Securities

  • March 17, 2025

    $4.4B Alteryx Sale Was Lowball Offer, Investors Tell Del. Court

    Former stockholders of cloud-based enterprise analytics platform Alteryx Inc. have challenged the venture's allegedly lowball, $4.4 billion sale in 2024 to two private equity buyers, claiming breaches of fiduciary duty in Delaware Chancery Court that include undisclosed conflicts among directors and key officers.

  • March 17, 2025

    Auto Mogul Says $150M Note Changes Were For Co.'s Survival

    An auto parts manufacturer and its leader have urged a Michigan federal judge to find that they didn't fraudulently change promissory notes worth $150 million to cheat Alter Domus LLC out of payment, telling the court the amendments were made to help the company survive the COVID-19 pandemic.  

  • March 17, 2025

    Crypto Firm Stole $28M In 'Pig Butchering' Scam, Suit Says

    An Alabama resident has filed a proposed class action against two cryptocurrency firms and their CEO, accusing them of running a $28 million "pig butchering" scam that defrauded victims by laundering stolen cryptocurrency through a complex network of wallets.

  • March 14, 2025

    4th Circ. Lets White House Anti-DEI Efforts Proceed

    The Fourth Circuit on Friday lifted a temporary injunction blocking President Donald Trump's administration from implementing the bulk of his executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, though each judge on the panel had differing views on the matter. 

  • March 14, 2025

    Fannie, Freddie Can't Avoid $612M Investor Win, Judge Rules

    A D.C. federal judge on Friday upheld a $612.4 million jury verdict against the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ruling that the jury was provided with "ample evidence" that reasonably led to its conclusion that FHFA improperly amended stock purchase agreements related to the companies.

  • March 14, 2025

    Qatari Sheikh's Billions Invoked In $1M Scam, SEC Claims

    A purported wealth management company and its managing member face U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud allegations over a pair of $1 million dollar schemes, including one involving an elaborate ruse invoking ties to the wealth of the royal family of Qatar.

  • March 14, 2025

    Texas Judge Rejects Ex-GloriFi CEO's Bid To Stop Claims Sale

    A Texas federal judge shot down an alleged attempt by the former CEO of bankrupt conservative-centered fintech startup GloriFi to preserve the ability to sue investors like Ken Griffin's Citadel LLC and Vivek Ramaswamy, saying Friday the bankruptcy judge got it right.

  • March 14, 2025

    Newsmax Says It Shelled Out $40M To End Smartmatic Suit

    Newsmax Media Inc. paid $40 million in last year's settlement with Smartmatic USA Corp. to put to rest the election technology company defamation suit ahead of trial, according to a disclosure recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • March 14, 2025

    'Pig Butchering' Crypto Site Must Pay $2.5M, Judge Says

    A purported crypto trading platform has been ordered to pay nearly $2.5 million after failing to respond to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission claims that it was at the heart of a so-called pig-butchering scheme — or a scam that sees victims fleeced by fictitious, chatty social media users.

  • March 14, 2025

    BNY Sued Over $17.7B Unregistered Barclays-Issued Notes

    A trio of investors has filed a proposed class action against The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for allegedly failing to properly authenticate several exchange-traded note offerings from Barclays, leading to the sale of $17.7 billion in unregistered securities.

  • March 14, 2025

    5th Circ. Affirms Energy Exec's Insider Trading Conviction

    The Fifth Circuit upheld a Texas energy executive's conviction for insider trading on natural gas futures based on the constitutionality of federal laws and regulations that criminalize manipulative commodity deals.

  • March 14, 2025

    Coupang Hit With Corporate Fraud, Waste Claims In Chancery

    The officers and directors of tech company Coupang Inc., are facing a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court — accused of corporate mismanagement, fraud and waste, including labor violations in South Korea.

  • March 14, 2025

    Par Funding Conspirator Gets 11 Years For Fraud, Atty Assault

    A Pennsylvania federal judge has sentenced Par Funding principal James "Jimmy" LaForte to 11 years and four months in prison for helping his family run a $404 million racketeering conspiracy and violently assaulting Par Funding receivership's court-appointed counsel in a position prosecutors described as the loan company's "loyal attack dog."

  • March 14, 2025

    Chief Justice Won't Halt FINRA Case Against Suing Brokerage

    Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts on Friday denied a request to stay an in-house Financial Industry Regulatory Authority disciplinary proceeding while a broker-dealer attempts to convince the justices to hear its constitutional challenge to the regulator.

  • March 14, 2025

    Three Arrows Beats FTX To Get $1.5B Bankruptcy Claim

    The liquidators of failed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital have prevailed in a dispute with FTX Trading Ltd. over the allowance of a $1.53 billion bankruptcy claim, with a Delaware judge deciding to grant Three Arrows' bid to change its original claim despite FTX asserting that the move was made in bad faith.

  • March 14, 2025

    Biotech Wins Dismissal Of Investor Fraud Claims

    A Boston federal judge on Friday dismissed a proposed investor class action against biotech Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc., ruling that the lawsuit's facts tend to support innocent explanations for executives' statements about its two drug prospects.

  • March 14, 2025

    Judge Trims Investor's Bid To Rescind Funds From Pot Co.

    A Florida federal judge has found that an investor can't rescind a deal or claim fraud through common law in a suit alleging that the officers and agents of a cannabis company hid a $13 million tax liability when he invested.

  • March 14, 2025

    FTC Urges 8th Circ. Not To Pause Insulin Pricing Case

    The Federal Trade Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit not to pause its in-house case accusing Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx of artificially inflating insulin prices, telling the appeals court the pharmacy benefit managers have no chance of winning on their constitutional claims.

