Tagged: legal

January 8, 2017 @ 1:30 pm By Lior Ostashinsky  |  

  The JOBS Act, which was signed into law in April 2012, led to the adoption of three exemptions from the registration requirements of securities offerings in the U.S. All three allow raising capital via crowdfunding. The first to go effective (September 2013) was Reg… Read More

December 29, 2016 @ 7:30 am By Samuel Guzik  |  

The beginning of a new year is typically accompanied by renewed hope and positive expectations. 2017 is no exception.  As a staunch advocate of promoting the interests of small business generally, and smart regulation of capital formation, in particular, 2017 stands out to me as… Read More

December 28, 2016 @ 7:23 am By Scott Andersen  |  

FINRA recently completed a settlement expelling from FINRA membership UFP, LLC, a registered funding portal that operated under uFundingPortal.com.   The matter marks both early and decisive action by FINRA against a registered funding portal operating under Regulation Crowdfunding.  It establishes that FINRA takes seriously… Read More

December 24, 2016 @ 8:47 am By Therese Torris  |  

For Reid Feldman and Hubert de Vauplane of the Paris Office of Law Firm Kramer Levin, the latest revisions of the French crowdfunding regulation are part of a broader effort by the French authorities to relax the monopoly of French banks on credit and extend… Read More

December 20, 2016 @ 9:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Two Year Patent Troll Case Ends in Triumph as Gust Refuses to Settle in “Giant Win” for Crowdfunding Industry. Gust, the “world’s largest community of entrepreneurs and early-stage investors”, has won a huge victory in court that impacts the entire crowdfunding industry. Today Gust announced the… Read More

December 8, 2016 @ 3:00 pm By Amy Wan  |  

Crowdfunding campaigns tend to look like sexy, overnight successes, but rarely are the successful ones so effortless. What I’m about to say sounds dumb—so dumb that I’m reluctant to have to even say it—but a lot of folks contact me thinking that crowdfunding is easy,… Read More

December 5, 2016 @ 2:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Utilization of the updated securities exemption colloquially called Reg A+ continues to gain traction. A form of crowdfunding that has been described as a Mini-IPO type offering due to the scaled disclosure, reduced cost and the option to immediately trade shares, Reg A+ is an… Read More

November 6, 2016 @ 8:23 pm By JD Alois  |  

Med-X – a medical Cannabis startup,  listed a Regulation A+ offer on StartEngine back in December of 2015. The securities offer was promoted as the “first ever” equity crowdfunding campaign for the Marijuana industry. Med-X registered $3.7 million in non-binding investor interest by February but… Read More

October 10, 2016 @ 10:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Innovate Finance, along with partners EY & Hogan Lovells, has published a report on Blockchain adoption.  Entitled Blockchain, DLT and the Capital Markets Journey: Navigating the Legal and Regulatory Landscape, the publication addresses distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the current regulatory environment.  The report also provides… Read More

October 6, 2016 @ 4:00 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

While I have kept both my statutory summary pages and comparative summaries relatively up to date, it has been quite a while since I have done an editorial update on Intrastate Crowdfunding. With the increased number of active Intrastate regulations, as well as the growing… Read More

September 22, 2016 @ 2:32 pm By Joe Green & John Coyle  |  

Earlier this year, on May 16, 2016, the final portion of the JOBS Act became actionable. The much anticipated Title III provisions and Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) went into effect, marking the official beginning of retail crowdfunding in the United States. While the industry is… Read More

September 21, 2016 @ 12:19 pm By Bruce C. Rosetto and Rebecca G. DiStefano  |  

Jobs creation and wages are in the spotlight again by voter demand this presidential election year and receiving attention from both Republican and Democratic parties. This begs the question whether an improved version of Regulation A under the JOBs Act of 2012 offers a practical… Read More

September 20, 2016 @ 11:02 am By JD Alois  |  

The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA), has criticized Canada’s regulatory approach to crowdfunding in a public letter sent to the Alberta Securities Commission and Superintendent of Securities, Nunavut.  While the letter is addressed to the two entities it can be viewed as a proxy… Read More

September 19, 2016 @ 6:00 am By Amy Wan  |  

First off, don’t panic. We’re not talking about hacking into computer networks or anything. Legal hacking, or hacking the law, doesn’t involve anything surreptitious. From an organization standpoint, Legal Hackers is an organization originating from Brooklyn Law School and now a global movement with over… Read More

September 12, 2016 @ 2:49 pm By Amy Wan and Jillian Sidoti  |  

As securities attorneys, we’ve been getting a fair amount of questions lately on special purposes entities (SPEs), also known as special purpose vehicles (SPVs). What are they? What do they do? Should I choose an SPE over an LLC? (That last one is my favorite)…. Read More

September 8, 2016 @ 12:00 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

In connection with a private offering of securities the issuer will provide potential investors with some form of disclosure document. Regardless of what type of offering it is (e.g. Rule 506, Title III, Intrastate, or other private offering), the intent of this disclosure document is… Read More

September 5, 2016 @ 10:52 am By JD Alois  |  

At the most recent count, China-based peer to peer lender Yirendai (NYSE:YRD) has at least eight class-action lawsuits filed against the company following the enactment of new regulations directed towards the booming online lending industry in China. The firms that have made public proclamations are as… Read More

August 31, 2016 @ 7:43 am By JD Alois  |  

Real estate crowdfunding platform iFunding (Innovational Funding LLC) has settled a lingering lawsuit regarding a shareholder claim against the young  company. According to information provided by iFunding, the lawsuit brought against the company by Michael J. Turner has been settled for cash.  The cash settlement… Read More

August 28, 2016 @ 9:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

A Crowdfund Insider reader reached out to us last week with an excellent question: can foreign nationals invest in US investment crowdfunding offers. We checked with several leading Fintech legal experts for their feedback on this question and we share some of this below. In… Read More

August 23, 2016 @ 8:47 am By JD Alois  |  

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)recently proposed banning arbitration regarding certain  consumer financial agreements and to allow the legal process to take hold in the case of a dispute. The CFPB posted the proposal this past May, outlined as follows: First, the proposed rule would… Read More