This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

This week, a number of organizations submitted "Friend of the Court" briefs in SEC v. Citigroup Global Markets. (United States Securities & Exchange Commission v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. - UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, docket number 11-5227- cv .) The case is now in an Appeals Court after a lower Court Judge threw out a settlement reached between the SEC and Citi. The National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys (NASCAT), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the Business Roundtable, Occupy Wall Street and the US Chamber of Commerce have all either filed or are seeking permission to file briefs in this case. Of course, industry groups, like SIFMA, believe that, if the lower Court ruling is upheld, the wheels will come off the economy. It will be the official End of the World. (We note that one of the attorneys for SIFMA, Annette L. Nazareth of DAVIS POLK & WARDWELL LLP, spent a...

Selected highlights from the Appeals Court Brief filed yesterday by the SEC: "As one example, the same district judge who rejected the consent  judgment here approved a consent judgment in which Worldcom agreed to  injunctive relief—and later, a $750 million penalty, one of the  largest ever obtained  by the Commission—without admitting or denying the fraud allegations in the  complaint." Irrelevant, since they refer to a different time and industry. More  importantly, a $750 million dollar fine in 2002 translates into a $962  million dollar fine in 2012. Or a $285 million dollar fine is only  $223 million in 2002 dollars. The SEC notes that "BP resolved charges that it violated the Clean Air Act in connection  with the Texas City refinery explosion, which killed 15 people and  injured 170, by entering into a consent judgment that ordered it to  undertake an array of remedial measures and pay one of the largest  civil...

Review of Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) Performance: Opportunities for Minority and Women firms, Implications for Policymakers Friday, June 8, 2012 from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM (ET). $100.00. Register by clicking on the link above.