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Commodities Enforcement Trends and Developments

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MoFo partners and former DOJ prosecutors Ed Imperatore and Brian Kidd will join the Futures Industry Association (FIA) for a webinar titled "Commodities Enforcement Trends and Developments" on November 7, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. ET.

MoFo partners and former DOJ prosecutors Ed Imperatore and Brian Kidd will join the Futures Industry Association (FIA) for a webinar titled "Commodities Enforcement Trends and Developments" on November 7, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. ET. Ed and Brian will discuss the CFTC's and DOJ's recent focuses, including commodities enforcement investigations, market manipulation, spoofing, insider trading, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud. Together they will highlight recent trends and developments in commodities enforcement actions and prosecutions, tools used by enforcement agencies, the evolution of legal theories, and how to best mitigate risk. Register to attend at the <a href="https://www.fia.org/fia/events/commodities-enforcement-trends-and-developments">event website</a>. <hr>

Futures Industry Association (FIA) Webinar

Commodities Enforcement Trends and Developments

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Edward A. Imperatore is a partner in Morrison Foerster’s Investigations + White Collar Defense practice group.Edward is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). He represents companies, financial institutions, boards, and executives in internal and government investigations and parallel regulatory and civil litigation. He is experienced in all aspects of white collar crime, including securities and commodities fraud, accounting fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, corporate fraud, digital currency crime, cybercrime, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Edward is frequently recognized by leading industry publications such as Chambers USA where he is ranked as an “Up and Coming” lawyer in the Litigation: White Collar Crime & Government Investigations – New York category, in addition to being recommended by The Legal 500 US for Dispute Resolution: Corporate Investigations And White Collar Criminal Defense, where he is described as, “a smart, methodical lawyer who is deeply versed in securities fraud and FCPA matters.“During his tenure at SDNY, Edward was a senior member of the Securities & Commodities Fraud Task Force and also handled FCPA matters, including three of the largest-ever FCPA criminal resolutions. He is an accomplished trial attorney who tried more than a dozen jury trials to verdict as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Among his trials were 10 complex, multi-week white collar trials, including six trials in the SDNY’s Securities Fraud Unit, all of which resulted in convictions. He also argued 11 appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Edward is a recipient of the Assistant Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award.Edward is frequently published and quoted by financial publications and media outlets on white collar and securities law developments including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Law360, New York Law Journal, and Law.com, among others. He is also a member of the Federal Bar Council, Federal Criminal Practice Committee, and the New York City Bar, White Collar Crime Committee.Prior to joining Morrison Foerster and SDNY, Edward served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan on the U.S. District Court for the SDNY and was a litigation associate at two prominent New York law firms.Edward graduated magna cum laude in the top one percent of his class from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a senior editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and elected to the Order of the Coif. Edward earned his B.A. magna cum laude with distinction in History from Amherst College.<h4>Representative Experience</h4><h5>Defense Experience</h5><ul dir="ltr"><li>Representation of a technology company in a multi-agency federal criminal investigation involving allegations of illegal gratuities, which included advising the company on remedial actions related to internal controls. The DOJ and SEC took no action against our client.</li><li>Representation of a company in conducting an internal investigation into alleged tax and accounting issues, which included counseling the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors on matters of corporate governance, including internal controls over financial reporting.</li><li>Representation of a multinational consulting firm in a cross-border investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption in South Africa, which involves investigations on multiple continents by DOJ and the National Prosecuting Authority in South Africa, parliamentary inquiries, and a Judicial Commission of Inquiry in South Africa.</li><li>Representation of a multinational, publicly traded global Fortune 500 company before DOJ, SEC, and a multilateral organization in investigations of allegations of foreign bribery and corruption.</li><li>Representation of senior executives of a public company in a DOJ and SEC accounting fraud investigation. The DOJ and SEC took no action against our clients.</li><li>Representation of a senior executive of a public company in a DOJ and SEC insider trading investigation. The DOJ and SEC took no action against our client.</li><li>Representation of a former executive of a global investment bank charged by DOJ with alleged FCPA and money laundering offenses arising from financing transaction in Africa and Europe.</li><li>Representation of senior executive of national bank in multiple investigations by federal and state regulators and law enforcement, including SEC, DOJ, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and in civil class-action lawsuits alleging violations of the federal securities laws. </li></ul><h5>Government Experience</h5>Representative corporate and FCPA investigations include:<ul><li>Secured three of the 10 largest FCPA criminal resolutions, resulting in nearly $3 billion in penalties, including the then-largest FCPA criminal penalty.</li><li>FCPA prosecution of an Uzbekistan official for receiving bribes of $865 million, the largest bribe ever charged against an individual FCPA defendant.</li><li>Secured a $900 million criminal resolution with a major automotive manufacturer to resolve charges relating to an ignition switch defect.</li></ul>Representative white collar investigations and trials include:<ul dir="ltr"><li>One-month accounting fraud trial during the COVID-19 pandemic against the CEO and COO of a public biomedical company for fraudulently inflating revenue.</li><li>Three-week accounting fraud trial against the CFO of a prominent public real estate investment trust for manipulating non-GAAP earnings metrics.</li><li>One-month securities and investment advisor fraud trial against a film producer for a complex scheme involving a New York hedge fund.</li><li>Two-week insider trading and securities offering fraud trial against an investment fund owner.</li><li>Two-week insider trading trial against a Wall Street analyst.</li><li>Six-week securities fraud trial against a law partner for a $2 billion accounting fraud scheme at Refco, a former New York broker of commodities and futures contracts.</li><li>Three-week Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act trial against a payday lender for a $220 million fraud.</li><li>Investigation of a prominent antivirus software founder for securities and commodities fraud offenses arising from false and misleading cryptocurrency promotions.</li></ul>

