Law Commons^™

Fraud Against Financial Institutions: Judging Materiality Post-Escobar, Matthew A. Edwards

William & Mary Business Law Review

In Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1 (1999), the Supreme Court held that proof of materiality is required for convictions under the federal mail, wire and bank fraud statutes. During the past 20 years, the federal courts have endeavored to apply the complex common law concept of materiality to the federal criminal law context. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, 136 S. Ct. 1989 (2016), a civil case involving the False Claims Act, provided the federal appellate courts with an ideal opportunity to reconsider materiality standards in federal fraud …

Decentralized Finance: Regulating Cryptocurrency Exchanges, Kristin N. Johnson

William & Mary Law Review

Global financial markets are in the midst of a transformative movement. The creation of Bitcoin and Facebook’s proposed distribution of Diem mark a watershed moment in the evolution of the financial markets ecosystem. Purportedly, peer-to-peer distributed digital ledger technology eliminates legacy financial market intermediaries such as investment banks, depository banks, exchanges, clearinghouses, and broker-dealers.

Yet careful examination reveals that cryptocurrency issuers and the firms that offer secondary market cryptocurrency trading services have not quite lived up to their promise. Notwithstanding cryptoenthusiasts’ calls for disintermediation, evidence reveals that platforms that facilitate cryptocurrency trading frequently employ the long-adopted intermediation practices of their …