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Securities
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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.
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October 29, 2024
Defunct Pot Co. CEO Says 'Grifter' Is Trying To Stop Settlement
The founder of a defunct marijuana greenhouse claims the $1.5 million settlement it made with a class of investors has been stymied in unrelated legal action filed by a "sophisticated grifter" looking for personal gain, urging a Colorado federal judge to push aside the bankruptcy action.
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October 29, 2024
Chancery Shoots Down $9.5M Straight Path Atty Fee Claim
Stockholder attorneys who waged a multiyear Delaware Court of Chancery battle over IDT Corp. founder Howard Jonas' campaign to scuttle damage claims against him arising from federal sanctions against Straight Path Communications on Tuesday lost a Chancery fight for a $9.5 million attorney fee.
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October 29, 2024
Crypto Co. Consensys CEO Slams SEC In Announcing Layoffs
Blockchain software firm Consensys on Tuesday announced a round of layoffs affecting 20% of its staff that it says was driven in part by a costly legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but a spokesperson confirmed to Law360 that the firm's legal department wasn't part of the reduction.
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October 29, 2024
Biopharma Co. Escapes Investor Suit Over Drug Approval Lies
Biopharmaceutical company Spero Therapeutics Inc. has escaped a proposed investor class action accusing it of concealing warning signs that it would not secure regulatory approval of one of its drugs, with the court ruling that Spero's interactions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration do not indicate Spero should have known its application would be rejected.
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October 29, 2024
Investors Float $21M Deal To End Life Sciences SPAC Suit
Shareholders in special purpose acquisition company CM Life Sciences Holdings have reached a tentative $21 million class settlement in Delaware's Court of Chancery after suing over alleged missing or misleading disclosures in the lead-up to the take-public merger of clinical data and genomics company Sema4 Holdings in July 2021.
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October 29, 2024
Sham Getty Stock Offer Lands Investor 10-Month Prison Term
A former Massachusetts corporate executive will serve 10 months in prison for launching a sham takeover bid for Seattle-based Getty Images Holdings to drive up its share price and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit, a Boston federal judge said Tuesday.
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October 29, 2024
2nd Circ. Revives Investor Suit Against Chinese News App
The Second Circuit has revived a securities class action alleging that Chinese news aggregation app Qutoutiao hid changes in its advertising policies that allegedly spurred fraudulent advertisements on the app and eventually caused its share price to decline, finding that the lower court erred in determining that the suit's claims sound in fraud.
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October 29, 2024
2 Firms Tapped To Lead Five Below Investor Suit
Berger Montague PC and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP will represent a proposed class of investors in a suit alleging that teen-focused retail chain Five Below overstated its growth prospects, then saw trading prices crater when it announced that its sales expectations fell short.
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October 29, 2024
Burns & Levinson Atty Duo Latest To Join Blank Rome
Blank Rome has announced it added a pair of attorneys from Burns & Levinson to its office in Boston, a move that the firm said bolsters its litigation and corporate capabilities and serves as the latest example of lawyers moving between the two firms since Blank Rome opened the office in April with 25 Burns & Levinson corporate and finance attorneys.
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October 29, 2024
Oil Trader's Brother Gets Probation, Fine For Brazilian Bribes
An ailing Connecticut man who admitted to helping his brother pull off a scheme to bribe officials at Brazil's state-owned oil company has been sentenced to probation, a fine and asset forfeiture, federal court records showed Tuesday.
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October 29, 2024
Financial Firm Gets $1.4M Placeholder Against Adviser
A Connecticut state court judge has granted a financial firm's bid for a nearly $1.4 million placeholder against an exiting financial adviser during ongoing FINRA arbitration, reasoning the firm has shown a likely chance of proving the adviser siphoned customers during a transition to a new broker-dealer.
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October 29, 2024
Alibaba's $433.5M Investor Suit Deal Gets Initial OK
A New York federal judge granted preliminary approval to a $433.5 million deal settling a suit between Alibaba Group and investors alleging the company made misstatements about its exclusivity practices and the planned $34 billion initial public offering of a fintech affiliate.
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October 29, 2024
1st Circ. Scraps Securities Fraud Case Against 3D Printing Co.
The First Circuit has affirmed a ruling throwing out a securities fraud lawsuit against 3D printing business Desktop Metal, finding the investor behind the action abandoned one of her claims and failed to adequately allege the other.
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October 29, 2024
Ex-Jones Day Litigator Joins Honigman In Detroit
Honigman LLP has brought on a former Jones Day business and tort litigation associate as a business litigation practice group partner.
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October 28, 2024
JPMorgan CEO Says Banks Must 'Fight Back' As Regs Mount
JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday that it's time for the banking industry to "fight back" against aggressive federal regulators, criticizing what he described as an "onslaught" of unnecessary, overly harsh rulemaking.
