Bipartisan Bill Offers Needed Reforms to SEC Whistleblower Program

By Stephen M. Kohn and Geoff Schweller

Stephen M. Kohn and Geoff Schweller (photos courtesy of the authors)

Since it was established in 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Whistleblower Program has emerged as the gold standard for whistleblower award programs. Through a combination of anonymous reporting channels, anti-retaliation protections, transnational reach, and mandatory whistleblower awards, the program has generated tens of thousands of tips, resulted in the collection of over $6 billion in sanctions from fraudsters and the return of over $1.3 billion directly to harmed investors.

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Staffing Up: Antitrust Regulators Around the World Step up Digital Platform and Technology Enforcement

by Aymeric De Moncuit, Rachel J. Lamorte, Daniel Vowden, Stephen V. Groh, Ora Nwabueze, and Sarah Wilks

Top left to right: Aymeric De Moncuit, Rachel J. Lamorte and Daniel Vowden. Bottom left to right: Stephen V. Groh, Ora Nwabueze and Sarah Wilks. (Photos courtesy of Mayer Brown)

At a Glance

In February, the Japan Fair Trade Commission announced that it will hire additional staff to enforce the country’s new Act on Promotion of Competition for Specified Smartphone Software. The Act “aim[s] to foster innovation and expand options for consumers through ensuring a fair and competitive environment in the digital field,” and is a recent example of worldwide competition enforcers’ focus on digital platforms and technology. We consider how enforcers across the world have staffed up to enforce similar legislation.

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Evolution of AI Washing Enforcement: DOJ Enters the Picture

by Joel M. Cohen, Gabriella Margaux Pérez Klein, and Robert DeNault

Left to right: Joel M. Cohen, Gabriella Margaux Pérez Klein, and Robert DeNault (photos courtesy of White & Case LLP)

On April 9, the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission announced parallel cases against the founder and former CEO of an artificial intelligence startup for allegedly misleading investors about his former company’s product capabilities. The cases are the latest salvo in regulatory focus on AI companies and their public statements about the products they offer.

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The Trump Administration’s Changes to White Collar Enforcement Are Transformative, Not Cyclical

by Robertson Park

Photo courtesy of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

When Administrations change, it is inevitable that there will be new leadership and priorities which inform their actions. This applies across governmental functions, and the Department of Justice has never been exempted. I served in the Department — both in the USAO (DC) and in Main Justice (Fraud) — under Presidents Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, and Obama. My wife served for almost 20 years in the Public Integrity Section under similarly diverse leadership. Joseph DiGenova was my US Attorney, and AG Edwin Meese signed my Criminal Division Appointment. I worked under Attorneys General as diverse as Edwin Meese, Bill Barr, Janet Reno, and Eric Holder. Sometimes the changes in the Department were substantial, and at others they were more nuanced. But the impact on traditional white-collar investigations and enforcement was generally reflected in shifts toward new initiatives and away from others, while not altering the fundamental landscape of white-collar enforcement. In those years, white-collar practice moved through procurement fraud, the Savings and Loan Crisis, invigoration of foreign bribery enforcement, health care, and more sophisticated forms of financial and market fraud.

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Delaware Enacts Sweeping Changes to Treatment of Conflicted Transactions

by Morgan A. Davis, Susan Reagan Gittes, Gordon Moodie, Maeve O’Connor, Zachary H. Saltzman, Shannon Rose Selden, Erik J. Andrén, and David J. Hotelling

From left to right: Morgan A. Davis, Susan Reagan Gittes, Gordon Moodie, Maeve O’Connor, Zachary H. Saltzman, Shannon Rose Selden, Erik J. Andrén, David J. Hotelling (photos courtesy of Debevoise & Plimpton)

Against the backdrop of several high-profile corporate departures from Delaware and chatter about possible future departures, on March 25, 2025, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed into law S.B. 21, which amends the Delaware General Corporation Law to provide greater clarity as to the treatment of transactions involving conflicted directors or controlling stockholders and to constrain the scope of materials available pursuant to stockholder books-and-records demands. The Office of the Governor touted the bill as “aimed at ensuring the state remains the premier home for U.S. and global businesses.”

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DOJ Announces Policy Ending “Regulation by Prosecution” of Digital Assets

by Joel Cohen, Brent Wible, Ladan Stewart, Marietou Diouf, Robert Denault, and Elisha Mvundura

Top left to right: Joel Cohen, Brent Wible and Ladan Stewart, Bottom left to right: Marietou Diouf, Robert Denault and Elisha Mvundura (Photos courtesy of White & Case LLP).

