On March 9, 2021, the Corporation Finance Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) updated its guidance in Disclosure Topic No. 7 for preserving confidential treatment of exhibits redacted pursuant to an SEC confidential treatment order (CTO) that is about to expire.
CTOs are becoming more rare. Most companies obtain confidential treatment without a…
Acting SEC Chair, Allison Herren Lee, announced in a February 11 statement that going forward, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will review offers of settlement and requests for waivers of collateral consequences separately and that the Division of Enforcement will no longer recommend to the SEC a settlement offer that is conditioned on granting…
The SEC has brought its first enforcement action against a public company relating to disclosure of the financial effect of the pandemic. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, agreed to a cease-and-desist order and payment of a $125,000 civil penalty, settling charges of making misleading disclosures in two Form 8-Ks:…
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently released an interim analysis report on the initial impact of critical audit matter (CAM) requirements (Auditing Standard No. 3101). Generally, CAM requirements are meant to identify audit matters that required especially challenging, subjective, or complex auditor judgment and to describe how the auditor responded to…
On September 30, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) entered a cease-and-desist order against a registrant for failure to disclose approximately $1.7 million in travel-related perquisites and personal benefits provided to named executive officers during 2015-2018. The perquisites included expenses associated with the CEO’s personal use of corporate aircraft and executives’ expenses associated with…
On September 9, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff amended CF Disclosure Guidance Topic No. 7, Confidential Treatment Applications Submitted Pursuant to Rules 406 and 24b-2 (Guidance Topic No. 7) to specify options available when a confidential treatment order is about to expire. Notably, the amendments permit companies to maintain confidential treatment…
