Mealey's Securities
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January 05, 2024
Real Estate Developer’s Assets Frozen As SEC Claims Multimillion Dollar Fraud
MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida granted an emergency ex parte motion filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, freezing the assets of a Miami-based real estate developer and companies he controlled that the SEC says ran a real estate investment fraud scheme that raised approximately $93 million in investor funds through a series of misrepresentations.
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January 04, 2024
Partial Summary Judgment Granted Against Woman Who SEC Says Ran Stock Scheme
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas adopted a magistrate judge’s report recommending the grant of partial summary judgment in the favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing with the magistrate judge’s conclusion that there is no genuine dispute of fact that a Texas woman knowingly defrauded clients through a stock options trading scheme.
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January 04, 2024
Judge Affirms Quashing Of Asbestos Media Subpoenas, Certifies Stock Class
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson’s motion seeking reconsideration of a ruling quashing subpoenas to lawyers, law firms and experts over their media contacts is untimely but would fail anyway because it offers no new information, and even supplemental information produced in opposition does not require denying a motion to certify a securities class action, a federal judge in New Jersey said in denying reconsideration and certifying the class.
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January 03, 2024
U.S. Seeks To Participate In Supreme Court Arguments On SEC Disclosure Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. government is seeking to participate in oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court to echo an argument made by an investment company that a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement rule requiring disclosure of management analysis of a company’s financial situation can form the basis of its privately-brought claims against an infrastructure company.
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January 02, 2024
Federal Judge Finds Crypto Firm Sold Coins As Unregistered Securities
NEW YORK — Weeks before a trial is set to begin, a federal judge in New York partially granted the Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion for summary judgment against cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. and its CEO, finding that there is no dispute that the firm’s crypto assets were sold as unregistered securities.
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December 22, 2023
Complaint Alleging False Stock Info Caused High Tax Bill Tossed By Federal Judge
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois dismissed an adviser’s amended complaint against a clinical research company that alleged that the company was responsible for the adviser’s higher-than-expected tax burden from the company’s securities, finding that the adviser had failed to adequately allege that the company knowingly misrepresented the fair market value of its shares.
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December 22, 2023
Federal Judge OKs Millions In Penalties Against Group SEC Says Committed Fraud
ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia granted a motion from the Securities and Exchange Commission to set disgorgement amounts against a consulting company, certain of its principals and a technology company they also controlled that consented to liability upon the filing of the SEC’s complaint, approving millions of dollars in disgorgement and civil penalties against them.
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December 21, 2023
Investors Tell High Court SEC Rule Must Be Able To Form Basis Of Private Claims
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its respondent brief on the merits in the U.S. Supreme Court, an investment company argues that an infrastructure company is effectively seeking to limit the scope of a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement rule requiring disclosure of management analysis of a company’s financial situation by arguing that the rule cannot form the basis of claims that were brought privately.
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December 21, 2023
Binance, CEO Say Guilty Pleas Do Not Negate Motion To Dismiss SEC Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission fails to show in a notice of supplemental authority how recent guilty pleas from a cryptocurrency platform and its founder on criminal money laundering charges are relevant to the commission’s civil case against them, the firm and its chief executive officer say in response to the SEC’s notice.
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December 21, 2023
Reinsurer Wins Summary Judgment In Securities Suit Involving Loss Ratios
CAMDEN, N.J. — Citing findings including evidence of “a complex actuarial process to set loss reserves,” a New Jersey federal judge granted summary judgment to a reinsurer and some of its former executives after finding that shareholders used a “falsity-by-omission” theory of liability in alleging that the defendants violated federal securities laws.
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December 20, 2023
5th Circuit Vacates SEC Stock Buyback Rule After Deadline To Fix Passes
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 19 vacated a Securities and Exchange Commission rule regarding stock buybacks after the SEC failed to cure errors in the rule identified by the Fifth Circuit by a Nov. 30 deadline, granting a motion filed by a group of business organizations requesting the vacatur of the rule.
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December 19, 2023
Federal Judge Sets Schedule To Determine SEC Remedies After Summary Judgment
ST. PAUL, Minn. — After finding that a financial company did not justify the use of a jury trial to determine remedies in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against it, a federal judge in Minnesota agreed to follow a schedule proposed by the SEC and the company outlining the process for determining the remedies.
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December 18, 2023
SEC Says In Complaint ‘Ponzi’ Fund Bilked Investors Out Of Millions
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A company allegedly formed as a fixed income fund was actually used in an elaborate Ponzi scheme that raised more than $5.3 million from investors around the globe, the Securities and Exchange Commission says in a complaint filed in a federal court in Florida.
