Internal and Regulatory Investigations

Sullivan & Cromwell has represented insurers in a range of internal and regulatory investigations involving their insurance, securities, investment management, broker-dealer and other regulated businesses. Our representations have included advocacy before the SEC, the DOJ, the FTC, insurance regulators, banking regulators (including the Federal Reserve Board), the CFTC, local District Attorneys, the New York State and other state Attorneys General and U.S. Congressional Committees. We provide pre-crisis legal advice and training and legal and crisis management advice throughout the course of a regulatory investigation, including to Boards of Directors and Special Board Committees. At the inception of an engagement, we create an S&C team comprised of partners with relevant expertise, which frequently includes partners who are former federal or state prosecutors.

Ongoing or recent representations of clients that have been publicly announced include:

• With respect to insurance businesses: Willis with respect to the investigation of contingent compensation arrangements and other matters by the N.Y. Attorney General and insurance commissioners in N.Y. and more than 20 states, as well as related civil litigation; a number of insurers with respect to finite reinsurance; Unum in connection with the DOJ’s, SEC’s and N.Y. Attorney General’s investigations of its practices; four major insurers in connection with (separate and unrelated) SEC/DOJ investigations, including under the FCPA; Generali in the regulatory investigations and bankruptcy litigation arising from the financial fraud of Bennett Funding; Oxford Health in multiple government investigations following a decline in its stock price.
• With respect to investment management businesses: a number of investment company clients and/or their managers and/or Boards of Directors in regulatory investigations arising out of late trading/market timing investigations.
• With respect to banking businesses: a federal prosecution relating to the treatment of abandoned property; a significant number of federal investigations of money laundering and suspicious activity reporting; a grand jury investigation by the U.S. Attorney for S.D.N.Y. and criminal authorities in the U.K. and Russia into payment system transactions; a fraud investigation arising from $1.1 billion in losses concealed by a trader; investigations of off-market trading by FOREX traders; investigation in trading of U.S. currency.
• With respect to broker-dealers: a number of such clients in connection with investigations arising out of the bankruptcy of Orange County investment pools; the SEC investigation involving Denver Airport bonds; investigations of competition issues regarding the NASDAQ stock market; investigations involving IPO allocations and investment research.