In separate statements on April 17, 2019 coinciding with the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton announced several measures intended to increase pressure on Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, in response to corruption, human rights abuses, and political…
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The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS” or the “Committee”) recently publicly announced that it had imposed a $1 million civil monetary penalty against an undisclosed entity for repeated violations of its 2016 mitigation agreement with CFIUS, including failure to establish requisite security …
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There is now a serious effort underway by the usually divided Congress to find a way for the growing cannabis sector to enter the mainstream financial sector.  Our newest visual memorandum updates our earlier briefing on the two legislative vehicles:  the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (the SAFE Banking …
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Tom Baxter of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and formerly the General Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has written an important article titled “The Rise of Risk Management in Financial Institutions and a Potential Unintended Consequence – The Diminution of the Legal Function,” recently published by the…
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Last week, the SEC staff published new detailed guidance on its views of when a digital asset may be considered a security, in the form of two documents:  a guidance “framework” issued by the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology and a no-action letter from the SEC’s Division…
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In our first Cyber Blog post, we predicted that the rules-based approach adopted by the NYDFS would become the model for cybersecurity regulation.  Two years later, we’re feeling pretty good about that prediction, as the FTC recently proposed incorporating a number of aspects of the NYDFS cybersecurity rules into…
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On April 8, 2019, the U.S. State Department announced its intent to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (“FTO”) under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1189.  The designation will take effect upon publication in…
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We recently wrote an article for Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law outlining the state of play for the financial services sector’s relationship with the U.S. cannabis sector.  Our article summarizes the dilemma arising from the widening gulf between static federal prohibitions and changing state laws.  We consider and reject a number…
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