On December 28, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“
FAQs”) that clarify the scope of Executive Order (“
E.O.”) 13959, the basis for OFAC’s new Chinese Military Companies sanctions program. These FAQs define key terms and clarify how OFAC will interpret E.O. 13959’s prohibition against U.S. investment in the securities of Communist Chinese Military Companies (“
CCMCs”), which goes into effect on January 11, 2021. In general, like previous sanctions programs, the new FAQs show that OFAC will read commonly used terms much more broadly than their common usage might suggest. Now that OFAC has clarified its stance on E.O. 13959, those operating in the investment management sector, especially banks, broker-dealers, investment advisers, and funds should review their assets to determine whether E.O. 13959 could affect their operations. The FAQs represent a Trump Administration decision to continue an aggressive approach toward CCMCs, a
By Aaron Nicodemus2020-12-21T17:29:00+00:00
President Donald Trump signed into law a measure that will kick publicly traded Chinese companies off U.S.-based exchanges if they refuse to allow U.S. regulators to examine their finances.
Called the “Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act,” the new law (S.945) will delist a foreign-owned company that refuses to comply with the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) audit requirements for three consecutive years.
Congress passed the bill with strong bipartisan support earlier this month. Trump signed the bill into law Friday.
“Taking this action is crucial to hold Chinese companies accountable and to safeguard the millions of American families who rely on modest investments to retire, send their kids to college, and weather financial emergencies,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who co-authored the legislation in the Senate, said in a statement.
SEC Approves 2021 PCAOB Budget and Accounting Support Fee
Washington D.C. (Newsfile Corp. - December 17, 2020) - The Securities and Exchange Commission voted today to approve the 2021 budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the related annual accounting support fee.
The 2021 PCAOB budget totals $287.3 million, an increase of approximately 0.9% from its 2020 budget, and takes into account changes necessitated by the current telework environment such as a reduction on travel spending. The accounting support fee totals $263.9 million, approximately 2.3% lower than the 2020 accounting support fee, of which $236.2 million will be assessed on public companies and $27.7 million will be assessed on registered broker-dealers. The accounting support fee approximates the PCAOB s annual budget, with differences generally attributable to certain timing differences in fee collections and PCAOB expenditures, adjustments to the working capital reserve, and the potentia
By Jaclyn Jaeger2020-12-17T19:44:00+00:00
China-based Luckin Coffee has agreed to a $180 million penalty as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve charges related to the coffee chain’s inflated-sales scandal.
From at least April 2019 through January 2020, Luckin intentionally fabricated approximately $311 million in retail sales transactions “in an effort to falsely appear to achieve rapid growth and increased profitability and to meet the company’s earnings estimates,” according to the SEC’s complaint, filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York.
Certain executive officers and senior managers at Luckin attempted to conceal the fraud by inflating the company’s expenses by more than $190 million, creating a fake operations database, and altering accounting and bank records to hide the misconduct from the company’s finance department and others, the complaint states.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington D.C., Dec. 17, 2020
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted today to approve the 2021 budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the related annual accounting support fee.
The 2021 PCAOB budget totals $287.3 million, an increase of approximately 0.9% from its 2020 budget, and takes into account changes necessitated by the current telework environment such as a reduction on travel spending. The accounting support fee totals $263.9 million, approximately 2.3% lower than the 2020 accounting support fee, of which $236.2 million will be assessed on public companies and $27.7 million will be assessed on registered broker-dealers. The accounting support fee approximates the PCAOB’s annual budget, with differences generally attributable to certain timing differences in fee collections and PCAOB expenditures, adjustments to the working capital reserve, and the potential unspent funds from the prior y