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Capital Markets
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October 31, 2024
Web Designer Who Built IcomTech Ponzi Site Gets 8 Years
A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday hit a California website designer with eight years in prison for his role in building online properties that made it look as if the $58 million IcomTech cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme were legitimate.
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October 31, 2024
SBA Cries Foul On Globetrotters' $10M COVID Grant Suit
The U.S. Small Business Administration has defended its denial of a $10 million COVID-19 relief grant to the Harlem Globetrotters, telling a D.C. federal judge that it had no legal obligation to hand over the money to the basketball entertainment organization.
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October 31, 2024
Playboy Gets PE Investment After Rejecting Takeover Bid
The owner of Playboy, PLBY Group Inc., on Thursday announced that it had secured a "significant" equity investment from privately held online entertainment company Byborg Enterprises SA.
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October 31, 2024
The 2024 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard
Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms made the list of leaders in all-around excellence this year.
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October 31, 2024
Firms' Hiring Strategies Are Evolving In Fight For Top Spot
Competition for top talent among elite law firms shows no signs of slowing down, even amid economic uncertainty, with financially strong firms deploying aggressive strategies to attract and retain skilled professionals to solidify their market position.
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October 31, 2024
MVP: MoFo's Justin Salon
Justin Salon of Morrison Foerster LLP managed to secure a $5 billion initial public offering for client Arm Holdings PLC in late 2023 while aggressively expanding the capital markets practice that he chairs, earning him a spot among the 2024 Law360 Capital Markets MVPs.
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October 30, 2024
'Vague' Witness Sinks Green Materials Co. Investor Suit
A California federal judge dismissed an investor suit Tuesday filed against a maker of sustainable materials alleging it failed to disclose a change in direction in its manufacturing plans and a delay in building a new plant, saying the suit relies heavily on statements of a confidential witness that are "fatally vague."
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October 30, 2024
CFTC's Mersinger Wants Cooperation, Self-Reporting Reforms
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission should reform its process for crediting those who self-report, cooperate and remediate in connection to enforcement proceedings, one of the agency's commissioners said Wednesday.
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October 30, 2024
Binance Can't Force Canadian Class Action Into Arbitration
A Canadian appeals court has affirmed that cryptocurrency exchange Binance cannot force a proposed class action accusing it of illegally trading and distributing securities into arbitration in Hong Kong, saying a lower court judge correctly found the arbitration clause to be unenforceable.
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October 30, 2024
Apparel Co.'s Crypto Allies Say SEC Suit Is Ripe For Court
Cryptocurrency advocates have told a Texas federal judge that apparel company Beba and its crypto industry group backer have standing to preemptively sue the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that the regulator has created an impossible situation for crypto firms by bringing enforcement actions without setting clear rules for digital assets.
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October 30, 2024
Bernstein Litowitz, NYS Fund Rep CrowdStrike Investor Class
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP will represent a putative class of CrowdStrike investors in litigation alleging the cybersecurity company mischaracterized the risk of seeing a major outage like the one it faced in July.
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October 30, 2024
Mortgage Co. Says Pension Fund Can't Jump In To Lead Suit
Rocket Companies Inc. has told a Michigan federal judge to reject a renewed class certification bid in a shareholder suit accusing the mortgage business of concealing a downturn in loan volume, arguing that the pension fund trying to take over as lead plaintiff is inadequate to represent the proposed class, among other things.
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October 30, 2024
Defunct Insurer Says Broker Sabotoged Investment Coverage
A defunct specialty insurer has accused a broker of sabotaging its innovative investment theft protection program, telling a Florida federal court the broker not only failed to sell a single policy but also abruptly canceled its agreement amid negotiations with a separate broker, damaging the insurer's reputation and costing it millions of dollars.
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October 30, 2024
3 Firms Vie To Lead Starbucks 'Reinvention' Plan Investor Suit
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, Levi & Korsinsky LLP and The Rosen Law Firm PA launched competing bids seeking to lead a proposed investor class action alleging Starbucks misled the markets about prospects for its reinvention strategy, causing share prices to drop when it announced disappointing quarterly results in April.
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October 30, 2024
Mass. AG Seeks To Bar 'NYSE' Crypto Trading Scheme
The Massachusetts attorney general has filed a complaint attempting to shut down a cryptocurrency investment scheme that allegedly uses the acronym of the New York Stock Exchange to dupe its victims.
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October 30, 2024
Crypto Platform Founder Pleads Guilty To Illegal Wash Trading
The founder of cryptocurrency market-making platform MyTrade pled guilty in Massachusetts federal court Wednesday to orchestrating millions of dollars worth of daily wash trades to illegally inflate the prices of digital tokens.
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October 30, 2024
Siemens Makes $10.6B AI Push With Altair Engineering Buy
German tech conglomerate Siemens AG has agreed to acquire software company Altair Engineering Inc. for approximately $10.6 billion, in a deal that seeks to bolster its artificial intelligence-powered design and simulation portfolio, the companies said Wednesday.
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October 30, 2024
FTX Witness Who Saw Bankman-Fried's 'Evil' Avoids Prison
A Manhattan federal judge allowed FTX's former chief engineer to avoid prison Wednesday, crediting his trial testimony against the crypto exchange's founder Sam Bankman-Fried, his ongoing cooperation and his relatively small role in the $11.2 billion fraud.
