SEC Regulatory Enforcement and Prosecution by the DOJ

The Blanch Law Firm provides individuals, business organizations and their owners, corporations and their boards of officers and directors, with comprehensive criminal defense against charges of violating federal regulations, especially SEC prosecutions for insider trading schemes.

Our criminal defense attorneys have a well-established track record of success for leading clients through government investigations and neutralizing prosecutorial and regulatory zeal with settlements that reduce costs, eliminate monetary fines and avoid jail time for our clients. The source of our firm's success is founder Ryan Blanch's unique approach to complex litigation. He personally selects six attorneys to work as a team on each case with only one goal in mind: to win for the client. Defending against prosecution for Insider Trading, regulatory violations, and white collar crime is notoriously labor-intensive, requiring strategies designed to navigate multi-layered legal proceedings.

Because of the current public outcry to punish Wall Street's business executives, financial advisors, investment bankers, hedge fund managers, and stock brokers, one of the most powerful federal regulatory agencies in the country, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is vigorously pursuing business misconduct, including the following:

• In June 2009, the SEC filed fraud charges against former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo and claims he engaged in insider trading, pocketing $140 million in profits by selling company stock before its value plummeted;
• In May 2009, the SEC charged American Home Mortgage Investment Corp.'s former CEO Michael Strauss and former CFO Stephen Hozie with Accounting Fraud related to the company's financial condition, which they understated by "tens of millions of dollars," according to SEC reports.
• In April 2009, the SEC alleged that former Citigroup investment bank, Maher Ka, director of its Global Markets Investment Division, was involved in an insider trading scheme by tipping his brother about deals and reaping more than $6 million in profits.

The SEC, along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is responding to a widespread desire to find so-called villains responsible for the national economic crisis. As a regulators, the SEC is under pressure to adopt more aggressive enforcement policies, based on public perception that financial problems stem from lack of enforcement in the preceding eight years of much more lax Bush administration regulatory policies. Consequently, the Obama administration is being forced to heighten scrutiny of business practices, especially in the financial markets.

The Blanch Law Firm expects the following developments:

• Increased prosecutions of individuals who are perceived as having profited financially from the demise of banking or brokerage institutions;
• Continued accounting investigations of illiquid assets, such as toxic mortgages;
• Inquiries into financial reporting and disclosure practices of any business filing for bankruptcy;
• Insider trading charges against executives who sold company stock prior to that company's public announcement of dipping values in underlying assets;
• Investigation of state and local municipal authorities, financial institutions, and intermediaries, in connection with local counties' issuance of securities prior to a collapse in value;
• Increased scrutiny of hedge funds for evidence that they were not complying with investment guidelines;
• Zealous attempts to prove that recipients of hedge fund assets knew of investor fraud (as in Madoff);
• Increased investigation and prosecution of individuals and corporate entities that regulators and the DOJ believe are misrepresenting accounting facts to the public (fraud).

If you or your organization falls into any of the above categories, don't wait to obtain the best legal counsel available. Turning to The Blanch Law Firm is your best defense.

To discuss your legal options in a free consultation, Contact The Blanch Law Firm by calling 917-472-9883 or 1-866-690-9316.