On July 5, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted an emergency injunction blocking the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) from halting the securities business of Alpine Securities Corporation (the “Company”) through an expedited hearing process pending the Company’s appeal challenging the constitutionality of FINRA’s enforcement proceedings.  Alpine Securities Corporation, et al v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., 1:23-cv-01506-BAH (July 5, 2023).  While noting that this was not a decision on the merits, the court found that the Company had shown a likelihood that it will succeed on the merits in its challenge to the structure of FINRA enforcement actions, having at this early stage “raised a serious argument that FINRA impermissibly exercises significant executive power.”

On June 23, 2022, FINRA’s Department of Enforcement announced a settlement in which a broker-dealer agreed to pay $3.6 million in fines, $4.77 million in disgorgement, and partial restitution of over $625,000 to resolve the broker-dealer’s alleged misconduct under the Exchange Act and NASD and FINRA Rules in connection with three IPOs and seven follow-on offerings between June 2016 and December 2018 for which the broker-dealer acted as underwriter, as well as for other supervisory and operational violations.