All posts tagged: Gary Gensler

SEC Chair Gensler dodges Trump Media campaign finance questions

SEC Chair Gensler dodges Trump Media campaign finance questions

Published by skeptic

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on Tuesday refused to comment on speculation of whether Trump Media is a funding organ for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “I’m not going to speak on any one company,” Gensler said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” responding to a question on whether Trump Media is merely a vehicle to finance the former president’s bid for a second term. “What’s important is that their disclosures are accurate and that folks aren’t in the market front-running or trading on insider information,” Gensler said. Since the DJT ticker went public on the Nasdaq on March 26, the stock has whipsawed, seeing a high of nearly $80 per share and a low of roughly $12 per share. The stock opened Tuesday at roughly $49. As the majority shareholder, Trump stands to gain the largest financial boost from DJT upswings. On Friday, Trump’s stake increased by 36 million more shares on top of his existing 78.8 million, due to a clause in the company’s contract that unlocks bonus shares as the …

Trump SEC would end climate disclosure rule, target ESG investments

Trump SEC would end climate disclosure rule, target ESG investments

Published by skeptic

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump shouts during a campaign event in Freeland, Michigan, U.S. May 1, 2024.  Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters The Securities and Exchange Commission under a second Donald Trump presidency would roll back the aggressive stance the government agency has taken against corporate giants with current chairman Gary Gensler at the helm, according to people familiar with the matter. If Trump were to defeat President Joe Biden in November, the SEC under his administration would likely start by curtailing many of the rules recently put in place tied to the environment, according to experts and people close to the former president. An initial target of the SEC under a second Trump administration would be to roll back the new climate disclosure rules, these people explained. Gensler and the SEC adopted a rule in March requiring large publicly traded companies to disclose their levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The largest companies are required to make climate disclosures as early as fiscal 2025, with specifics on greenhouse gas emissions as soon …

SEC scores big win in lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase

SEC scores big win in lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase

Published by skeptic

A smartphone with displayed Coinbase logo and representation of cryptocurrencies are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken, June 8, 2023. Dado Ruvic | Reuters The Securities and Exchange Commission scored a major win in its lawsuit against Coinbase on Wednesday, as a judge ruled that its claim that the cryptocurrency exchange engaged in unregistered sales of securities could be heard by a jury at trial. Coinbase’s shares fell around 2.5% on news of the ruling in Manhattan federal court rejecting its bid to dismiss the SEC’s complaint. The regulator first filed suit against Coinbase in June, alleging the company was acting as an unregistered broker and exchange. The agency also demanded the company be “permanently restrained and enjoined” from continuing to do so. In her ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla wrote, “The ‘crypto’ nomenclature may be of recent vintage, but the challenged transactions fall comfortably within the framework that courts have used to identify securities for nearly eighty years.” “The Court finds that the SEC adequately alleges that Coinbase, through its …

Morgan Stanley will pay millions settle SEC block trade probe

Morgan Stanley will pay millions settle SEC block trade probe

Published by skeptic

Pawan Passi, former equities executive at Morgan Stanley, arrives at court in New York, US, on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. Alex Kent | Bloomberg | Getty Images Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay a total of $249 million to settle a criminal investigation and a related Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the unauthorized disclosure of block trades to investors by the bank’s supervisor for such trades and another employee, authorities said Friday. As part of the settlement, Morgan Stanley entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for making false statements related to certain block trades executed from 2018 through August 2021, the office said. Morgan Stanley, which admitted responsibility for its employees’ actions, is obligated under the deal to cooperate with and provide information to U.S. authorities for at least three years. The SEC charged Morgan Stanley with “failing to enforce its policies concerning the misuse of material non-public information related to block trades,” that agency said. Block trades typically involve large numbers of …