Earlier this week, Judge Richard Sullivan sentenced former hedge fund manager and a founder of Level Global Investors Anthony Chiasson to six and a half years in prison, imposing one of the harshest penalties yet in the U.S. government’s efforts to rid Wall Street of insider trading. Chiasson was also ordered to pay $5 million in fines and must also give back as much as $2 million in illegally obtained proceeds. Chiasson could have received up to ten years in prison which was the recommendation under U.S. federal guidelines based on the profits that Level Global Investors earned on the improper trades.

The United States (US) Department of the Treasury office of foreign assets control (OFAC) has made available enforcement information (25 April 2013) which states that Toyota Motor Credit Corporation (Toyota) has agreed to pay US$23,400 to settle 26 alleged breaches of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations.

The United States (US) Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made available a final order(24 April 2013) settling a misrepresentation case against DR Phone Communications (DR). The FTC had alleged that DR misrepresented the calling minutes on its prepaid phone cards in promotional materials and "fail[ed] to ... adequately [disclose] fees that would reduce the cards' value, and in turn the number of calling minutes they provide".

The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has made available a final notice (28 March 2013), which hands down the FCA's first penalty by fining EFG Private Bank Ltd (EFG) £4.2 million for a series of failures relating to its anti-money laundering controls for high risk customers. The FCA said EFG's failures were "serious, systemic and continued for more than three years".

Securities firm Morgan Stanley and ratings agencies Standard & Poor's Rating Services and Moody's Investors Service have agreed to pay a total of US$225 million to settle allegations that they misrepresented the risks in the so-called Cheyne and Rhinebridge cases involving mortgages during the global financial crisis.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that former self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) adviser Craig Dangar has been sentenced on the charge of lodging a false statement with ASIC. Specifically, ASIC stated that Mr Dangar lodged a document with ASIC in July 2012 in which he falsely claimed to being a director of SMSF Consulting Pty Ltd.

The United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that a District Court judge has directed the return of over US$147 million in escrowed funds to Chinese investors in an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme that promised investors a chance to gain US residency through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program. In February 2013, the SEC charged Anshoo Sethi and two of his companies over the scheme to sell securities for the purported financing of the construction of a hotel and conference centre near O'Hare Airport.

The United Kingdom (UK) treasury department HM Treasury has made available a letter (9 April 2013) from the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK (the G5) to European Commissioner for taxation, customs, statistics, audit and anti-fraud Algirdas Šemeta, informing him of a G5 agreement to develop and pilot a multilateral tax information exchange facility.

The United States (US) Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has announced that financial services provider Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc (Merrill Lynch) has agreed to pay over US$1.27 million for allowing failures to occur in its supervisory system and in its dealings with some customer transactions.

The United States (US) Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced that it has obtained a Federal Court Order (11 April 2013) against Robert Cannone and his company National Equity Holdings Inc (National Equity), in relation to charges of fraudulent solicitation, misappropriation, and registration violations.