Good morning. CBRE Group agreed to pay a fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations the commercial real-estate investment firm’s separation agreements prevented potential whistleblowers from reporting to the regulator.

The $375,000 settlement, announced Tuesday, is the latest of SEC’s efforts to probe into various agreements companies ask employees to sign, including nondisclosure agreements, that could contain language preventing the reporting of possible federal security law violations, whistleblower attorneys said.

• The rule: The whistleblowing protection rules, known as Rule 21F-17, prohibit actions that would impede an individual from communicating directly with SEC staff about possible security law violations. Those actions include enforcing or threatening to enforce a confidentiality agreement over communication with the SEC.
   
• The allegations: The SEC alleged that between 2011 and 2022, Dallas-based CBRE required its employees as a condition of receiving separation pay to sign a release attesting they hadn’t filed a complaint against the company with any federal agency. At least 884 CBRE employees signed this agreement during that time.
   
• The SEC's view: “By requiring this representation,” the SEC said in the order, “CBRE took action to impede potential whistleblowers” and undermined the rule to encourage individuals to report to the securities regulator.

The WSJ Pro Sustainable Business Forum on Oct. 12 will include a discussion about risk and resilience in corporate sustainability programs with Maryam Golnaraghi, director of climate change and environment at The Geneva Association, and Torolf Hamm, head of physical catastrophe and climate risk management at Willis Towers Watson.

Other sessions will cover reporting to U.S. and European standards, the role of artificial intelligence and what corporate decarbonization measures are proving effective. Register here.

SEC charges investment adviser linked to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Investment adviser Concord Management and its owner face Securities and Exchange Commission charges for operating as an unregistered investment adviser to a single client, a wealthy Russian with connections to the Russian government.

Oligarch link. The agency didn’t name the client, but Concord Management has been linked to Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last year, U.S. hedge-fund firms that had investments from Abramovich were told to freeze his assets after the British government placed sanctions on him.

Unexpected move for regulator. The charges are an unusual example of the SEC’s involvement in the expansive sanctions and export control regime that the U.S. and its allies imposed on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

FTX sues Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents to recover ‘misappropriated funds.’

FTX has sued founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents to recover millions of dollars in “fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds,” the company said in a court filing late Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in a Delaware bankruptcy court, is the latest attempt by FTX’s chief executive, John J. Ray III, to claw back some of the funds that Bankman-Fried paid out to relatives and business associates prior to the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse last November

• Federal prosecutors are scrutinizing personal benefits Tesla may have provided Elon Musk since 2017—longer than previously known—as part of a criminal investigation examining issues including a proposed house for the chief executive.
   
• The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board proposed expanding liability for individual auditors and certain accounting firms when they contribute to violations by the primary firms handling an audit, widening the scope of whom the U.S. audit regulator can charge.
   
• The chief executive and chairman of Cboe Global Markets, Edward Tilly, unexpectedly resigned from the options-exchange operator after a board investigation found that he didn’t disclose personal relationships with colleagues.
   
• House Republicans are demanding the Biden administration provide more information about incidents in which Chinese nationals conducted what U.S. officials say is unauthorized surveillance of sensitive U.S. facilities, including the White House, rocket launch sites and military bases.
   
• The conservative advocate who successfully challenged affirmative action in college admissions on Tuesday sued the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, arguing that race-conscious admissions policies at the military’s higher-education institutions violate the Constitution.
   
• New nature-reporting recommendations aim to help companies assess their impact on and risks from the world’s natural systems. It could become mandatory one day, much as the climate framework it builds upon.

The Fed’s next challenge: $100 oil.

An almost uninterrupted rise in oil prices has pushed benchmark Brent crude close to $100 a barrel, posing a new challenge for central banks in their battle against inflation.

Economic impact. Record levels of oil demand—fueled by unexpected economic strength—have outstripped production. As a result, traders and petroleum refiners are draining oil stockpiles at a rapid clip. Many analysts expect crude prices to keep rising, which would feed into higher fuel bills, quicker inflation—and, potentially, higher interest rates.

White House warns of long lines at airports, other delays if government shuts down.

Long lines at airports. Delayed food-safety inspections. Halted infrastructure projects. Military personnel working without pay.

These are just some of the potential consequences if the federal government partially shuts down next month, according to the White House, as infighting among House Republicans over spending makes a lapse in funding increasingly possible.

• Carrillo’s is one of many logistics companies loading up on diesel big rigs as California prepares to roll out a rule requiring that trucks purchased after Jan. 1, 2024, that serve the state’s ports be zero-emission vehicles. Diesel trucks will have a limited future in California under the new rule, one of a series of regulations that target carbon emissions.
   
• Human-caused climate change caused a 50% increase in heavy rainfall over the Mediterranean that led two dams in Libya to collapse, killing thousands of people and creating a massive humanitarian disaster, according to a group of international climate change scientists.
   
• Azerbaijan began an offensive against what it said were Armenian military targets in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday, an escalation that threatens to tip the two former Soviet states into a full-blown conflict in an area where the U.S. seeks more influence as Moscow is embroiled in Ukraine.

• Federal Reserve officials are set to hold interest rates steady at their meeting Wednesday while debating what it would take for them to lift borrowing costs again this year.
   
• Once-obscure corners of the energy world, from offshore Congo to Azerbaijan, are booming as Europe finds new sources of natural gas to replace the Russian supplies that once powered the continent.
   
• Senior Chinese officials were told that an internal Communist Party investigation found former Foreign Minister Qin Gang to have engaged in an extramarital affair that lasted throughout his tenure as Beijing’s top envoy to Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• Disney plans to spend about $60 billion to expand its theme parks, cruise lines and resorts over the next decade, almost doubling its investment in a division that provides its primary source of profits.
   
• President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on their counterparts to defend the idea that powerful nations can’t seize territory from their neighbors, part of a broad appeal aimed at isolating Russia on the world stage.
   
• Amazon.com and Target said they would hire thousands of workers as part of their annual hiring sprees as retailers prepare for the busy holiday shopping season.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email David at david.smagalla@wsj.com.