As of 12:01 am on October 1, 2025, congressionally appropriated funding lapsed for most operations of the United States government. Though the government has shut down, business continues, and market participants that need to interact with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in order to complete a transaction may
FCPA & Anti-Corruption Enforcement: Shifting Global Dynamics in Light of New U.S. Regime
The last two decades have been marked by robust enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). In line with its “shock and awe” approach, the Trump Administration seemingly called the future enforcement of that law into question when, on February 10, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to “pause” enforcement of the FCPA and conduct a comprehensive review and update of the law’s enforcement approach. The “pause heard around the world” shocked many commentators, anti-corruption campaigners, and countries that are signatories of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (“OECD Convention”), as it raised questions about the United States’ commitment to combatting corruption going forward.
Why the DOJ’s New Whistleblower Program Remains Relevant
On May 12, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum outlining the Criminal Division’s enforcement priorities and policies for prosecuting corporate and white-collar crimes in the new Administration. Later that week, Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, addressed the new policies in a speech at the SIFMA Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Conference. Galeotti emphasized that the DOJ is “turning a new page on white-collar and corporate enforcement,” with a renewed focus on crimes that pose the greatest risk to U.S. interests. His remarks, coupled with the recent expansion of the DOJ’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program, signal a new era of accountability, transparency, and proactive compliance for portfolio companies operating in high-risk sectors.
Navigating Earn-Out Disputes: Key Considerations for Private Funds
Times of economic volatility often increase disparities between a seller’s valuation and the buyer’s valuation of the same company. Earn-out provisions are one tool frequently used to address such disparities. An earn-out provision requires the buyer to make one or more post-closing payments (the “earn-out consideration”) to the seller if the company being sold (the “earn-out entity”) meets certain milestones during a defined post-closing period (the “earn-out period,” which is usually between one to five years). These milestones may include EBITDA, gross revenue, net income, the expansion of the business into defined geographic or product areas, or other metrics.
End of (Fund) Life Issues
Amid a challenging environment for exits, especially in the wake of the recent market volatility, private fund managers continue to pursue alternative strategies, such as term extensions and liquidity solutions, to ride out the liquidity downturn. While these measures are designed to protect the value of the funds’ investments and are frequently requested by limited partners, they raise potential regulatory concerns that have been the subject of SEC scrutiny in the past. As noted by a senior staff member of the Division of Examinations in March, the SEC continues to conduct exams with a focus on the bread-and-butter issues like fees, conflicts and related disclosures. Therefore, as funds approach maturity, it is worth reviewing the areas that have received the greatest regulatory attention.
Three Risks to Monitor in Private Credit
Private credit has become an essential source of financing globally, with fund sponsors enjoying strong demand from borrowers, market participants, and investors. However, as the industry’s “golden age” continues, regulatory scrutiny is growing. Media coverage and legislative inquiries have pressured agencies — particularly the SEC — to take action.
SEC Regulation in a Non-Regulatory Environment
With Paul Atkins as the new SEC Chair, the agency’s priorities have shifted away from many of the aggressive policies of former Chair Gensler. The first four months of the Republican controlled SEC saw a dramatic shift in the approach to crypto with the dismissal or pause of major litigation, the termination of several longstanding investigations, the recission of accounting guidance regarding the safeguarding of crypto assets and the establishment of a new task force to help formulate the regulatory approach to crypto going forward. With the enforcement program under a new SEC undergoing significant changes, there will likely be a return to more traditional enforcement cases with greater emphasis on egregious conduct involving pecuniary gain or investor harm, moving away from “pushing the envelope” cases. Enforcement sweeps involving off-channel communications, late filings and other “broken windows” initiatives are expected to fall by the wayside. Regulation by enforcement could be replaced by increased interaction with the Staff, formal or informal guidance or lighter-touch rulemaking.
Regulatory Scrutiny on Potential MNPI in the Credit Markets
Over the past year, regulatory scrutiny of the credit markets has intensified, with the SEC investigating the potential use of material nonpublic information (“MNPI”) relating to credit instruments. The SEC brought a number of enforcement actions against investment advisers involving the failure to maintain and enforce written MNPI policies involving trading in distressed debt and collateralized loan obligations, even in the absence of insider trading claims. We anticipate that these investigations of trading in private credit instruments and related MNPI policies will continue, as SEC enforcement staff has increased their focus on these markets.
ESG in 2025: Finding the Sweet Spot in a Complex World
With ESG regulation now well embedded across all major jurisdictions, the trend we see for 2025 is about increasingly sophisticated triangulation by private fund managers between the regimes that apply by default (such as mandatory corporate sustainability reporting), those that apply by choice (such as becoming an Article 8 fund within the meaning of the EU’s SFDR or the new for 2024 ESMA ESG Fund Name Guidelines – see summary here) and those that apply by third party request or expectation (such as reporting obligations within side letters). As regimes evolve, the ESG-approach of any fund once identified, chosen and defined must also take into account tracking developments and monitoring compliance.
Top Ten Regulatory and Litigation Risks for Private Funds in 2025
Confession: writing this in May 2025, we cannot predict with confidence what the rest of 2025 will bring. The year has already seen four months of change and upheaval – political, regulatory, and economic. The new US administration has touted a business-friendly regulatory environment, with actual and promised tax cuts and deregulation. However, geopolitical tensions, tariff trade wars and political instability have introduced new risks and created a climate of extreme unpredictability. We should expect 2025 to hold several surprises still, whether that is a breakout of peace or new political themes obtaining prominence in one or more jurisdictions.