Jeffrey Alberts

On January 20, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Avraham Eisenberg, alleging that he used manipulative and deceptive trading practices to siphon $116 million of digital assets from the Mango Markets digital asset trading platform. This happened just a few months after Eisenberg made a public statement on Twitter that he had made a lot of money on Mango Markets and opined that “It is not illegal to be smarter than your counterparties in a swap transaction nor is it improper to understand a financial product better than the people who invented that product.” The SEC’s recent actions make clear that it disagrees with Eisenberg over whether his trading strategy was legal. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s FinTech Group, discusses what federal agencies allege that Eisenberg did, why these agencies concluded it was unlawful, and what people who trade digital assets can do to stay on the right side of the law.

This August, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued letters to five different cryptocurrency companies demanding that they cease and desist from making false and misleading statements about FDIC insurance. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s Financial Institutions Group, discusses the nature of FDIC insurance, the FDIC’s concern with how crypto companies are referencing FDIC insurance and how to avoid violating the Federal Deposit Insurance Act’s prohibitions on misleading statements about FDIC insurance.

This July, the DOJ brought another insider trading criminal case based on the trading of digital assets.  This case was brought against a former Coinbase employee and came just one month after the same office brought another insider trading case against a former employee of the NFT trading platform OpenSea.  This time, however, the SEC brought a parallel civil action for the insider trading of securities.  In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s FinTech Group, discusses the significance of these insider trading cases, how the SEC’s action threatens to destabilize the cryptocurrency industry and what cryptocurrency companies and traders should do now to avoid facing a government enforcement action.

Last week, the DOJ settled a groundbreaking case against Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) based on allegations of what it described as “algorithmic discrimination” under the Fair Housing Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has made clear that it also intends to target algorithmic discrimination and the use of artificial intelligence by financial institutions. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s Financial Institutions Group, discusses how financial institutions are relying on artificial intelligence, the difficulties that this can create with the CFPB, and what financial institutions and FinTechs should do now to ensure that their use of algorithms complies with consumer protection law.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced in April that it is going to use a rarely used legal provision to start examining nonbank financial institutions that pose risks to consumers.  In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s FinTech Group, discusses the process that the CFPB uses to determine which nonbank financial institutions are potentially subject to this examination procedure and what FinTech companies should o now in light of the CFPB's announcement.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York announced insider trading charges against a former employee of OpenSea related to the trading of NFTs. This is the first time that insider trading charges have been brought based on any digital asset. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman’s FinTech Group, discusses the nature of these criminal charges, how they differ from criminal charges that are based on the insider trading of securities, and what this means for companies and individuals that trade digital assets.

The U.S. government has recently announced a variety of sanctions against certain Russian oligarchs, Russian entities and regions of Ukraine. There's a number of ways in which this can impact cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, even those that are not doing business in the United States. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts explains the recent sanctions programs, how they apply to crypto companies, and what crypto companies should do now to ensure that they don't violate the sanctions that the U.S. government has recently imposed. 

On March 16, FinCEN announced the creation of the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Program, which is aimed at offering rewards to people who provide information to the U.S. government about various stolen assets that are linked to the Russian government. It can implicate people who work at financial institutions, as well as a number of other types of companies that are involved in high value transactions, such as transactions involving real estate, artwork, luxury goods, or crypto assets. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's FinTech Group and chair of the White Collar Defense and Investigation Practice, discusses the development of the program and its potential implications.

Last month China’s central bank declared that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal. Many blockchain companies, as well as financial institutions with indirect exposure to cryptocurrencies are trying to figure out what this means for them. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's FinTech Group, discusses China’s new ban and what this means for companies outside China.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. This has caused concern about possible future criminal prosecution of cryptocurrency companies and their employees. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's FinTech Group and chair of the White Collar Defense and Investigation Practice, discusses the creation of this new team and what it means for the cryptocurrency industry.

Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, has been openly criticizing the S.E.C. for threatening to sue Coinbase if it paid interest to customers on their cryptocurrency deposits. This disappointed Coinbase’s customers. It also terrified many of Coinbase’s competitors, who already offer their customers similar products. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's FinTech Group, discusses the SEC’s legal position and how it may be applied to companies who pay interest on cryptocurrency deposits.

Last month the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) imposed a fine on Kraken, one of the largest digital asset exchanges in the United States. The CFTC asserted that Kraken was illegally offering margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets, including Bitcoin, and failed to register as a futures commission merchant.

