Securities

  • October 28, 2024

    Metals Co. Owner Convicted Of Tax Fraud In $58M Theft Case

    A Delaware federal jury convicted the owner of a gold and silver depository of tax fraud and other crimes tied to the government's accusations that he stole $58 million in precious metals from his customers, according to court filings.

  • October 28, 2024

    Labor Dept.'s Proposed ESOP Rule Moves Toward Release

    The White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the U.S. Department of Labor's proposal for a rule related to how employee stock ownership valuations are conducted, the last step before the long-awaited proposed regulation is released to the public for comment.

  • October 28, 2024

    Ozy Media CEO Wants Conviction Nixed Over Judge's Assets

    The New York federal judge who presided over the fraud and identity theft trial of former Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson should be disqualified from the case because he failed to disclose that he had investments in four of the companies victimized by Watson, according to the onetime executive, who is trying to get his conviction overturned.

  • October 28, 2024

    Report Says To Allow Bulk Of Software Investor Suit

    A U.S. magistrate judge has recommended against dismissing the bulk of an investor's suit alleging Decentral Life Inc. and a group of its licensees, including a cannabis social media site, misled him into investing more than $1.7 million by boasting bogus user counts.

  • October 28, 2024

    Cleary Adds Northern Calif. Deputy Criminal Chief As Partner

    The deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California has joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP's Bay Area office as a partner in the Americas litigation practice, the firm said Monday.

  • October 25, 2024

    Alibaba Agrees To $433.5M Deal In Nearly 4-Year Investor Suit

    Alibaba Group has agreed to shell out $433.5 million to resolve a proposed class of investors' allegations it made misstatements about its exclusivity practices and the planned $34 billion initial public offering of a fintech affiliate, the Chinese e-commerce company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday.

  • October 25, 2024

    Crypto Rapidly Transforming IRS Criminal Cases, Agent Says

    Cryptocurrency is altering the size of many criminal cases that federal law enforcement agencies are handling, an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator told the UCLA Tax Controversy Conference, commenting that over the past three years the agency broke its record for asset seizures three times.

  • October 25, 2024

    Sports Co. Says SEC's $4M Damages Bid Spells Disaster

    A multimillion-dollar securities fraud judgment against two companies linked to a virtual sports trading platform would be disastrous for the already-struggling organizations, their attorney argued before a D.C. federal judge Friday.

  • October 25, 2024

    SEC Wants PE Firm's 'Fishing Expedition' Claims Paused

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a Texas federal judge to pause a real estate-focused private equity fund's suit alleging that the regulator subjected it to an unconstitutional "fishing expedition" outside its regulatory purview.

  • October 25, 2024

    FTX Reaches $228M Deal With Crypto Co. Bybit

    The FTX bankruptcy estate reached a deal worth about $228 million to resolve its lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Bybit and the firm's investment arm, Mirana Corp., that alleged they unfairly jumped the line to withdraw funds during FTX's meltdown in late 2022 and held the estate's own funds hostage.

  • October 25, 2024

    SEC's Crypto Mining Case Belongs In 10th Circ., Court Hears

    A Utah man accused of defrauding crypto mining investors out of $18 million is hoping for an opportunity to have his case heard before the Tenth Circuit, arguing that the mining equipment is not a security and that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be forced to drop the suit.

  • October 25, 2024

    Dental Exec Flees Ahead Of Possible 7-Year Fraud Sentence

    An arrest warrant was issued Friday for the former CEO of a dental device company who pled guilty to defrauding investors out of $10.7 million after he did not show up for his sentencing hearing, where Washington federal prosecutors were asking for seven years in prison.

  • October 25, 2024

    Va. Man Gets 7½ Years For $15M Gov't Contract Investor Scam

    A Virginia man was sentenced Friday to over seven years in prison for defrauding dozens of investors out of $15 million by misleading them into believing that his company had millions of dollars in contracts with federal and state government agencies.

  • October 25, 2024

    Judge Won't Rethink $750K For P&G Worker's Ex-Girlfriend

    A Pennsylvania judge won't reconsider her decision to let the estranged ex-girlfriend of a deceased Procter & Gamble employee claim more than $754,000 he had in an investment account, ruling that the employee's estate hadn't cited any new evidence or changes in law to overcome the beneficiary form he'd left untouched since the late 1980s.

  • October 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Dubious Of Tesla Investors' Appeal Of $12B Trial Loss

    Ninth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Friday of Tesla investors' argument that an erroneous trial instruction improperly led a jury to reject their $12 billion claim over Elon Musk's 2018 tweets that he had "funding secured" to take the electric car giant private.

