Securities

  • September 27, 2024

    Juul Stockholder Class Sues In Del. Over Controller Windfall

    Two stockholders of e-cigarette venture Juul Labs Inc. sued the company's controllers and board on Friday in a proposed class derivative action seeking damages for an alleged top stockholder scheme to avoid huge liabilities under terms said to have cost the company billions.

  • September 27, 2024

    Musk Skirts Sanctions In Missed Twitter Deposition, For Now

    A California federal judge on Friday declined to sanction Elon Musk, for now, after he skipped a deposition over his $44 billion Twitter takeover, allowing the parties to resolve the issue and advising them to wait to see if he appears for the deposition that's been rescheduled for this coming Friday.

  • September 27, 2024

    CFTC Accuses Firms Of $3.6M Retail Forex Fraud

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday targeted a commodity trading platform the regulator alleged was behind a scheme that scammed $3.6 million from Asian American customers who thought they were investing in retail foreign exchange and commodity futures contracts.

  • September 27, 2024

    CFTC Fines Futures Firm $650K For Botched Records, Trades

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has fined CHS Hedging LLC $650,000 to settle allegations that it did not properly record thousands of calls between associates and customers and failed to obtain customer authorizations before entering trades over a four-year period.

  • September 27, 2024

    2nd Circ. Won't Revive Danimer Investors' 'Greenwashing' Suit

    The Second Circuit on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Danimer Scientific Inc. of over-hyping the environmentally friendly nature of a plastics alternative it produced, with the appellate court saying that there was no proof that company executives purposefully misled investors.

  • September 27, 2024

    Early Trump Media Backer Dumps Shares As Lockup Expires

    An early investor in former President Donald Trump's social media platform has unloaded most of its stake, marking the first divestiture following the expiration of a lockup period that restricted sales after Trump's entity went public earlier this year.

  • September 27, 2024

    Pharma Co. Amarin Beats Class Action Over Patent Issues

    A New Jersey federal judge has tossed a proposed class action against pharmaceutical company Amarin and its top brass, alleging they misled shareholders about their products and the prospects of related patent litigation, saying the investors have failed to plead any actionable misleading statements or omissions made by the defendants.

  • September 27, 2024

    Cooley Accused Of Hiding Fraud From Startup Investors

    A former board member of a dry-cleaning delivery startup has alleged in New Jersey federal court that Cooley LLP and its attorneys deliberately kept investors in the dark about fraud claims against the startup's chief executive.

  • September 27, 2024

    Sen. Bill Would Curb ESG Factors In Retirement Fund Choices

    A bill in the Senate would prohibit asset managers from prioritizing environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors over financial gain when selecting retirement investments.

  • September 27, 2024

    NY Man Convicted In Father-Son Crypto Caper

    A Long Island man was convicted by a Manhattan federal jury of conspiring with his son to scam investors out of millions by claiming to invest their cryptocurrency and instead pocketing the funds.

  • September 27, 2024

    TelexFree Victims Say Payment Processor Lost Key Emails

    Victims of the multibillion-dollar TelexFree Ponzi scheme said a payment processor's loss of critical emails and other files related to the ploy amounts to a "blatant coverup" to hide evidence that would have otherwise bolstered their case against the company.

  • September 26, 2024

    SEC Fines Cassava $40M Over Alzheimer's Treatment Claims

    Neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company Cassava Sciences Inc. and two of its former executives agreed to pay over $40 million to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims related to allegedly misleading statements about clinical trial results for a potential Alzheimer's disease therapeutic, the regulator announced on Thursday.

  • September 26, 2024

    Cannabis REIT Beats Investor Class Action For Good

    A New Jersey federal judge has allowed a cannabis-focused real estate investment trust and certain executives to permanently escape a proposed class action brought by the company's shareholders, finding the lawsuit failed to allege the defendants did not conduct proper due diligence on a major tenant accused of engaging in fraud.

  • September 26, 2024

    2nd Circ. Questions Crypto Co.'s 'Control' In Scam Token Suit

    Investors attempting to revive their suit around decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap Labs told a Second Circuit panel on Thursday that their claims were prematurely dismissed, while a judge pressed them to show how any of the defendants had control of the alleged "rampant fraud" on the platform.

  • September 26, 2024

    Tornado Cash Developer Must Face Criminal Case

    The founder of cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash can't escape charges he conspired to launder money and violate sanctions, after a Manhattan federal judge ruled in an oral opinion Thursday that his "narrative" of being prosecuted over writing computer code should be put before a jury.

  • September 26, 2024

    Sen. Warren Presses OCC, Fed For Tighter Leash On NYCB

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded Wednesday that federal regulators slap New York Community Bancorp with a higher minimum capital requirement, calling out what she alleges has been lax oversight of the bank.

  • September 26, 2024

    Spain Can't Escape $26M Award, DC Judge Rules

    A D.C. federal judge on Thursday enforced a €23.5 million ($26.3 million) arbitral award issued against Spain after the country dialed back its renewable energy incentives, rejecting Madrid's argument that the tribunal had infringed the authority of European Union courts.

  • September 26, 2024

    SEC Fines Fla. Advisory Firm Over Whistleblower Barriers

    Florida-based investment management company GQG Partners LLC has settled U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the company made it difficult for a former employee and prospective workers to report potential securities law violations, the SEC said on Thursday.

