Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Spac The Deck: Why The Control Exerted By Spac Sponsors Subjects De-Spac Transactions To Entire Fairness Review, Aj Harris

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), otherwise known as blank check companies, are corporations created to raise capital from investors with the express purpose of using such capital to acquire an already existing business. Much like a traditional merger, the transaction between the SPAC and the target company (formally called the “Initial Business Combination” or colloquially the “de- SPAC transaction”) is highly scrutinized in shareholder litigation. However, Delaware courts have not definitively established under which standard these de-SPAC transactions should be reviewed. This Note examines the SPAC structure, evaluates the arguments for the respective standards, and ultimately concludes that Delaware courts …

Unequal Investment: A Regulatory Case Study, Emily R. Winston

Faculty Publications

Growing economic inequality in the United States has reduced social mobility, placing financial security farther out of reach for a growing number of Americans. During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. stock prices have grown simultaneously with unemployment and food insecurity, highlighting the fact that prosperity is unequally distributed in the U.S. economy.

Many Americans do not benefit when the stock market soars because they do not have the means to invest. However, even ordinary American families who do have wealth to invest in the capital markets will face enormous obstacles in narrowing the wealth divide through investment. This is because ordinary …

Peeking Into The House Of Cards: Money Laundering, Luxury Real Estate, And The Necessity Of Data Verification For The Corporate Transparency Act’S Beneficial Ownership Registry, S. Alexandra Bieler

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

It is estimated that $800 billion to $2 trillion are laundered globally every year, funding the schemes of bad actors and terrorists alike. These astronomical sums are moved around the world without detection; this is in large part due to the ease with which anonymous shell companies, typically limited liability companies (LLCs), can be created, particularly in the United States. America is one of the most egregious enablers of this practice because most states require little to no information about the person ultimately controlling the entity, known as the “beneficial owner.” Working through an LLC, bad actors often turn to …

Does Cryptocurrency Staking Fall Under Sec Jurisdiction?, Nicholas E. Gonzalez

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Bitcoin, the first blockchain and cryptocurrency (crypto), launched in 2009 when the Bitcoin network opened to the public. A blockchain is a digital ledger technology where transactions are aggregated and permanently recorded into blocks of information. Maintenance of a blockchain is typically conducted by decentralized managers who own and operate network computers (“Nodes”) and serve the functions normally handled by central intermediaries to validate and confirm transactions. All Nodes follow a blockchain protocol. In Bitcoin’s and most cryptos’ cases, this protocol is known as a Proof- of-Work protocol which requires a large amount of energy consumption. Consequently, Proof-of-Stake protocols (“PoS”) …

Who's Looking Out For The Banks?, Jeremy C. Kress

University of Colorado Law Review

When the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act authorized financial conglomeration in 1999, Professor Arthur Wilmarth, Jr. presciently predicted that diversified financial holding companies would try to exploit their bank subsidiaries by transferring government subsidies to their nonbank affiliates. To prevent financial conglomerates from taking advantage of their insured depository subsidiaries in this way, policymakers instructed a bank's board of directors to act in the best interests of the bank, rather than the bank's holding company. This symposium Article, written in honor of Professor Wilmarth's retirement, contends that this legal safeguard ignores a critical conflict of interest: the vast majority of large-bank directors also …

Learning To Manipulate A Financial Benchmark, Megan Shearer, Gabriel V. Rauterberg, Michael P. Wellman

Law & Economics Working Papers

Financial benchmarks estimate market values or reference rates used in a wide variety of contexts, but are often calculated from data generated by parties who have incentives to manipulate these benchmarks. Since the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal in 2011, market participants, scholars, and regulators have scrutinized financial benchmarks and the ability of traders to manipulate them.

We study the impact on market welfare of manipulating transaction-based benchmarks in a simulated market environment. Our market consists of a single benchmark manipulator with external holdings dependent on the benchmark, and numerous background traders unaffected by the benchmark. We explore two …

Block Rewards, Carried Interests, And Other Valuation Quandaries In Taxing Compensation, Henry M. Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Ordower contextualizes block rewards litigation with historical failures to tax compensation income paid in kind. Tax fairness principles demand current taxation of the noneconomically diluting block rewards’ market value.

Credit, Crises And Infrastructure: The Differing Fates Of Large And Small Businesses, Todd Baker, Kathryn Judge, Aaron Klein

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay sheds new light on the importance of credit creation infrastructure in determining who actually receives government support during periods of distress, and who continues to benefit after the acute phase of a crisis and the government’s formal support programs come to an end. The pandemic revealed, and the government’s response accentuated, meaningful asymmetries in the capacities of small and large businesses to access needed funding.