  • March 14, 2025

    Ex-Ozy Media Employee Avoids Prison After Cooperating

    A former Ozy Media employee who became a government cooperator and testified at the fraud trial of the company and its founder Carlos Watson was sentenced to time served Friday.

  • March 14, 2025

    Former SEC General Counsel Barbero Joins Venable In DC

    Venable LLP announced Friday that former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission general counsel Megan Barbero has joined the firm's Washington, D.C., office following a three-year stint at the Wall Street regulator. 

  • March 14, 2025

    Startup Investor Says Cooley Knew About Fraud Probe

    Attorneys for a dry cleaning delivery startup knew that the founder and sole director of the company had fabricated company documents and was the subject of an active securities fraud investigation in Texas as he solicited money from investors, an ex-board member said Friday in response to the law firm's bid to toss a securities fraud lawsuit.

  • March 14, 2025

    Kraken Beats Suit Over Crypto Scam Losses, For Good

    A California state judge permanently tossed a lawsuit Friday alleging lax security measures on the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken are to blame for a Los Angeles County man's loss of nearly $50,000 in a digital asset investment scam.

  • March 14, 2025

    Off The Bench: Ex-Jet Sues Over Favre Clip, New Soccer Build

    In this week's Off The Bench, a retired football superstar claims an argument with icon Brett Favre should have never been aired on television, one trading card company gets the upper hand on another in dueling antitrust suits, and an English soccer club opts for a new stadium over a rebuild of the old one.

  • March 14, 2025

    Brooklyn Man Gets 45 Months For 'Seinfeld'-Themed Fraud

    A Brooklyn federal judge sentenced a podcaster and purported cryptocurrency guru to 45 months in prison after he pled guilty to scamming investors out of more than $2 million using fictitious businesses, including one apparently named after "Seinfeld" character George Costanza's fake prospective employer Vandelay Industries.

  • March 13, 2025

    Jessica Alba's Honest Co. Inks $28M Deal In IPO Class Action

    Jessica Alba's The Honest Co., its executives and others involved in the baby and beauty product company's initial public offering have agreed to pay nearly $28 million to resolve a class action in California federal court alleging they failed to disclose negative trends ahead of the IPO.

Expert Analysis

  • Bill Would Bring Welcome Clarity To Del. Corporate Law

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    A recently proposed bill in Delaware that would provide greater predictability for areas including director independence and controlling stockholders reflects prudential adjustments consistent with the state's long history of refining and modernizing its corporate law, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Opinion

    Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence

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    Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.

  • Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises

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    “No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Del. Supreme Court TripAdvisor Ruling May Limit 'MFW Creep'

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent Maffei v. Palkon ruling regarding TripAdvisor's proposed reincorporation to Nevada potentially signals a turning point in the trend of expanding the protections from Kahn v. M&F Worldwide to other types of transactions, says Andrew J. Haile at Elon University.

  • What To Expect In Crypto Banking After SEC Nixed Guidance

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    With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently rescinding its controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance, the industry's focus will turn to the potentially significant hurdle to crypto banking posed by the federal banking regulators, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Partially Faulting Airline For 401(k) ESG Focus Belies ERISA

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    A Texas federal court's recent finding that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duty of loyalty, but not of prudence, by letting its 401(k) pursue environmental, social and governance investments, misinterprets the Employee Retirement Income Security Act's standard of care, says Jeff Mamorsky, a Cohen & Buckmann partner and ERISA drafter.

  • Fund Names Rule FAQs Leave Some Interpretative Uncertainty

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    Although recently released FAQs clarify many specific points of the 2023 expansion to the Investment Company Act's fund names rule, important questions remain about how U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff will interpret other key terms when the end-of-year compliance date arrives, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

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    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • What Travis Hill's Vision For FDIC Could Portend For Banks

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    If selected to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in a permanent capacity, acting Chairman Travis Hill is likely to prioritize removing barriers to innovation and institution-level growth, emphasizing the idea that eliminating rules, relaxing standards and reducing scrutiny will reinvigorate the industry, say attorneys at Mitchell Sandler.

  • Will Independent Federal Agencies Remain Independent?

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    For 90 years, members of multimember independent federal agencies have relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. establishing the security of their positions — but as the Trump administration attempts to overturn this understanding, it is unclear how the high court will respond, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

  • Del. Justices' D&O Ruling Clarifies 'Related' Claim Analysis

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    In its recent decision in the Alexion Pharmaceuticals coverage case, the Delaware Supreme Court adopted a "meaningful linkage" standard for relatedness analysis, providing further guidance to Delaware policyholders on how to navigate those directors and officers insurance disputes, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • 5 Major Crypto Developments From The Trump Admin So Far

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    The early weeks of the Trump administration have set the stage for a significant transformation in U.S. digital asset policy by prioritizing regulatory clarity, innovation and a shift away from enforcement-heavy tactics, but many of these changes will require congressional support and progress may be gradual, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Comparing 2 Pending Bills To Regulate Stablecoins

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    Alexandra Steinberg Barrage at Troutman analyzes the key similarities and differences between two payment stablecoin proposals currently pending in Congress — the STABLE and GENIUS acts — as both chambers are forming a working group to deliver a clear regulatory framework for digital assets and bipartisan agreement appears within reach.

  • Series

    Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.

  • How Private Securities Suits Complement SEC Enforcement

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    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement is vital to the healthy functioning of markets, but government enforcement alone is not enough to ensure meaningful monetary recoveries for investor losses due to securities law violations, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz.

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