Securities

  • June 27, 2024

    Chancery Orders Hearing On Musk's Texas Pay Ratification

    Delaware's Chancellor on Thursday ordered arguments on the effect of Tesla Inc.'s latest ratification of a multibillion-dollar stock-based compensation award for CEO Elon Musk but separated the session from a July 8 hearing on fees for class attorneys who won an order voiding Musk's earlier pay award.

  • June 27, 2024

    SEC Says It Met Its Burden To Apply Dealer Rule To Crypto

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told a Texas federal judge that the agency has met its burden to explain how its expanded definition of "dealer" applies to the crypto industry, urging the court to cut through an industry challenge.

  • June 27, 2024

    11th Circ. Won't Revive Robinhood Investors' Meme Stock Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit has affirmed a lower court's dismissal of an investor antitrust suit against Robinhood Markets and Citadel Securities, holding that the investors failed to allege any plausible anti-competitive effects that occurred as a result of the platforms allegedly conspiring to restrict trades of "meme" stocks like GameStop in 2021.

  • June 27, 2024

    Coinbase Says SEC, FDIC 'Stonewalled' Crypto Info Requests

    Crypto exchange Coinbase filed suits against both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Thursday after it said the agencies "stonewalled" information requests for documents that could shed light on agencies' internal views on digital assets.

  • June 27, 2024

    CFTC Extends Comment Period For Election Betting Proposal

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Thursday that it is extending the deadline for comment on its proposal to ban the trading of event contracts tied to things like election outcomes, sporting events and the Academy Awards.

  • June 27, 2024

    DOL Benefits Chief Defends Fiduciary Rule Before GOP Panel

    The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits agency on Thursday defended recently finalized policy expanding the definition of a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, drawing criticism from a Republican-controlled panel of House lawmakers at an oversight hearing.

  • June 27, 2024

    Poor Governance Tanked Genomic Co.'s Stock, Investor Says

    Poor corporate governance led to Sema4 Holdings Corp., now named GeneDx Holdings Corp., nixing hundreds of jobs and failing the Nasdaq requirement for common stock to close above $1 per share for 30 consecutive trading days, a derivative shareholder suit filed Tuesday against the genomics company's top brass alleges.

  • June 27, 2024

    Conn. Banking Dept. Defends $25K Fine Against Legal Funder

    The Connecticut Department of Banking is urging a state judge to affirm a $25,000 fine levied on a legal funding business, saying the court should reject the company's contention that it has no authority over transactions at issue in the penalty.

  • June 27, 2024

    Bradley Arant Adds Former Wells Fargo Associate GC In DC

    Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has hired a former associate general counsel for both Wells Fargo and Bank of America, who previously served as a U.S. attorney in the Central District of California and most recently as a Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP partner.

  • June 27, 2024

    SEC Sues Fla. Loan Website, CEO Over 'Fictitious' Revenue

    A purported online lender and its CEO face U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the company's reported revenue for certain periods was "a figment" of the CEO's imagination.

  • June 27, 2024

    Cannabis Co. Settles Lender Suit After Regulator Delays

    Troubled cannabis company Parallel settled a suit with three lenders who alleged a "self-dealing scheme" within the company after spending about a year trying to finalize the agreement and clear regulatory hurdles in various states.

  • June 27, 2024

    Justices Limit SEC's Use Of In-House Courts

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's use of its in-house court system, saying the accused have a right to a jury trial when financial penalties are on the table.

  • June 26, 2024

    BlackRock Can't Escape Saba Capital's Voting Bylaws Suit

    A New York federal judge Tuesday refused to toss Saba Capital Management's lawsuit claiming a BlackRock Inc. environmental, social and corporate governance trust has illegal shareholder voting bylaws, but also refused to block BlackRock from applying the bylaws at issue to the current election.

  • June 26, 2024

    5th Circ. Says SEC Must Reconsider Axing Proxy Regulations

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday vacated the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to rescind a portion of Trump-era rules requiring proxy advisory firms to notify companies about their advice to investors, ruling that the agency didn't adequately explain the abrupt change.

  • June 26, 2024

    SEC Crypto Stance May Shift With Election, Rulemaking Suits

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to shift its cryptocurrency posture to some degree if a new chair is installed after the coming presidential election, but firms not content to wait for a change in the guard can consider challenging the agency's rulemaking process, experts said Wednesday.

  • June 26, 2024

    Ex-Outcome CEO Gets 7½ Years For Fraud Conviction

    Former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah was sentenced to 7½ years in prison Wednesday for engaging in a massive fraud through which he grew the health advertising company by lying to investors, lenders and customers about its value and capabilities.

  • June 26, 2024

    Conn. Trader's Brother Cops Plea In $30M Brazilian Oil Plot

    A Connecticut man has pled guilty to helping to bribe officials at Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro SA, also known as Petrobras, allegedly to help his commodities trader brother earn more than $30 million in ill-gotten profits from deals with the oil giant, according to federal court documents.

  • June 26, 2024

    Judge Trims 2nd Attempt At Crypto Lender Loan Suit

    A California federal judge has again dismissed crypto lender Nexo Capital's affiliates from an amended suit over claims they fraudulently induced customers to take out risky loans, but found the new suit plausibly alleges Nexo distributed a nonexempt, unregistered security.

  • June 26, 2024

    Umpqua Bank Can't Undo Class Cert. In $300M Ponzi Suit

    Oregon-headquartered Umpqua Bank has lost its bid to partially decertify a class of investors suing it over claims that it aided and abetted a $300 million Ponzi scheme, and it also can't block those same investors from later seeking prejudgment interest in the case, a San Francisco federal judge has determined.

