White Collar
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NERA’s white collar, investigation, and enforcement team are highly sought-after experts who provide advice on all economic aspects of white collar matters, including responding to market abuse investigations, defending enforcement actions, providing expert testimony, and quantifying regulatory impacts and risks.
NERA experts frequently assist clients in responding to formal investigations and requests for data and analyses from regulatory entities such as the Division of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the offices of state attorneys general, and self-regulatory organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Our capabilities include the construction and analysis of large and complex transaction databases, analysis and implementation of computerized surveillance procedures, and preparation of summary materials in response to regulatory requests. NERA experts’ analyses of damages and disgorgement measures aid clients in negotiating settlement agreements. We have supported clients in matters covering a variety of products and services including agricultural commodities and natural resources, capital equipment, transportation and fuel surcharges, industrial inputs, and consumer goods and services. We also have extensive experience working with mutual fund families in their discussions with regulators, banks in analyzing money laundering allegations, and healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in cases alleging billing fraud and corruption.
Accounting Disclosure Litigation
NERA’s accounting experts address financial disclosures, auditing and control, and tax compliance issues for criminal and civil allegations of securities fraud, complex commercial disputes, allegations of misrepresentation and financial disclosure, and more. Our experts are positioned to evaluate the economic substance behind reported financial results and are familiar with the complex systems for organizing voluminous transaction data that underlie the reported numbers.
Corporate Governance and Compliance
NERA works with clients to ensure they are complying with governance and regulatory requirements and simultaneously maximizing the usefulness of required processes within their business. We have expertise in fiduciary duty, shareholder rights and proxy contests, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, ERISA compliance, issues of board process, executive compensation, options grants, insider trading, Rule 10b5-1 stock sale plans, and intercompany relationships.
Financial Regulation and Reform
NERA experts assist financial services firms with analysis of new rules, understanding and adapting to their business impact, and compliance and potential dispute resolution. We bring a thorough understanding of financial markets and the regulatory institutions that govern them, building on years of hands-on experience advising leading financial institutions and in senior positions at major global financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and top universities.
Insider Trading
NERA experts have decades of experience providing economic advice and testimony to parties involved in insider trading investigations and litigation. Our analysis generally includes matters such as materiality, public knowledge of information, gains made and losses avoided, trading patterns, and the price impact of trading.
Trading Behavior
NERA economists examine investor-traded securities to offer insights in disputes. Our experts can examine how trades affect prices tied to market manipulations, conclude whether a trade is reasonable, and estimate the number of shares that may be damaged or traced back to a particular offering in a class action. Our work has included examinations of aggregate market data reported by trading markets, individual-level data from clients, and brokerage houses, and entities like the DTCC.
Broker/Customer Disputes
Brokers and investment advisors have duties under the law to know their customers' investment needs and tolerance for risk. Often when investors lose money, they consider whether investments made by their advisor or recommendations made by their broker were appropriate. For decades, our economists have been called upon to render opinions in disputes between investors and their broker-dealers, investment advisors, and fund managers. NERA experts have provided analyses supporting investors and brokers for use in arbitration and the courtroom. Our work has focused both on liability, examining allegations such as unsuitability and churning, and damages, measuring how much investors might have earned under an alternative investment strategy. Our expertise with financial theory and experience with various trading strategies and instruments allows us to put ourselves in the shoes of parties while the investment decisions were being made in order to better focus on whether the trading practices at issue were appropriate.
Financial Investigations and Forensic Accounting
NERA’s team provides financial investigative and forensic accounting expertise for class actions, civil litigations, regulatory enforcement proceedings, and white collar criminal matters. Our multidisciplinary team integrates financial investigation with expertise in economics, business valuation, intellectual property, securities and commercial litigation, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAP) and generally accepted auditing standard (GAAS) analysis.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
NERA experts aid in FCPA matters by using economic analysis to evaluate the financial effect of bribes and, therefore, appropriate fines. Our experts have experience and training analyzing financial statements and data prepared following GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards.
Price Fixing Investigations
NERA experts have extensive experience evaluating allegations of criminal collusive anticompetitive behavior, including price fixing, bid rigging, customer and geographic allocation, buyer cartels, and other collusive behavior. Our economists have worked on a variety of criminal investigations including horizontal and vertical agreements.