The year 2021 proved to be a significant year for cryptocurrency (“crypto”). (Nikita Prasad, NDTV). With El Salvador becoming the first country to use Bitcoin as their legal currency and Tesla, Inc.––one of the world’s most valuable companies––accepting Bitcoin as payment, public interest and the potential for general mainstream acceptance have grown exponentially. Id. This increase in popularity has unsurprisingly exposed crypto to the focus of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) because of the present need for tax dollars and governmental spending. (Alex Gailey & Kendall Little, Time; Robert W. Wood, Forbes). . .
Read MoreThe Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released a vindicatory letter to China-based issuers demanding increased disclosures and financial reporting requirements. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). The SEC’s letter took considerable jabs at the Chinese infrastructure that has stalled the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) from auditing the Chinese issuers’ public accounting firms. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). The letter demands that disclosures from China-based issuers include disparaging warnings indicating the lack of enforcement mechanisms and risks associated with a “less developed legal system.” (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). . .
Read MoreNasdaq adopted a new board diversity rule in August 2021 requiring greater diversity in the boardroom for companies listed on its exchange, with the focus of the new rule requiring increased representation and disclosure of board members who self-identify as a female, an underrepresented minority, or LGBTQ+. (Michael Nagle, Bloomberg Law; Securities and Exchange Commission). While these new requirements are a step in the right direction, there is a category of underrepresented individuals excluded from the existing diversity rules – people with disabilities. . .
Read MoreFacebook has once again found itself in the crosshairs of public discourse after a whistleblower was interviewed on “60 Minutes”. Frances Haugen (“Haugen”) is a former product manager at Facebook for the civic disinformation team. (Matt Levine, Bloomberg Law). Haugen shared in the interview that she was increasingly concerned with Facebook’s decision-making processes, which consistently choose profit over the public good. Id. Senators on a U.S. Senate subcommittee heard more than three hours of testimony from Haugen in which she provided specific examples of the impact of misinformation on teenagers’ mental health, and a lack of accountability on events in the United States. (Cecilia Kang, New York Times). Haugen brought internal documents and spoke candidly about the deliberate efforts Facebook makes to keep people, including children, hooked on their services. Id. She further said Facebook had hidden disturbing research about how teenagers felt emotionally worse about themselves after using its products, which include the popular social media app Instagram, and how Facebook was willing to use hateful content on its site to keep users hooked on its products. Id. . .
Read MorePandora’s box is a fictional artifact of Greek mythology. (Merriam-Webster). Pandora, the owner of the box, was told never to open the box. Id. However, she did anyway. Id. When she took the lid off the box, out swarmed all the troubles of the world, never to be recaptured. Id.
The recently revealed and appropriately named Pandora Papers have brought this Greek myth into a modern context, except evidence of global inequity swarmed out of the “box” in 2021. The Pandora Papers shocked many by describing how the ultra-rich hide money overseas to evade taxes. (Kelly Phillips Erb, Bloomberg Law). More surprising is the scale of the operation and how many well-known global figures participated in such dealings. . .
Read MoreStefan Qin could face more than seven years in prison for fraudulently operating his hedge fund which allegedly derived profits from price gaps between cryptocurrencies on global exchanges. (Chris Dolmetsch, Bloomberg Law, Southern District of NY). In 2016, Qin dropped out of college to form the Virgil Sigma Fund. (Alexander Osipovich and Jeong Eun-Young, Wall Street Journal). Expectations were high for Qin, previously a high school math whiz, to dominate the cryptocurrency world with his price-monitoring algorithm called Tenjin. Id. . .
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