On January 6, 2002, the Argentine Congress passed Law 25,561 (the “Law”) that revoked the convertibility regime that established the currency board system. The old Convertibility Law maintained a fixed exchange rate of 1:1 between the peso and the US dollar. In addition, on January 10, 2002, the President issued Decree 71/2002, which outlined the types of debts to be converted from US Dollars to Pesos at 1 to 1 exchange rate ...
The recent media coverage of the ENRON crisis and the related Congressional investigations have combined to precipitate new discussions about the adequacy of corporate governance, accounting oversight and financial disclosures. As a result, there is a strong push afoot for new federal requirements in these areas primarily through new SEC regulations. We are again reminded that “bad facts make for bad law” and a crisis often leads to over reactions ...
I. Why now? The rapidly increasing cost of health care, with the resulting increase in the cost of employer-provided health benefit plans, has caused employers to search for ways to contain their health plan expenses. Rising costs, along with general employee dissatisfaction with the lack of choice of health care providers under many plans and the perceived lack of quality within many of the networks available to employees, has created an environment ripe for new ideas ...
Enron announced in court Friday, January 11, that it had selected UBS Warburg’s bid for its wholesale commodity trading business. Many details concerning the sale remain to be resolved through the bankruptcy court process. Importantly for Haynes and Boone’s energy clients, there are many other Enron assets remaining on the auction block ...
On Monday, January 14, 2002, the United States Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the EEOC is not limited by an arbitration agreement signed by an individual employee, but may seek back-pay, reinstatement or damages on behalf of that employee when it litigates. The lower appellate courts had split, with the most arbitration favorable courts holding that where an arbitration agreement existed, the EEOC was limited to seeking injunctive relief ...
On December 27, 2001, President Bush signed the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act (the "Act") that delayed the effective date of the electronic data interchange ("EDI") requirements of HIPAA. The EDI regulations required health claim transactions transmitted electronically to be in a standard format. The Act delays the effective date of the EDI regulations until October 16, 2003 or 2004 depending upon the size of your group health plan ...
According to the fourth quarter 2001 report of Lodging Econometrics, the accelerated decline in the operating performance of the lodging industry will continue until the middle of the first quarter of 2002 due to the events of September 11, 2001, and the recession. Further, while the operating performance of the lodging industry may show signs of improvement by September of 2002, the effects of that improvement may not be felt until the first quarter of 2003 ...
On January 23, the Internal Revenue Service published its long-awaited final rule on intermediate sanctions in the Federal Register. Proposed regulations were published in 1998, followed by temporary and proposed regulations in January 2001. The rule implements the excise taxes on excess benefit transactions under Section 4958 of the Internal Revenue Code, which was enacted by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights ...
IRS SUSPENDS 5500 FILING REQUIREMENTS FOR CAFETERIA PLANS, EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PLANS, AND ADOPTION ASSISTANCE PLANS The Internal Revenue Service announced, in Notice 2002-24, that plan sponsors of cafeteria plans, educational assistance plans, and adoption assistance plans are excused indefinitely from the requirement to file Schedule F to Form 5500 for such plans. Thus, an employer whose health plan would not require the filing of a Form 5500 (e.g ...
To Our Public Company Clients: The SEC has adopted new rules that generally require domestic public companies to publicly disclose information regarding the potential share “overhang” that exists as a result of all of their equity compensation plans. The new rules affect Regulation S-K and S-B Items 201 and 601, Items 10 and 14 of Schedules 14A and 14C, as well as Item 12 of Form 10-K and Item 11 of Form 10-KSB ...
The Department of Labor (“DoL”) has issued final rules that implement the pension blackout provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”). These rules require plan administrators of individual account plans to deliver advance notice of blackout periods and will be effective for blackouts which begin on or after January 26, 2003 ...
There is a multi-million dollar market segment that petroleum and energy product companies may not have considered previously -- namely sales to the U.S. Government. The principal federal government agency for the purchase and management of energy products is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), a part of the Defense Logistics Agency, with headquarters at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia ...
Resignation of Two Argentine Presidents. In late December 2001, Argentina saw the rare occurrence of the resignation of two Argentine Presidents. First, Fernando de la Rúa resigned after public protests to the administration’s economic policies resulted in civil unrest. Also resigning at the same time was his Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo ...
Department of State: ∙ DOS issued public announcements for Peru, Nepal, and the Philippines alerting U.S. citizens to the general security environment, the continued potential for violence, and the possibility of terrorist activity directed at American interests in the regions. ∙ DOS issued a travel warning for Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza due to deteriorating security situations ...
Department of State American Citizen Services: ∙ DOS issued a Worldwide Caution on March 17 stating that the attack on worshippers at the Protestant International Church in Islamabad underlines the growing possibility that as security is increased at official U.S. facilities, terrorists and their sympathizers will seek softer targets. ∙ DOS American Citizen Services will soon begin issuing U.S. passports with new security features to those U.S ...
Department of State: DOS is now requiring all male nonimmigrant visa applicants between the ages of 16 and 45, regardless of nationality and regardless of where they apply, to submit Form DS-157 in addition to the usual Form DS-156 Nonimmigrant Visa Application. Posts may also require women to submit the form at their discretion. ∙ Jerusalem is the first post to require all applicants age 16 to 45, regardless of gender, to submit form DS-157 in addition to form DS-156 ...
INS FILING FEE INCREASE: INS fee increases are effective February 19, 2002. The new INS fee for Form I-129 Petition for Nonimmigrant Workers (H-1B; L-1A; L-1B; and TN) is $130.00, an increase of twenty dollars, and for Form I-539 Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status (H-4; L-2; and TD), the new fee is $140.00. The new fee for Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker is $135 ...
To Our Public Company Clients: The Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of public companies with revenues in excess of $1.2 billion during the last fiscal year to certify personally under oath in writing that their company’s SEC filings are materially correct (the “Order”). See http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/4-460.htm ...
ERISA requires plan fiduciaries to discharge their fiduciary duties solely in the interests of the participants and beneficiaries of the plan, and imposes personal liability on plan fiduciaries who fail to do so. While these obligations have existed under ERISA for over 25 years, Enron has brought them into sharp focus and caused many employers to revisit the structure of, and the fiduciary responsibilities imposed on employees under, their 401(k) plans and other retirement plans ...
Introduction One of the important legislative initiatives for the Fox Administration was a tax reform package that could improve tax collection, while reducing the government’s historic reliance on Pemex for its tax revenues (typically approximately one-third) ...
Earlier today, the Texas Supreme Court gave a green light to company required arbitration programs. In Re Halliburton Company And Brown & Root Energy Services, No. 00-1206 (Tex. May 30th, 2002). The underlying case arose when both the district court and court of appeals refused to order a case brought under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act to arbitration ...
As employers face the uncertainties of the post 9/11 era, we issue this Alert addressing five significant issues that the terrorist attacks raise for employers: (i) discrimination claims; (ii) the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994; (iii) workplace violence; (iv) background checks; and (v) security, evacuation, and safety. 1 ...
Many employers are busy planning and preparing for the HIPAA privacy regulations which become applicable on or after April 14, 2003 or 2004, depending on the size of the group health plan. In the past, many employers wrapped all welfare plans into one plan document to reduce their Form 5500 filing requirements ...
A reference guide to articles, speeches and presentations created by Allen Cummings ...
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday published its long awaited revisions to the FTC’s Franchising Rule. The new disclosures may be used effective July 1, 2007 and must be used for all franchises offered or sold after July 1, 2008. The Amended Rule prescribes a disclosure format which largely mirrors the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular ("UFOC") format, and modifies it in certain places by adding new disclosures ...
