The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") announced the assessment of an $8 million civil money penalty against a casino for willful and repeated anti-money laundering ("AML") violations. In addition to agreeing to the fine, the casino consented to a comprehensive revamping of its AML compliance program under the watch of an external independent reviewer for the next three years, extendable to additional years at FinCEN's sole discretion. The settlement will be treated as a general unsecured claim in the casino's pending bankruptcy case. Under the Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA"), casinos

The MSRB submitted for SEC approval from a proposal apply limitations on business-related gift-giving and recordkeeping requirements to municipal advisors (the rule currently applies to municipal securities dealers). The MSRB said that the proposed amendments to MSRB Rule G-20 would (i) extend the relevant existing provisions of the rule to municipal advisors and their associated persons and to gifts given in relation to municipal advisory activities, (ii) consolidate and codify interpretive guidance, and delete prior interpretive guidance that would be codified by proposed amended Rule G-20

The SEC announced that an investment advisory firm in Philadelphia agreed to pay over $21 million to settle charges that it fraudulently retained fees belonging to collateralized debt obligation ("CDO") clients. An SEC investigation found that the firm did not tell CDO clients that it retained payments known as "exchange fees" in connection with restructuring transactions. The order found that the firm's retention of the exchange fees was not permitted by the CDOs' governing documents, nor was it disclosed to the CDOs' investors and thus created undisclosed conflicts of interest.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier ordered the production of a second set of documents that an international corporation claimed were privileged in response to subpoenas from the SEC. The SEC investigation alleged possible fraud relating to statements made by the corporation regarding its efforts to obtain a certificate of conformity from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency certifying that its engines complied with certain provisions of the Clean Air Act. In an Application for an Order Compelling Compliance with Administrative Subpoenas ("Application"), the SEC claimed that the

The SEC granted exemptions from Rule 102(a) ("Activities by Issuers and Selling Security Holders during a Distribution") of Regulation M ("Distributions") under certain conditions to a renewable energy company. The exemptions pertain to repurchases by the company of its shares under a proposed share repurchase plan, and the conditional exemption permits the company to repurchase shares of its common stock under the repurchase program while engaged in a distribution of shares of its common stock. Additionally, the conditional exemption is subject to the renewable energy company's (i)