28 June 2013 the Russian President signed Federal Law No. 134-FZ amending a number of laws in relation to combating illegal financial operations.
The Law amended, in particular, the Law on Banks and Banking Activity, the Anti-Money Laundering Law, the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses, the Law on State Registration of Legal Entities, the Bankruptcy Law, laws regarding certain financial organizations, and the Tax Code. Below is a summary of the key changes (save for those made to the Tax Code).
Legal developments
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released a consultation paper (Insolvency and Winding-Up Consultation Paper) on 24 July pertaining to the proposed insolvency and winding-up regime (Insolvency Regime) for the Variable Capital Company (VCC) structure. This is the third in a series of consultation papers released since May 2019 pertaining to the VCC regulations, following the passage of the Variable Capital Companies Act on 1 October 2018.
In Hattingh v Roux NO & Others 2011 (3) SA 135 (WCC), the plaintiff, Hattingh, sought to show that the defendant, Roux junior, intentionally and unlawfully injured Hattingh by executing an illegal and highly dangerous manoeuvre during a scrum in an Under 19 rugby match between two Western Cape high school teams.
Among other issues considered by the court was the delictual ground of intent: whether Roux junior, if he had in fact executed the manoeuvre which injured Hattingh, acted negligently or intentionally in doing so.
In 2009, a certain savings bank (“S Savings Bank”) issued subordinated bonds (the “Subordinated Bonds”). Subsequently, the Financial Services Commission designated it as an insolvent financial institution and issued a management reform order, which included the suspension of its business. Eventually, bankruptcy proceedings were commenced against S Savings Bank in around 2011, and the representative director of S Savings Bank was indicted for financial statement fraud and eventually found guilty.
When a Ponzi scheme collapses, as with musical chairs, there will be some investors with a place to sit, while others are bereft of such comfort.
The British Columbia case of Botham Holdings Ltd. (Trustee of) v. Braydon Investments Ltd. is a reminder that tax and estate plans must take non-tax issues and law into account. It can be extremely dangerous to let the tax tail wag the dog!
Mr. Botham and a family trust were the shareholders of Botham Holdings Ltd. ("Holdings"). In 2004 Holdings was fortunate enough to realize a large capital gain and, as a result, incurred a significant income tax liability.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit recently issued its opinion in one of the largest fraudulent transfer litigations against lenders.
Saul Katz and Fred Wilpon, owners of the New York Mets baseball team, invested in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Irving Picard, the trustee appointed under the Securities Investor Protection Act to liquidate the business of Madoff and Madoff Securities, sought to recover over $1 billion from Katz and Wilpon on the grounds that they had made money from Madoff through fraud, constructive fraud and preferential transfers in violation of federal bankruptcy law and New York debtor-creditor law.
In the latest instalment in the ongoing litigation between Herald and Primeo,[1] the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has considered how liquidators of a Cayman fund may adjust the fund’s historic NAVs (and thereby alter the respective amounts to be distributed to the fund’s shareholders) in circumstances where those NAVs were misstated due to fraud or default and where calcu