At first glance, it would seem that small businesses benefitted more than large ones from the government’s pandemic-support programs, as more government funds flowed into small businesses. Yet closer inspection of the range …

Broken Infrastructure, Del C. Wright Jr.

Faculty Works

This article examines the cryptocurrency-related provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, focusing on amendments to the Internal Revenue Code that expand tax reporting and surveillance obligations for digital assets. Specifically, it analyzes the new “Broker” and “Tax” provisions, which extend reporting requirements beyond traditional financial intermediaries to actors in the blockchain ecosystem who may lack access to the necessary data. The article situates these provisions within the broader regulatory and political context, tracing their roots to prior Treasury rulemaking efforts and exploring their intended role in closing the “tax gap.” It highlights the significant compliance challenges, …

The Wireless Investors Movement, Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci, Christina M. Sautter

Faculty Works

The inaugural guest academic article for the University of Chicago Business Law Review Blog discusses how Millennial and GenZ investors can set in motion a social movement with disruptive effects on the current corporate governance paradigm. It refers to Millennial and GenZ investors as “wireless investors” and their social movement as the “Wireless Investors Movement.” The Wireless Investors Movement, fueled by wireless investors’ vision of the world and technology savviness, will bring corporations to pursue social and environmental causes. This short contribution analyzes the characteristics of the Wireless Investors Movement and the effects it will have on corporate governance.

ปัญหาการตีความคำว่า “รายจ่ายซึ่งมิใช่รายจ่ายเพื่อหากำไรหรือเพื่อกิจการโดยเฉพาะ" ตามมาตรา 65 ตรี (13) ประมวลรัษฎากร, พัชราเพ็ญ ธรรมญาณรังสี

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

เอกัตศึกษาฉบับนี้มุ่งศึกษาถึงปัญหาการตีความคำว่า “รายจ่ายซึ่งมิใช่รายจ่ายเพื่อหากำไรหรือเพื่อกิจการโดยเฉพาะ" ตามมาตรา 65 ตรี (13) แห่งประมวลรัษฎากรในปัจจุบัน ที่ยังคงขาดหลักเกณฑ์การตีความที่ชัดเจนและแน่นอน ทำให้ผู้บังคับใช้กฎหมายและผู้ปฏิบัติตามกฎหมายตีความมาตราดังกล่าวในความหมายที่แตกต่างกัน ผลที่ได้จากการศึกษาค้นคว้าคือ สาเหตุของปัญหาการตีความเกิดจากความซับซ้อนของโครงสร้างประมวลรัษฎากรในส่วนของการหักรายจ่าย ความไม่ชัดเจนของกฎหมาย รวมถึงการขาดเครื่องมือที่คุ้มครองสิทธิของผู้เสียภาษีที่มีประสิทธิภาพเพียงพอ โดยแม้ผู้บังคับใช้กฎหมายจะวางหลักเกณฑ์การตีความไว้ในข้อหารือกรมสรรพากรและคำพิพากษาศาลซึ่งสอดคล้องกับแนวคิดรายจ่ายทางภาษี แต่ข้อหารือดังกล่าวก็ไม่มีสถานะทางกฎหมายหรือผลผูกพันให้ฝ่ายใดต้องยึดถือปฏิบัติตาม ทำให้บางกรณีหลักเกณฑ์การตีความของฝ่ายจัดเก็บภาษีอากรเกิดความไม่แน่นอนในข้อเท็จจริงที่คล้ายคลึงกัน ทั้งยังเกิดความขัดแย้งในการตีความระหว่างหน่วยงานผู้บังคับใช้กฎหมาย 2 องค์กร สิ่งเหล่านี้จึงแสดงให้เห็นถึงปัญหาการตีความคำว่า “รายจ่ายซึ่งมิใช่รายจ่ายเพื่อหากำไรหรือเพื่อกิจการโดยเฉพาะ" อันเป็นปัญหาความไม่แน่นอนของกฎหมาย ซึ่งส่งกระทบต่อสิทธิขั้นพื้นฐานของผู้เสียภาษีในอันจะเพิ่มความเสี่ยงต่อการถูกประเมินภาษีย้อนหลัง เบี้ยปรับ และเงินเพิ่มดังนั้นผู้เขียนจึงได้ศึกษาโครงสร้างกฎหมาย หลักเกณฑ์และวิธีการปฏิบัติเบื้องต้นเกี่ยวกับการตีความคำว่า “รายจ่ายซึ่งมิใช่รายจ่ายเพื่อหากำไรหรือเพื่อกิจการโดยเฉพาะ" ของประเทศสหรัฐอเมริกา ประเทศสาธารณรัฐสิงคโปร์ และประเทศออสเตรเลีย เพื่อนำหลักการและแนวคิดในการลดปัญหาที่เกิดขึ้นจากการตีความและบังคับใช้กฎหมายของประเทศดังกล่าวมาเป็นแนวทางเบื้องต้นในการปรับใช้กับโครงสร้างระบบภาษีของประเทศไทยให้มีประสิทธิภาพมากยิ่งขึ้น