  • June 26, 2024

    SEC Fines Ex-Tech Co. Controller In Insider Trading Matter

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that an electronic security solutions company vice president and controller will pay over $435,000 to settle claims that he sold shares of the company based on financial results that were not publicly available at the time.

  • June 26, 2024

    Chamber Backs 9th Circ. Call To Nix SEC's 'Gag Rule'

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among those calling on the Ninth Circuit to overturn a long-standing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission policy that settling parties not be allowed to deny the allegations against them, saying that the so-called gag rule threatens the free speech rights of the accused.

  • June 26, 2024

    Crypto App Pledges More Refunds In Multistate Settlement

    Cryptocurrency platform Abra has agreed to return millions of dollars in digital assets to U.S. customers after getting busted for running a mobile application for crypto transactions without the required money transmitting licenses, a coalition of state financial regulators announced on Wednesday, with Washington state taking the lead.

  • June 26, 2024

    IP Co. Breaching Investment Laws, Shareholder Alleges In Del.

    A shareholder of patent developer Network-1 Technologies Inc. has sued the company in Delaware's Court of Chancery, saying he needs to see the company's books and records to investigate, among other things, whether it is "operating as an unregistered investment company, contrary to the Investment Company Act of 1940."

  • June 26, 2024

    Director Sues Materials Testing Co. In Del. For Withheld Docs

    A shareholder and director of Femtometrix Inc. has sued the California materials testing company in Delaware's Court of Chancery for books and records, saying the company is not giving him sufficient information to function as a director.

  • June 26, 2024

    Ed Tech Co. Can't Beat Investor Suit Over Bot-Inflated Classes

    A New Jersey federal judge has ruled that confidential witness testimonies, among other things, "paint an unmistakable picture" that education tech company GSX Techedu Inc. used "bots" to inflate its online class enrollment numbers, in refusing to dismiss a suit against the company that demands recompense from certain executives for stock price drops.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.

  • The Challenges SEC's Climate Disclosure Rule May Face

    Author Photo

    Attorneys at Debevoise examine potential legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new climate-related disclosure rule — against which nine suits have already been filed — including arguments under the Administrative Procedure Act, the major questions doctrine, the First Amendment and the nondelegation doctrine.

  • Compliance Steps After ABA White Collar Crime Conference

    Author Photo

    Senior law enforcement officials’ statements this month at the American Bar Association's white collar crime conference suggest government enforcement efforts this year will increasingly focus on whistleblower incentives, artificial intelligence and data protection, and companies will need to update their compliance programs accordingly, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Investment Advisers Should Prep For Money Laundering Regs

    Author Photo

    Investment advisers should prepare for a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed rule that would significantly expand anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism obligations by assessing illicit financing risks, and expect examiners to scrutinize unregistered advisers and those with certain foreign clients, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

    Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • How Private Funds Can Navigate New FinCEN Reporting Rules

    Author Photo

    In light of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's new regulations implementing beneficial ownership reporting requirements, private fund managers must assess whether certain obligations apply to entities within their structures and whether potential structural changes could simplify those obligations, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection

    Author Photo

    Recent enforcement actions in the fintech and finance industries show that the government is increasingly pursuing fraud enabled by artificial intelligence — at the same time it’s using AI innovations to enforce regulations and investigate fraud, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

    Author Photo

    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • Innodata Suit Highlights 'AI Washing' Liability Risk For Cos.

    Author Photo

    A class action against software company Innodata over so-called AI washing, one of the first of its kind, underscores the litigation and enforcement risks that can arise from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's novel theory about misleading artificial intelligence capabilities, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Tips For CCOs Submitting Annual Compliance Reports

    Author Photo

    Recent settlement actions by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, coupled with statements made by both CFTC and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission leadership, demonstrate why this year's chief compliance officer annual report filing is no ordinary exercise, and highlight the increasing importance of the report and its usage, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Fintech 'Prenups': Planning For A Card Program Breakup

    Author Photo

    After a year of economic downturns, some banks and their fintech partners are realizing they may have rushed to the altar without a good prenup, but planning ahead can curb both foreseeable and unexpected issues in the event of a termination of a bank-fintech card-issuing agreement, say Andrew Grant at Ketsal and Richard Malish at Community Federal Savings Bank.

  • SEC's Final Climate Disclosure Rules: What Cos. Must Know

    Author Photo

    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's scaled-back final rules requiring public companies to disclose certain climate-related information still face challenges in court, companies should begin preparing now to comply with the rules, say Celia Soehner and Erin Martin at Morgan Lewis.

  • Caremark 2.0 Lends Shareholders Agency Against Polluters

    Author Photo

    The Caremark doctrine has been liberalized by recent Delaware court decisions into what some have termed a 2.0 version, making derivative cases against corporations far more plausible and invigorating oversight duty on environmental risks like toxic spills and air pollution, say Joshua Margolin and Sean Goldman-Hunt at Selendy Gay.

  • BIPA's Statutory Exemptions Post-Healthcare Ruling

    Author Photo

    The Illinois Supreme Court's November opinion in Mosby v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, which held that the Biometric Information Privacy Act's healthcare exemption also applies when information is collected from healthcare workers, is a major win for healthcare defendants that resolves an important question of statutory interpretation, say attorneys at Quinn Emanuel.

  • 2nd Circ.'s Nine West Ruling Clarifies Safe Harbor Confusion

    Author Photo

    The Second Circuit’s recent ruling in Nine West’s Chapter 11 suit clarifies that courts in the circuit will apply a transfer-by-transfer analysis to determine the applicability of Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, and that to be safe harbored, a financial institution must act as an agent with respect to the specific transfer at issue, says Leonardo Trivigno at Carter Ledyard.

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!