USA – NEW YORK Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jilan J. Kamal, Michelle Ben-David and Laszlo Herwitz, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
ny’s HIV speakers’ series to induce them to prescribe large quantities of Gilead’s HIV medications, for which the prescribers then submitted claims to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. That same month, a jury in the SDNY found long-term care pharmacy Omnicare (and its parent CVS Health Corporation) liable for dispensing drugs to elderly and disabled patients without valid prescrip - tions, prescriptions for which it then billed Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE. Pursuant to the treble dam - ages clause of the FCA, Omnicare is facing more than USD400 million in penalties. “Gap Filling” Consumer protection In February 2025, the Trump administration effec - tively shuttered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), closing its headquarters and order - ing employees to refrain from working. Subsequently, the Trump administration sought to fire almost 90% of the agency’s staff, a move which was upheld by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in August. New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 23 Attorneys General in filing amicus briefs in two suits seeking to block the mass layoffs at the agency. Since then, James has sought to bring enforcement actions against financial institutions that her office believes have been engaging in predatory financial behaviour. In January 2025, the NYAG announced that it had reached a USD1 billion settlement with Yellowstone Capital to resolve claims that its subsidiaries had been issuing fraudulent loans to small businesses at exorbi - tant interest rates. In April 2025, the NYAG sued lend - ers DailyPay and MoneyLion, accusing them of oper - ating as payday lending outfits, charging excessive fees and effective interest rates above 200%. That litigation is still ongoing. In August 2025, the NYAG filed suit against Early Warning Services LLC (EWS), a company owned by some of the US’ largest banks. The suit alleges that EWS designed and operated the payment system Zelle without adequate safety, secu - rity, and verification features, enabling fraudsters to steal over USD1 billion between 2017 and 2023. Cryptocurrency Under the Biden administration, there was a robust push to regulate cryptocurrency under existing secu -
rities regulations. Under the Trump administration, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) quick - ly began to promulgate rules designed to end this approach. For instance, in policy directives released in February and April 2025, the SEC announced that it would no longer attempt to treat the sale of so-called “meme coins” or stablecoins (tokens pegged to the US dollar) as offers and sales of securities under fed - eral securities laws. These announcements came as part of a broader push by the SEC to trim regulation and enforcement related to cryptocurrency. In May 2025, the SEC announced it was dropping its lawsuit against the cryptocur - rency exchange Binance. Binance was accused of using its platform to illegally serve US-based users, inflate trading volumes, co-mingle customer funds, and enable trading in unregistered securities. In April 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum announcing that federal prosecutors would, absent evidence of wilfulness, cease to charge regulatory violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, or vio - lations under securities or commodities acts against cryptocurrency exchanges, platforms, or other inter - mediaries and would instead target individuals who use cryptocurrency technology to defraud others. In place of regulation under existing securities laws, the DOJ announced that it would focus on crimes in which digital assets were used to victimise consumers, fur - ther other criminal conduct, or commit wilful violations which further significant criminal activity. Recently charged cryptocurrency cases in the SDNY and EDNY have reflected this focus. For example, the Gugnin case in the EDNY included a charge that Gugnin used the stablecoin Tether to launder sanc - tioned funds through the US financial system. In May 2025, SDNY prosecutors charged Jeremy Jor - dan-Jones with creating a sham blockchain venture to defraud investors. Jones allegedly claimed that his start-up, Amalgam Capital Ventures, could offer blockchain-based payment and security solutions to a variety of eager business partners. In reality, Jones’ company allegedly had no operable products or real business partnerships. In February 2025, the EDNY charged Andean Medje - dovic, a Canadian citizen, with wire fraud, extortion,
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