Unusually expressive on this topic, the Securities and Exchange Commission released two publications April 3rd, the first its “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets”, and the second a ‘no-action letter’ in favor of TurnKey Jet, Inc. Both were hailed as milestones for the SEC in dealing with the vexing difference between security tokens,…

Spain’s central government has now invoked Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to take control from the secessionist-oriented government in the region of Catalonia.  The executive of the Catalonian regional government will be replaced, the regional police and finances will be controlled from Madrid and regional elections will be called to allow for a new…

Applying Delaware law, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a ruling that will significantly affect the rights of upstream producers of oil and gas and secured creditors generally. The court determined that upstream oil producers did not have automatically perfected security interests in oil they sold prepetition to the debtors. Thus,…

The May 2, 2017 bankruptcy filing for Alitalia might be the end of the journey for the troubled Italian flag carrier, but creditors in the U.S., Italy and elsewhere might still have a ticket to recover some claims. Alitalia has now also filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy…

Global Market Entity Identifier Utility (GMEI), an LEI issuer, is now requesting information relating to the parents of its registered entities.  The past information collected on an LEI entity, which consisted of self-identifying information, is known as “Level 1 Data.”  The additional information now being requested is known as “Level 2 Data.” Learn more here. Robin Powers focuses…

The First Circuit recently ruled that the bankruptcy court lacked the authority to adjudicate disputes under a contract because there was no “arising under,” “arising in” or “related to” jurisdiction — in spite of the fact that the contract itself, previously approved by the bankruptcy court, included a provision giving that court jurisdiction. Learn more here.…