The Future Of Cryptocurrency And Real Estate Transactions, Rachel Silverstein

Touro Law Review

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are all the rage right now and are beginning to make their ways into everyday transactions— including real estate transactions. This article discusses whether using cryptocurrencies to complete real estate transactions will become the norm in the near future. Cryptocurrency laws in general are few and far between, but laws surrounding cryptocurrency and real property are even more sparse. Recent case law involving cryptocurrency is a major focus of this article, along with background knowledge about cryptocurrency and the meaning of “money” as we know it today. The article concludes with a discussion about the unlikelihood …

Twenty Yards From The End Zone: Adr, And The Potential For Greater Levels Of Gender Equality In Professional Sports Employment, Elan Kirshenbaum

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note will highlight the specific instances of gender-based employment discrimination in professional sports and then consider how alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provides the best avenue to address and correct these imbalances. In particular, this Note will analyze the benefits and drawbacks of ADR and litigation, while simultaneously applying this analysis to the discussion of the gender gap in professional sports employment. Part II will outline several examples of this discrimination, while also briefly detailing the general hiring and wage gaps that exist between men and women. In doing so, this section will examine the hiring practices of three of …

From Conflict To Co-Creation Three Powerful Stories Of Transformational Change, Payton Silket, Cheryl L. Epps

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In our communities today, too often, the end goal of dialogue is to develop methods that allow people to coexist, but this is not enough. If left at that, our society will increasingly become more segmented and stratified, where groups of people are able to reside in the same vicinity but only interact when absolutely necessary or safe. This is no way to live, and, in fact, it is a recipe for polarization and the eventual death of dialogue.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Comments On Proposed Rules For Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, Shell Companies, And Projections, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

In March 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission released proposed rules for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), shell companies, and projections. In this comment letter, filed with the SEC, I provide a critical assessment of this proposal.

The SEC proposed far-reaching changes intended to enhance investor protections and align disclosure and liability rules in de-SPACs more closely with those in traditional IPOs. An under-appreciated feature of the proposed reforms is that they would subject de-SPACs to provisions closely modeled on Rule 13e-3 of the Exchange Act, which applies to going-private transactions, including management buyouts. Intended to tackle potential conflicts of …

The Further Erosion Of Investor Protection: Expanded Exemptions, Spac Mergers, And Direct Listings, Andrew F. Tuch, Joel Seligman

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article examines the decades-long decline of investor protections enshrined in the Securities Act of 1933, most notably Section 11, which imposes near strict liability on corporate insiders and certain secondary actors, primarily underwriters. The provision, the most potent in the federal securities regulatory arsenal, popularized the concept of outside gatekeepers and transformed practices in securities offerings, making due diligence a byword for careful investigation of facts whether required by legal process or otherwise. The measures required by Section 11 restored confidence in US capital markets in the wake of the Great Depression and have been instrumental in these markets’ …

How Public Pension Plans Have Shaped Private Equity, William W. Clayton

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Responding To Mass, Computer-Generated, And Malattributed Comments, Steven J. Balla, Reeve Bull, Bridget C.E. Dooling, Emily Hammond, Michael A. Livermore, Michael Herz, Beth Simone Noveck

Articles

A number of technological and political forces have transformed the once staid and insider dominated notice-and-comment process into a forum for large scale, sometimes messy, participation in regulatory decisionmaking. It is not unheard of for agencies to receive millions of comments on rulemakings; often these comments are received as part of organized mass comment campaigns. In some rulemakings, questions have been raised about whether public comments were submitted under false names, or were automatically generated by computer “bot” programs. In this Article, we examine whether and to what extent such submissions are problematic and make recommendations for how rulemaking agencies …

The Input Fallacy, Talia B. Gillis

Faculty Scholarship

Algorithmic credit pricing threatens to discriminate against protected groups. Traditionally, fair lending law has addressed such threats by scrutinizing inputs. But input scrutiny has become a fallacy in the world of algorithms.

Using a rich dataset of mortgages, I simulate algorithmic credit pricing and demonstrate that input scrutiny fails to address discrimination concerns and threatens to create an algorithmic myth of colorblindness. The ubiquity of correlations in big data combined with the flexibility and complexity of machine learning means that one cannot rule out the consideration of protected characteristics, such as race, even when one formally excludes them. Moreover, using …