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October 30, 2024
AI-Focused SPAC Joins Pipeline With $200M IPO Filing
Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners II Co., a special purpose acquisition company targeting the artificial intelligence industry, filed plans on Wednesday for an estimated $200 million initial public offering, while another SPAC, energy-transition focused Tavia Acquisition Corp., downsized plans.
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October 30, 2024
MVP: Wachtell's Emily D. Johnson
Emily Johnson of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz's capital markets practice led the financing for Diamondback Energy Inc.'s $26 billion acquisition of Endeavor Energy Resources LP, and steered the financing structure of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's transformational $14 billion all-cash purchase of Juniper Networks, earning her a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Capital Markets MVPs.
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October 29, 2024
'In-And-Out' Trades Don't Doom Lead Plaintiff Bid, Judge Says
A Manhattan federal judge appointed a Pomerantz LLP client as lead plaintiff in a shareholder suit against Nano Nuclear Energy Inc., rejecting arguments that the investor's handful of so-called in-and-out trades in the company's stock should preclude her from representing the proposed class in securities fraud allegations against the company.
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October 29, 2024
Alameda Research Wants Crypto Exchange To Return $50M
Alameda Research, the crypto trading affiliate of the bankrupt FTX digital asset empire, has sued the operators of KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange in Delaware bankruptcy court seeking the return of $50 million of assets that continue to be held on the platform despite the debtors' requests.
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October 29, 2024
NFT Platform OpenSea Taps Consensys Atty To Be Deputy GC
Blockchain software developer Consensys' head of litigation has departed the firm amid its fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to step into a deputy general counsel role at OpenSea, another crypto firm facing scrutiny from the securities regulator.
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October 29, 2024
Lovesac To Pay SEC $1.5M Fine In Accounting Fraud Case
Beanbag chair maker Lovesac has agreed to pay $1.5 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations that some of the company's former executives conspired to cover up an accounting debacle over how it recorded what's known as last-mile shipping costs.
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October 29, 2024
Yieldstreet Investors' $9M Deal Over Risky Offerings OK'd
A New York federal judge has given his preliminary blessing to a settlement worth up to $9 million resolving a class action by Yieldstreet investors who accused the online platform of offering "riskier-than-junk-bond investments" to the public that caused the plaintiffs to lose millions of dollars in defaulted loans.
Expert Analysis
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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources
Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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Bitnomial Suit Highlights Crypto Turf War Between SEC, CFTC
An outcome favoring Bitnomial in its recent lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could reinforce the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's authority and limit the SEC's reach in the crypto arena, illustrating the need for Congress to delineate boundaries between the agencies, says Tonya Evans at Penn State Dickinson Law.
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Nvidia Case's Potential Impact On Securities Class Actions
In Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder, the U.S. Supreme Court could strip lower courts of their long-standing ability and obligation to holistically weigh all relevant facts supporting plaintiffs' allegations of securities fraud, which would have a wide-ranging impact on securities fraud class actions in the U.S., say attorneys at Labaton Keller.
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How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment
Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.
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UCC Article 12 Offers Banks A Chance To Dive Into 'DePINs'
The 2022 update to Article 12 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which provides a legal framework for decentralized physical infrastructure networks, could offer trade and commodity finance banks attractive opportunities, like the energy-related DePIN projects that have recently made headlines, says Chris McDermott at Cadwalader.
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Short-Seller Implications Of 10th Circ.'s Overstock Decision
The Tenth Circuit's Oct. 15 decision in Overstock Securities Litigation provides clarity on the pleading standard for a market manipulation claim under the Exchange Act, and suggests that short sellers might not be able to rely on the fraud-on-the-market presumption typically invoked by securities plaintiffs, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity
Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.
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Crypto.com's Suit Against SEC Could Hold Major Implications
Crypto.com's recent lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could affect the operation and regulation of crypto markets in the U.S., potentially raising more questions about the SEC's authority to regulate the industry when it's unclear whether another agency is ready to assume it, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.
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Opinion
Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules
The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO
The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.
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Don't Phone A Friend: Disclosing Friendships With Executives
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement against a former Church & Dwight chairman for violating proxy disclosure rules by neglecting to disclose his friendship with an executive officer amid a CEO search illustrates the perils of relying solely on responses to questionnaires circulated to boards, say attorneys at BCLP.
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The Ups And Downs Of SEC's Now-Dissolved ESG Task Force
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Climate and ESG Enforcement Task Force, which was quietly disbanded sometime over the summer, was marked by three years of resistance from some stakeholders to ESG regulation, a mixed record in the courts and several successful enforcement actions, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Series
Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.
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SEC Fine Shows Risks Of Nonpublic Info In X, LinkedIn Posts
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a settlement with DraftKings over charges arising from posting material nonpublic information on the CEO's social media accounts, highlighting that information posted to company websites and social media sites does not automatically qualify as "publicly disclosed" for purposes of Regulation FD, say attorneys at O'Melveny.
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Anticipating Jarkesy's Effect On Bank Agency Enforcement
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, federal courts may eventually issue decisions on banking law principles and processes that could fundamentally alter the agencies' enforcement action framework, and the relationship between banks and examiners, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.