On April 7, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum instructing federal prosecutors to cease pursuing “litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets,” noting that regulators and not prosecutors will “do this work outside the punitive criminal justice framework.”[1] Under the new policy, the Justice Department will prioritize investigations and prosecutions involving individuals who defraud investors in digital assets or who use digital assets in furtherance of other crimes, including offenses related to terrorism, narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, organized crime, hacking, and cartel and gang financing. The memorandum indicates that the Justice Department plans to close all ongoing investigations that are inconsistent with the new policy.

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2024 Year in Review: Data Breach Litigation

by Kirk Nahra, Molly Jennings, Ali Jessani, and Rachel Greene

Left to Right: Kirk Nahra, Molly Jennings, Ali Jessani and Rachel Greene. (Photos courtesy of WilmerHale)

One of the main risks for a company in the event of a data breach is the threat of litigation. Data breach litigation continued to proliferate in 2024, as it has in prior years.

In the past year, plaintiffs continued to seek relief following data breaches under state common-law doctrines, and the Alabama Supreme Court joined the other state courts of last resort who have addressed data-breach litigation in published decisions. Federal data breach plaintiffs contended with standing issues in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, and an apparent circuit split between the Tenth and Eleventh Circuits deepened when the Third Circuit weighed in. The District of New Jersey also provided further guidance to companies on the scope of the attorney-client privilege when responding to data breaches. This post examines these trends.

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PCCE Hosts Successful 2025 Spring Conference on Maintaining Effective Ethics and Compliance Programs in a Changing Regulatory Landscape

Photos of conference attendees

On Friday, April 11, 2025, the NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) hosted its annual spring compliance conference on “Managing Effective Ethics and Compliance Programs in a Changing Regulatory Landscape.” The full-day event, which drew a standing-room-only crowd of senior in-house legal and compliance professionals, academics, expert external counsel, and regulators featured off-the-record discussions of the future of compliance and ethics programs in a time of rapid regulatory change, with a focus on maintaining an ethical culture, encouraging employees to speak-up and report potential misconduct, and how to manage risk in the use and development of Artificial Intelligence. Keynote speakers included Adrienne Harris, Superintendent, New York Department of Financial Services and Therese Chambers, Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. More details of and photos from the conference below. To sign up for PCCE’s mailing list for future events, please click here.

SAVE THE DATE: PCCE’s 5th Annual Directors’ Academy for board directors and C-Suite legal and compliance professionals will be held on October 9-10, 2025, at NYU School of Law. Learn more about our past Directors’ Academies here. Register to receive an invitation to this year’s Directors’ Academy here.

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President Trump Announces Then Suspends Reciprocal Tariffs, Defers Tariffs on Certain Electronics, and Increases Tariffs on China

by Lauren Mandell, David J. Ross, Neena Shenai, Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Heather E. Hedges, and Mark Kim

Top left to right: Lauren Mandell, David J. Ross, Neena Shenai, Bottom left to right: Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Heather E. Hedges and Mark Kim (Photos courtesy of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)

On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order (the Reciprocal Tariffs Executive Order or Executive Order) announcing a 10% baseline reciprocal tariff on nearly all U.S. trading partners, effective April 5, and an additional reciprocal tariff on 57 countries, effective April 9. Seven of the United States’ top ten trading partners are among the 57 countries the Order states will face an additional reciprocal tariff: 34% for China (including the baseline tariff and the additional tariff), 20% for the European Union, 46% for Vietnam, 32% for Taiwan, 24% for Japan, 27% for India, and 26% for South Korea. Other than exemptions for duties imposed pursuant to Section 232 actions and for certain enumerated products, the tariffs are additive.

However, on April 10, the President suspended country-specific reciprocal tariff for all countries except China for a period of 90 days, until July 8, 2025. On the same day, after days of escalation, the President increased the Chinese reciprocal tariff to 125%.

On April 11, the President excluded from the reciprocal tariffs a host of electronics, including smartphones, laptops, televisions. This relief appears to be temporary because on April 14, the U.S. Commerce Department announced new Section 232 investigations of semiconductors, as well as pharmaceuticals, that could result in tariffs.

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European Union, United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority Impose More Than €549 Million in Fines on Major Car Manufacturers for 15-Year Cartel Involving Vehicle Recycling

by Jonathan J. Rusch

Photo courtesy of the author

On April 1, the European Commission (EC) and the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) simultaneously announced that they had imposed fines collectively totaling more than €549 million against a total of 17 leading car manufacturers and two trade groups, the European Automobiles Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT), for conducting a more than 15-year cartel pertaining to “end-of-life” vehicle recycling.[1]

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