U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey. Photo: New Jersey Historical SocietyBIT Mining Bribery Scandal Highlights Trump-Biden Enforcement Gap
“There is a prevailing view that Republicans are not particularly aggressive in enforcement of these types of regulatory cases typically brought by the SEC, and I don’t think that’s true necessarily—at least in the FCPA space," said Richard Hong, a partner at Morrison Cohen.
November 19, 2024 at 06:45 PM
3 minute read
What You Need to Know
- BIT Mining agreed to pay a $10 million penalty for its role in a bribery scandal.
- The crypto company had orchestrated a scheme involving $2.5 million in illicit payments to Japanese government officials to secure licensing for an integrated resort casino.
- Richard Hong, a partner at Morrison Cohen, said that the indictment could be indicative of a larger uptick of activity in the Foreign Corruption Practices Act space.
A cryptocurrency company agreed to pay a $10 million penalty after its top leadership directed consultants to pay bribes to Japanese government officials to win a bid to open a large resort in the company, according to an indictment unsealed Monday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Richard Hong, a partner at Morrison Cohen in New York and previously a senior trial lawyer at the SEC, noted that the indictment brought by the agency and the Justice Department against Zhengming Pan, the onetime CEO of 500.com (doing business as co-defendant BIT Mining Ltd.), could be indicative of a larger uptick of activity in the Foreign Corruption Practices Act space.
“It’s good that the DOJ and the SEC continue to flex their muscles in the FCPA space, but in 2024, this appears to be only the fifth case they brought,” Hong said in an interview. “This was the second smallest case this year.”
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