  • September 26, 2024

    SEC Fines DraftKings $200K Over CEO's Social Media Blasts

    DraftKings agreed to pay a $200,000 fine to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission administrative charges that the online sports betting platform shared nonpublic sales growth information with some of its investors through its CEO's social media without disclosing the information to all investors, the agency said Thursday.

  • September 26, 2024

    Fintech Firm Can't Dodge Investor Suit Over Lending Program

    A New York federal judge has trimmed some allegations in a proposed class action lawsuit against payment processing company StoneCo Ltd. while allowing shareholders to move forward with claims that the company underplayed its role in the failure of a merchant lending program it once offered in Brazil.

  • September 26, 2024

    5th Circ. Dusts Off FDIC Challenge In Jarkesy's Wake

    The Fifth Circuit moved Wednesday to pick back up with a former bank CEO's challenge to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. enforcement proceedings, taking the case off pause now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a similar challenge involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • September 26, 2024

    Healthcare REIT Defeats Investor Suit For Good

    An Alabama federal judge on Thursday permanently tossed an investor suit against a healthcare-focused real estate investment trust, Medical Properties Trust Inc., that alleged the trust hid the poor performance of four acute care hospitals it owns in Pennsylvania, saying the plaintiff's asserted theory in the suit "is somewhat Jekyll and Hyde."

  • September 26, 2024

    Chancery Tosses Carvana Suit Alleging Faulty Sales

    Delaware's chancellor has dismissed a stockholder derivative case against online used-car dealer Carvana Inc. that sought damages for alleged insider trading and legal complaince monitoring failures, a case that defense attorneys had branded "repackaged" from past or pending federal securities actions.

  • September 26, 2024

    SEC Scores Partial Win In Suit Over Blockchain Co.'s ICO

    A New York federal judge has partially granted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's motion for summary judgment in a suit accusing blockchain marketplace company Opporty International Inc. and its Brooklyn-based owner of conducting a fraudulent initial coin offering of unregistered digital asset securities.

  • September 26, 2024

    SEC Accuses NC Business Owner Of $28M Ponzi-Like Fraud

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a suit in North Carolina federal court accusing an investment firm owner of defrauding investors through a $28 million Ponzi-like manufacturing debt investment scheme.

Expert Analysis

  • Risks And Promises Of AI In The Financial Services Industry

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    Generative artificial intelligence has immense potential to revolutionize the financial services industry, but firms considering its use should first prepare to show their customers and the increasingly divided international regulatory community that they can manage the risks inherent to the new technology, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.

  • Beware Shifting Provisions In Middle-Market Loan Documents

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    In recent years, many credit facility provisions previously considered to be market standard have been negotiated, often turning in favor of borrowers, demanding renewed diligence from workout officers and restructuring counsel operating in the middle market, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • How SEC Could Tackle AI Regulations On Brokers, Advisers

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission held an open meeting of its Investor Advisory Committee on June 6 to review the use of artificial intelligence in investment decision making, showing that regulators are being careful not to stifle innovation or implement rules that will quickly be made irrelevant after their passage, says Brian Korn at Manatt Phelps.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians

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    Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • A Deep Dive Into The Evolving World Of ESG Ratings

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    Attorneys at Mintz discuss the salience of environmental, social and governance ratings in corporate circles in recent years, and consider certain methodologies underlying their calculation for professionals, as well as issues concerning the ESG ratings and products themselves.

  • What TikTok's Race Against The Clock Teaches Chinese Firms

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    The Biden administration's recent divestiture deadline on TikTok parent ByteDance provides useful information for other China-based companies looking to do business in the U.S., including the need to keep products for each market separate and implement firewalls at the design stage, says Richard Lomuscio at Stinson.

  • Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent

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    As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.

  • What The NYSE Proposed Delisting Rule Could Mean For Cos.

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    The New York Stock Exchange's recently proposed rule would provide the exchange with discretionary authority to commence delisting proceedings for a company substantially shifting its primary business focus, raising concerns for NYSE-listed companies over the exact definition of the exchange's proposed "substantially different" standard, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Broadens Sweep Of Securities 'Solicitation'

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent revival of a putative securities fraud class action against Genius Brands for hiring a stock promoter to write favorable articles about it shows that companies should view "solicitation" broadly in considering whether they may have paid someone to urge an investor to purchase a security, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Boeing Saga Underscores Need For Ethical Corporate Culture

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    In the wake of recent allegations about Boeing’s safety culture, and amid the U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower incentives, business leaders should reinvigorate their emphasis on compliance by making clear that long-term profitability requires ethical business practices, says Maxwell Carr-Howard at Dentons.

  • Key Takeaways From 2024 Accountants' Liability Conference

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    At the recent annual Accountants' Liability Conference, regulators provided important commentary on new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board rulemaking and standard-setting initiatives, and emphasized regulatory priorities ranging from the tone at the top to alternative practice structures, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • A Closer Look At Feds' Proposed Banker Compensation Rule

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    A recently proposed rule to limit financial institutions' ability to award incentive-based compensation for risk-taking may progress through the rulemaking process slowly due to the sheer number of regulators collaborating on the rule and the number of issues under consideration, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Series

    Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • Parsing Controversial Del. General Corporation Law Proposals

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    In response to issues raised in three recent high-profile Delaware Court of Chancery decisions, many amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law were quickly proposed that, if enacted, would bring significant changes likely to be hotly debated — and litigated — for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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