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International Enforcement of Insider Trading: The Grand Jury Process, Court Compulsion and the United States-Switzerland Treaty on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters

NCJ Number
115082
Journal
American Criminal Law Review Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Dated: (Summer 1988) Pages: 247-295
Author(s)
J J Ryan
Date Published
1988
Length
49 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the evolution of Federal case law in the area of grand jury and administrative investigations of financial frauds in the international context.
Abstract
The emerging body of case law in this area has direct and immediate application to the enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Act of l934. However, courts have not articulated consistent principles for disclosure where foreign secrecy of blocking laws prohibit such disclosure. However, the United States-Switzerland Treaty on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters provides law enforcement officials with a viable and effective alternative to the court process for obtaining disclosure of information. Taken together with certain accords reached in a memorandum of understanding relating to sovereignty concerns, the treaty, on the strength of Switzerland's new insider trading law, will now dramatically reduce the chance of direct challenges to Switzerland's sovereignty by United States courts. Although the Swiss insider trading law appears to be broad, law enforcement officials may only avail themselves of the extensive compulsory measures envisioned by the Treaty where the particular request for assistance is carefully crafted to fall within the types of conduct the law prohibits. Resort to the court process by United States law enforcement officials will probably occur only in particularly extreme cases. 258 footnotes.