This has resulted in concern over whether it is possible to offer cryptocurrency futures and derivatives to retail customers in the U.S. In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's FinTech Group, discusses the Kraken fine and what crypto companies should do to avoid penalties.

The use of decentralized exchanges (“DEXs”) to execute cryptocurrency trades has exploded this year. Earlier this month, however, the Wall Street Journal reported that the main developer of one of the world’s largest DEXs is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This has caused a great deal of concern over whether regulators are going to seek to regulate or even shut down DEXs.

In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Financial Institutions Group, discusses the regulatory status of DEXs, and what DEX developers and users can do to minimize their regulatory risk.

Regulators have been ramping up enforcement actions based on cybersecurity program deficiencies.  In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Financial Institutions Group, discusses the types of enforcement actions we have seen so far this year and what regulated businesses can do now to reduce the risk of facing a cybersecurity enforcement action.

Marijuana possession and recreational use were legalized in New York, the banking capital of the United States.  This has banks and other financial services companies asking whether it is now legal to provide financial services to marijuana-related businesses.  Is it really possible that you can smoke it, but you can’t bank it?  In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Financial Institutions Group, discusses the current state of the cannabis banking law, changes to expect in the coming year, and what financial services companies can do now to prepare for these legal developments.

This week, FinCEN published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for a rule implementing the beneficial ownership reporting provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act.  In this video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Financial Institutions Group, discusses the proposed rule and shares a few thoughts on what financial institutions should do now to prepare.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (“NDAA”)  dramatically expanded the government’s power to use Patriot Act subpoenas to obtain records from banks.  Foreign banks and U.S. banks that provide correspondent accounts to foreign banks should prepare now for the increased use of these subpoenas. In the video, Jeffrey Alberts, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Financial Institutions Group, discusses the NDAA and shares a few thoughts on what banks should do now to prepare.

On October 1, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory clarifying that banks and payments companies could be fined for facilitating ransomware payments to sanctioned entities. The same day, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a related advisory concerning the threats posed by ransomware payments and the obligation of money services businesses to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) concerning suspicious ransomware payments.

On September 21, the OCC clarified in an interpretive letter that federally chartered banks and thrifts may take reserves on behalf of customers who issue cryptocurrency stablecoins. As Jeff Alberts, co-head of the FinTech Group, discusses in this video, taking stablecoin reserve deposits represents a potentially lucrative opportunity for federally chartered banks. To learn more about the benefits and challenges of accepting stablecoin reserve deposits, check out the video below.

Varo Money announced that it was the first FinTech to obtain a national bank charter. In this video, Jeff Alberts discusses whether other FinTechs should do the same.

On June 1, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement put Joselit de la Trinidad Ramirez Camacho on its Most Wanted List. Watch Jeff Alberts share his thoughts on the U.S. putting Venezuela's Superintendent of Cryptocurrency on a Most Wanted List.

In this video, our Partner Jeff Alberts discusses recent announcements central banks have made about issuing digital currencies and how central bank digital currencies would impact banks and FinTechs.

Our Partner Jeffrey Alberts shares his thoughts on Bank Hapoalim agreeing to pay over $900 million in fines and admitting last week to participating in two different major criminal conspiracies involving bribing FIFA officials and tax evasion.

On April 23, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) filed a brief supporting its appeal of a decision by a federal judge in New York ruling that the OCC cannot issue “FinTech Charters” to non-depository institutions.

OFAC’s statement about when banks can reallocate sanctions compliance resources has confused compliance professionals. As Jeffrey Alberts discusses in this video, the announcement’s legal effect is minimal, but it still provides practical guidance to banks.

The Libra Association’s new white paper contains radical changes in how the proposed Libra payments system will function. As Jeffrey Alberts discusses in this video, the new proposal is arguably less ambitious than the one they circulated last June, which was excoriated by politicians, regulators, and thousands of angry bloggers posting from their basements. The new proposal is aimed at satisfying the politicians and regulators but will leave the bloggers angry.

Partner Jeffrey Alberts shares his thoughts on the $86 million in penalties imposed on the Industrial Bank of Korea by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office and the New York Department of Financial Services.

A new version of the BSA/AML Manual was released this week. Here are a few thoughts on how the new manual may be helpful for banks and FinTechs.

Jeffrey Alberts, co-head of Pryor Cashman’s Financial Institutions Group, examines the findings of Danske Bank’s internal investigation report and discusses the key takeaways for foreign banks doing business in the United States.

Partner Jeffrey Alberts provides an overview of the intra-agency appeals process.