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Paul Kisslinger Speaks With Law360 for Article on DOJ Priorities

Washington, D.C. (January 3, 2024) – Washington, D.C. Partner and Chair of Lewis Brisbois’ SEC Enforcement & Litigation Practice Paul Kisslinger recently spoke with Law360 for an article titled, “The 3 Biggest White-Collar Enforcement Buzzwords Of 2023,” which discusses the types of matters that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prioritized over the last year as well as its goals for 2024.  

As the article explains, the DOJ focused its efforts in three primary areas during 2023: (1) convincing companies to disclose internal misconduct, (2) revising its corporate criminal enforcement policy to include the business use of personal cellphones and messaging apps, and (3) aggressively pursuing enforcement actions in the crypto industry, including the high-profile, successful cases against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. Moreover, the article describes that the SEC has “unfinished businesses” with Binance, as the agency is pursuing a civil matter against the crypto exchange despite the company’s prior entry of a plea agreement with DOJ. In the SEC’s civil action, Binance not only has denied wrongdoing, but has questioned the SEC's authority to regulate crypto companies in the first place. 

On the topic of the SEC’s crypto actions, Mr. Kisslinger told Law360, "The SEC may be fighting for a ruling on whether cryptocurrencies are securities — and that's huge." He further noted, “If cryptos are found to be securities, it's going to affect every exchange, every Bitcoin seller, every staker, really everybody involved in the industry. . . . So everybody's holding their breath on that.” 

Mr. Kisslinger, who serves as chair of Lewis Brisbois’ SEC Enforcement & Litigation Practice, guides clients through the choppy waters of regulatory enforcement actions, internal and external investigations, and legislative inquiries. Prior to joining Lewis Brisbois, he spent almost two decades with the SEC Enforcement Division as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel running complex actions that covered the breadth of the SEC’s regulatory portfolio. 

Read the full Law360 article here (subscription may be required).

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