  • October 25, 2024

    Hawkins Delafield Career Atty Moves To Nixon Peabody In SF

    Nixon Peabody LLP hired a Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP partner who has spent his entire legal career with that firm working on public finance tax matters and a range of other tax-related matters, the firm has announced.

  • October 25, 2024

    Judge Chides Bid To Swap Credit Suisse Suit's Lead Plaintiff

    A New York federal judge has rejected an investor's bid to supersede the current lead plaintiff in a securities fraud suit over Credit Suisse's 2023 collapse, saying the petitioning investor had "jumped at the opportunity to sell out his fellow class members" with the replacement motion and criticizing his lawyer too.

  • October 25, 2024

    MVP: Robbins Geller's Shawn Williams And Mark Solomon

    Shawn Williams and Mark Solomon, managing partners at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, represented a British pension fund in a shareholder lawsuit against one of the deepest-pocketed companies in the world, Apple Inc. After years of litigation, Apple agreed in March to settle the case for $490 million, an outcome that landed both Solomon and Williams on the list of the 2024 Law360 Securities MVPs.

  • October 24, 2024

    Truth Social SPAC Founder Wants $1M Award For Payout Suit

    The investment sponsor of the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that took former President Donald Trump's Truth Social media company public has asked for a $1 million fee award for driving the Delaware Chancery Court litigation over the Trump camp's attempts to slash a SPAC deal stock conversion ratio that would have cost some preferred investors millions.

  • October 24, 2024

    FINRA Says Its Regs Apply To Metaverse, Seeks Comments

    Broker-dealers and other firms that are weighing incorporating the metaverse into their business operations should be mindful of how Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rules apply to such activities and reach out with any concerns about regulatory ambiguities, the regulator said Thursday.

  • October 24, 2024

    SEC Says Broker Still Owes $3.5M Over Pre-IPO Stock Scheme

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants a Manhattan federal court to enforce its nearly $3.5 million administrative order against an unregistered broker-dealer and its managing member, who allegedly made over $65 million selling interests in a portfolio of companies that hadn't yet gone public.

  • October 24, 2024

    No Tax Break For Bad Debt Investors, Wash. Justices Say

    The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday that a group of funds that buy and sell distressed credit card debt can't claim a state business tax deduction on investment income because those investments were not incidental to their main business purpose.

  • October 24, 2024

    CAT Is 'Out Of The Bag': Judge Won't Block SEC Data Tool

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can continue to monitor markets through a surveillance tool known as the consolidated audit trail while it fights a class action lawsuit challenging the tool's existence, with a Texas federal judge saying Thursday that enjoining data collection now would cause chaos and disruption.

  • October 24, 2024

    Chancery Won't Block Dura Medic Merger Insurance Claims

    Dura Medic, a private equity-controlled medical equipment supplier, and its directors and officers won their bid Thursday in Delaware's Court of Chancery to beat back, for now, a request for a temporary restraining order blocking a settlement that could put a $5 million directors and officers insurance policy beyond the reach of the previous owners' damage claims.

  • October 24, 2024

    Feds Ask To Adjourn Trial For Crypto Maven After He Flees

    Prosecutors asked a Brooklyn federal judge to push back the trial date for a German cryptocurrency firm founder who they said tampered with his ankle monitor and absconded while out on bail on investor fraud charges.

Expert Analysis

  • Navigating The Extent Of SEC Cybersecurity Breach Authority

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's broad reading of its authority under Section 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act in the R.R. Donnelley and SolarWinds actions has ramifications for companies dealing with cybersecurity breaches, but it remains to be seen whether the commission's use of the provision will withstand judicial scrutiny, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal

    Author Photo

    Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Dapper Settlement Offers Rules Of The Road For NFT Issuers

    Author Photo

    The terms of a $4 million settlement in a class action alleging that Dapper Labs sold its NBA Top Shot Moments as unregistered securities may be a model for third parties that wish to avoid securities liability in connection with offering digital asset non-fungible token collectibles, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

    Author Photo

    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Navigating The New Rise Of Greenwashing Litigation

    Author Photo

    As greenwashing lawsuits continue to gain momentum with a shift in focus to carbon-neutrality claims, businesses must exercise caution and ensure transparency in their environmental marketing practices, taking cues from recent legal challenges in the airline industry, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

    Author Photo

    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants

    Author Photo

    The Delaware Chancery Court's first full dismissal of claims challenging a special purpose acquisition company transaction under the entire fairness doctrine in the recent Hennessy Capital Acquisition Stockholder Litigation establishes useful precedent to abate the flood of SPAC litigation, say Lisa Bugni and Benjamin Lee at King & Spalding.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

    Author Photo

    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

    Author Photo

    In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

    Author Photo

    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Securities archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!