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December 18, 2023
Federal Judge Extends Asset Freeze On Company SEC Accuses Of Cattle Ponzi Scheme
FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas granted an extension of a restraining order requested by the Securities and Exchange Commission, freezing until at least Jan. 9 the assets of a company and its co-founders that the SEC accuses of running a Ponzi scheme involving the purchase and sale of cattle.
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December 15, 2023
2nd Circuit: Government’s Acquittal Challenges Can Resume After Sentencing
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Consolidated interlocutory appeals the U.S. government filed over a ruling that acquitted two former hedge fund executives of their convictions for a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud have been remanded to a New York federal court to allow sentencing and final judgment on their remaining convictions.
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December 15, 2023
Federal Judge Approves $5 Million Settlement With Shareholders Of Tech Company
DALLAS — A federal judge in Texas granted final approval of the settlement of a class action complaint brought by a group of shareholders who said a business process automation company formed after the merger of two companies made false statements about the company’s finances in the wake of the merger; as part of the settlement, the company agreed to pay $5 million to be distributed among members of the settlement class.
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December 14, 2023
Musk Tells High Court SEC Violated 1st Amendment Rights In Consent Decree
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for a writ of certiorari, Elon Musk tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it affirmed that a consent order between him and the Securities and Exchange Commission could not be changed after he agreed to it, arguing that the SEC demanded that he waive his First Amendment rights as part of the agreement.
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December 14, 2023
Federal Judge Stays SEC Case Alleging Insider Trading Until Criminal Case Resolved
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted a motion by the U.S. government to intervene in a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and granted the government’s motion to stay the case against a trading company and three of its principals accusing them of insider trading until the culmination of a parallel criminal case against the individuals.
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December 13, 2023
9th Circuit Stays Issuance Of Mandate As Facebook Preps Bid For Certiorari
SAN FRANCISCO — After denying a bid from the former Facebook Inc. and certain of its executives for rehearing, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion to stay its mandate as Facebook prepares to file a petition for a writ of certiorari to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the Ninth Circuit’s partial revival of a complaint filed by investors accusing Facebook of making misleading statements about data privacy.
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December 12, 2023
SEC: Judge Should Deny Motion To Dismiss After Guilty Pleas From Binance, CEO
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission says in a notice of supplemental authority that recent guilty pleas from a cryptocurrency platform and its founder and CEO on criminal money laundering charges from the U.S. Department of Justice provide more reason for a federal court in the District of Columbia to deny a motion to dismiss its civil complaint against the platform and its CEO.
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December 12, 2023
SEC Says AI Startup Is Wrong To Call False Statements About Legality Unactionable
ORLANDO, Fla. — An artificial intelligence startup and its founder are incorrect to say the Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint against them are based on unactionable statements, the SEC says in a Dec. 11 memorandum filed in a federal court in Florida in opposition to the motion to dismiss, saying the complaint sufficiently alleges that the company and its founder lured investors with false promises of early access to profits from an AI “ecosystem.”
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December 07, 2023
COMMENTARY: Fire & Rain: 2023 Key Decisions & Developments Impacting The Wide World Of Insurance
By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova
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December 11, 2023
SEC: Scheme Hid Markups From Investors In Pre-IPO Shares
NEW YORK — Five individuals and companies associated acted as unregistered sales agents to sell unregistered securities offerings in private companies before their initial public offering (IPO) with a significant undisclosed markup in a scheme that saw them “pocket millions of dollars before investors made a dime,” the Securities and Exchange Commission says in a complaint filed in a federal court in New York.
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December 11, 2023
Shareholders: Amended Complaint Shows Fake Interviews Caused Wells Fargo Stock Dip
OAKLAND, Calif. — Wells Fargo & Co. and certain of its executives ignore numerous allegations that the company was aware of a widespread practice of using fake interviews to give the impression of complying with internal diversity hiring practices, a group of shareholders say in their memorandum of law in opposition to Wells Fargo’s motion to dismiss their amended putative class complaint alleging that the sham interviews led to a drop in stock value.
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December 11, 2023
High Court Won’t Hear Fund Manager’s 1st Amendment Arguments About SEC Enforcement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a hedge fund and its manager seeking reversal of a federal appeals court’s decision upholding a jury's liability finding in an Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action based in part on the argument that the SEC made errors in bringing the action against him because the First Amendment protects his right to make incorrect statements.