VALUE CREATION AND PROTECTION
Responding toComplex Regulations
Regulatory compliance is now a top line management issue, given its cost and potential for reputational risk. Regulators have increasingly adopted a more extraterritorial as well as assertive view of their remit. This complicates the compliance task, given international regulatory requirements are rarely in sync, creating potential issues over primacy of jurisdiction. It is vital that companies, whether entering new markets or active in established ones, have expert guidance in navigating today's ever-changing securities and investment laws and restrictions, anti-corruption regulations, trade rules, and the complex web of financial law and reporting requirements. While technology is providing growing support for the compliance task, robust systems and procedures provide a key structure to guide management oversight.
Highlights of our
Client Successes
Alstom settles largest-ever criminal FCPA case
Our lawyers represented Alstom S.A., a major international energy, transportation, and engineering business, in successfully settling a worldwide investigation of alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The investigation spanned more than five years and involved allegations around the world and throughout different business units within the company. This marks the largest criminal FCPA matter ever resolved by the DOJ.
Bank CFO in financial crisis prosecution
We represent the former CFO of Wilmington Trust Corporation (formerly a NYSE-listed company) in a complex, high-profile Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecution, and related Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement action. The DOJ and SEC have alleged that our client and his co-defendants, all of whom are former senior executives of Wilmington Trust, underreported matured commercial loans that were 90 days or more past due in SEC public filings and bank regulatory reports during the financial crisis. The pending DOJ criminal indictment also names Wilmington Trust as a defendant, and involves novel accounting and corporate disclosure issues.
Global player enters competitive U.S. telecoms market
We advised an international telecoms and media company on its successful entry into the competitive U.S. telecoms sector. The company, which is based in Europe, provides mobile telecoms and streaming media services for immigrant and migrant communities throughout the world. We assisted the company in all aspects of the U.S. launch of its innovative VoIP telephony service, including establishing corporate entities in the U.S., securing necessary federal and state regulatory approvals, and assisting with all labor and employment, tax, and real estate matters. We continue to work with our client as it explores offering additional telecoms and media services to consumers.
Retailer secures regulatory approvals for US$2B+ sale of credit card accounts
We advised a retailer on the US$2B+ sale of select store-branded credit card accounts and credit card receivables to a U.S. bank. The deal enabled our client to monetize credit card receivables previously held directly by the retailer or through its securitization subsidiary. We helped our client obtain all required regulatory approvals and non-objections from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board, and address state licensing issues to permit the retailer to service and collect upon its store-branded receivables originated by the bank. We also assisted in negotiating the purchase and sale agreement and program agreement with the bank.