGS Window Reopens
On October 26, 2015, the IRS released final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) regarding allocation and accounting rules for purposes of the private activity bond restrictions applicable to tax-exempt bonds issued by state and local governments and, for certain purposes, other...
New Audit Rules May Impose Tax Liability on Partnerships
On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015 (the “Act”), which includes major changes to the partnership tax audit rules (the “New Audit Rules”). The Act repeals the current partnership audit rules as...
Obama Administration Adopts Wide-Ranging Natural Resource Mitigation Requirements
Earlier today, the Obama Administration adopted an expansive set of mitigation requirements for all its natural resource management agencies. Under the voluntary policy, the Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Oceanic...
The UK's New Reporting Obligations on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
A "Race to The Top" to Tackle an Atrocious Global Problem Introduction Companies or partnerships carrying on business in the UK with an annual turnover of £36 million (around US$55.5 million) or more will now, for the first time, be...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: September 2015
September's Highlight September saw a handful of settlements of ICE Futures enforcement actions related to position limit violations under Rule 6.20(b). The settlements of these actions included monetary fines, disgorgement of profits, and cease and desist orders. Of note, an...
SEC and Hitachi Reach FCPA Settlement Over Corrupt Payments in South Africa
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced a settlement with Hitachi, Ltd. over allegations that the company sold shares in a South African subsidiary to a front company for the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling political party...
NYSE Amends Timely Alert Policy
The New York Stock Exchange has amended the provisions of its Listed Company Manual concerning dissemination of material news by listed companies and the circumstances under which the NYSE may halt trading in listed securities. The amendments will be effective...
MLP Qualifying Income "“ IRS May Reconsider Position on the "Processing or Refining" of NGLs into Olefins
An IRS official indicated that the government may reconsider its position in the recently issued proposed regulations under Section 7704(d)(1)(E) of the Internal Revenue Code regarding the production of olefins derived from natural gas liquids (NGLs). According to press reports...