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October 28, 2024
Masimo Sues Founder Over Alleged 'Empty Voting' Scheme
Masimo Corp. has sued its founder for allegedly conspiring with an investment firm and company stockholder to manipulate a shareholder vote in order to maintain his seat on the medical technology company's board of directors.
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October 28, 2024
SEC Sues To Enforce Subpoena On Telehealth Co.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a New York federal judge to order a weight loss-focused telehealth company to comply with a subpoena issued in connection with the SEC's investigation into whether the company violated federal securities laws.
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October 28, 2024
Ontrak Founder Can't Wipe Novel Insider Trading Verdict
A California federal judge has upheld Ontrak founder Terren Peizer's first-of-its-kind insider trading conviction, holding that jurors had "more than enough evidence" to determine he based a $20 million share sale on nonpublic information that the health tech company was about to lose its biggest client.
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October 28, 2024
Ex-Atty Charged With $9.2M Commodities Ponzi Scheme
Federal prosecutors have charged a former New Orleans-based attorney with operating a Ponzi scheme, saying he promised dozens of individuals that he would invest their $9.2 million in low-risk commodities when he was really using the funds to gamble and to pay off personal expenses.
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October 28, 2024
Investment Firm's Head Indicted For Alleged Ponzi Scheme
Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment accusing a Utah man of carrying out a Ponzi scheme to embezzle millions of dollars from private investors who believed they were contributing to restaurant ventures.
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October 28, 2024
Fidelity Investments Sued Over Money Market Fund's Fees
Fidelity Investments has been hit with a class action suit in New York federal court alleging it charged high fees, mismanaged the administration of one of its money market funds, and failed to act in the best interests of the fund's shareholders.
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October 28, 2024
$4M Settlement Over NBA-Themed NFTs Gets Final OK
A New York federal judge on Monday granted final approval to a $4 million settlement between the firm behind NBA-focused non-fungible tokens and a class of purchasers who accused the digital assets company of selling the tokens as unregistered securities, and awarded roughly a third of the settlement fund in attorney fees.
Expert Analysis
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Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules
A Missouri federal court’s recent order enjoining the state’s anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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New Lessons On Managing Earnout Provision Risks
Earnout provisions can be a useful tool for bridging valuation gaps in M&A, particularly in developmental-stage pharmaceutical transactions, but the Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in Shareholder Representative Services v. Alexion sheds new light on the inherent risks and best practices for managing them, say attorneys at Cleary.
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Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.
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How Companies Are Approaching Insider Trading Policies
An analysis of insider trading policies recently disclosed by 49 S&P 500 companies under a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule reveals that while specific provisions vary from company to company, certain common themes are emerging, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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Increased IPOs In '24 Shows Importance Of Strategic Planning
Initial public offerings, debt issuances and M&A activity so far in 2024 have shown substantial increases over comparable periods in 2023, highlighting why counsel should educate clients on market trends and financing alternatives to proactively prepare them to be ready to take advantage of opportunities, say attorneys at Skadden.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
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Navigating New Enforcement Scrutiny Of 'AI Washing'
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent lawsuit against Joonko Diversity, its first public AI-focused enforcement action against a private company, underscores the importance of applying the same internal legal and compliance rigor to AI-related claims as other market-facing statements, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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How Fund Advisers Can Limit Election Year Pay-To-Play Risks
With Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now the Democratic candidate for vice president, politically active investment advisers should take practical steps to avoid triggering strict pay-to-play rules that can lead to fund managers facing mutli-year timeouts from working with public funds after contributing to sitting officials, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
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'Pig Butchering': The Scam That Exploits Crypto Confusion
Certain red flags can tip off banks to possible "pig-butchering," and with the scam's increasing popularity, financial institutions need to take action to monitor entry points into the crypto space, detect suspicious activity and provide a necessary backstop to protect customers, say Brandon Essig and Mary Parrish McCracken at Lightfoot Franklin.
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Opinion
Agencies Should Reward Corporate Cyber Victim Cooperation
The increased regulatory scrutiny on corporate victims of cyberattacks — exemplified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against SolarWinds — should be replaced with a new model that provides adequate incentives for companies to come forward proactively and collaborate with law enforcement, say attorneys at McDermott.
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9 Liability Management Tips As Debt Maturity Cliff Looms
As the debt maturity cliff swiftly approaches in this challenging environment, attorneys at Winston & Strawn highlight the top considerations for boards of directors and finance professionals to think about when structuring and executing liability management transactions, including reviewing capital structure, evaluating debt covenants, and more.
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How Transaction Lookbacks Can Guide Fintech Companies
As transaction lookbacks continue to be a key focus of enforcement actions, newer financial institutions like fintech companies should know they can benefit from proactively investigating their potential failure to identify suspicious activity, creating a compliance road map and building trust with regulators in the process, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
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5 Ways Life Sciences Cos. Can Manage Insider Trading Risk
In light of two high-profile insider trading jury decisions against life sciences executives this year, public companies in the sector should revise their policies to account for regulators' new and more expansive theories of liability, says Amy Walsh at Orrick.