Justice Muse

Last week, the Department of Justice announced that DePuy Synthes, Inc. (“DePuy”), a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, agreed to pay $9.75 Million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to an orthopedic surgeon based in Massachusetts to induce his use of DePuy products.

Two times a year, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs issues a unified agenda showing planned rulemaking activity from various federal regulators. The most recent Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions was published on January 5, 2023 and provides a look ahead to what various agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), will be working on in the coming months.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve, FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) issued a Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Risks to Banking Organizations.  This Statement should signal to banking institutions that crypto-assets are about to receive a lot more attention from prudential regulators.  In particular, these institutions should likely expect more targeted reviews related to cryptocurrency assets and how they impact the safety and soundness of those institutions.