Edward Imperatore

Partner

Brian Kidd is a partner in Morrison Foerster’s Investigations + White Collar Defense Practice. His focus is on solving clients’ most difficult legal and regulatory challenges, often in the context of civil and criminal investigations and litigations. Brian has represented public and private companies and their executives in complex government-facing probes, which have resulted in favorable resolutions and declinations among other successes. He also represents boards of directors and companies in conducting complex internal investigations and compliance reviews. Brian regularly counsels his clients through sensitive matters, corporate crises, litigation, and other disputes involving U.S. federal and state law enforcement and regulatory agencies including the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Department of Education (DOE), District Attorney’s Offices, and state attorneys general, among others. Brian has served as first chair on over a dozen federal trials and is a member of the New York and Washington, D.C., bars.Before joining MoFo, Brian served as chief of the Market Integrity and Major Frauds (MIMF) Unit of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section at DOJ. As chief, Brian supervised a team of roughly 40 federal prosecutors and oversaw the majority of all major fraud cases brought by DOJ during his tenure, with a special focus on investigating and prosecuting complex securities, commodities, and other major corporate fraud cases. Brian oversaw cross-border and corporate prosecutions involving market manipulation, spoofing, insider trading, money laundering, bribery, cryptocurrency, accounting, and procurement fraud. Brian also served as chair of DOJ’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group, where he worked closely with senior leaders at the SEC, CFTC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve.Prior to his role as chief of the MIMF Unit, Brian served as an assistant chief of the MIMF Unit from January 2017 to May 2018 and as a trial attorney from October 2015 to January 2017. Prior to joining the Fraud Section, Brian was a trial attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division and an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico.Brian is a regular speaker on DOJ, SEC, and CFTC enforcement trends, cross-border investigations, cryptocurrency fraud, COVID-19 relief fraud, and compliance guidelines issued by U.S. regulators and law enforcement agencies, among other topics. He has appeared as a guest speaker on Yahoo Financial Live, has been quoted in ABC News, CNN, USA Today, and Law360, among other publications, and has served as a presenter for leading industry groups, including the Futures Industry Association, Ethisphere, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, and Global Investigations Review: Live on these issues.Brian earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and his B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Brian is also a three-time recipient of the Assistant Attorney General’s Exceptional Service Award. Brian has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center since May 2019 and previously was an adjunct professor at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. <h4>Representative Experience</h4><h5>Defense Experience</h5>Securities and Commodities Fraud:<ul><li>Representation of a start-up cryptocurrency company in proactive outreach to government agencies, including FinCEN.</li><li>Representation of an executive of a major cryptocurrency exchange in a SEC and CFTC investigation into allegations of financial misconduct.</li><li>Representation of an executive of a major broker-dealer in a DOJ and SEC investigation into allegations of financial misconduct by a former employer.</li><li>Representation of a major cryptocurrency exchange in providing counsel on U.S. commodities laws.</li></ul>False Claims Act (FCA) and Misuse of Federal Funds:<ul><li>Representation of a healthcare organization in an FCA matter involving kickback allegations.</li><li>Representation of a large for-profit college in multiple investigations involving allegations that the company improperly received and used federal funds. Obtained a declination from DOJ in an FCA investigation.  </li><li>Representation of a large for-profit college in multiple civil suits claiming improper use of financial loan instruments.</li><li>Representation of the board of a prominent advertising and marketing company in an investigation involving allegations that company insiders improperly obtained and used PPP funds. Obtained a declination from DOJ in a criminal investigation. </li><li>Served as the internal reviewer in a post-merger, privileged investigation of a fintech company’s conduct and business activities related to PPP loans to assess risk related to government and congressional investigations.</li><li>Representation of a venture capital firm in reviewing a potential affiliate problem related to $7+ million of SBA and PPP loan funds.</li></ul><h5>Other White Collar Defense and Compliance Matters</h5><ul><li>Representation of an international professional services firm related to its work for opioid manufacturers, which involves complex, multidimensional work involving state attorneys general, DOJ, CPB, and congressional investigations, as well as more than 140 civil lawsuits.</li><li>Representation of a national title insurance company in a criminal investigation being conducted by DOJ.</li><li>Representation of an executive at a U.S. defense contractor in an investigation being led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. </li><li>Representation of a multinational technology company in conducting a risk assessment across the company’s compliance program relating to anti-bribery and corruption, antitrust, anti-money laundering, data privacy and cybersecurity, sanctions, and export controls to recommend potential enhancements.</li><li>Representation of a major broker-dealer in undertaking compliance risk assessments and providing related counseling.</li><li>Representation of a former federal law enforcement officer in a House Oversight Committee investigation into allegations of misconduct.</li></ul>

Brian Kidd

Investigations + White Collar Defense

Securities Enforcement

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Commodities Enforcement Trends and Developments

07 Nov 2024 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EST