FTC Files Complaints for Violations of HSR Act in Two Recent
Cases
On October 6, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a
complaint for civil penalties against investor Len Blavatnik
for his failure to report voting shares that he acquired when he,
via his company Access Industries, purchased shares of a technology
startup called TangoMe in August 2014. The complaint follows a
similar one filed by the FTC on September 22 against Leucadia
National Corporation alleging that it failed to report a conversion
of its ownership interest in the financial services company Knight
Capital Group, Inc. The FTC charged that both parties were required
under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act to notify the FTC and Department of
Justice (DOJ) of transactions exceeding certain dollar
thresholds that affect commerce in the United States and
otherwise meet the statutory filing requirements. Both parties had
previously committed the same violation but, in those instances,
the FTC decided
