Securities

  • November 26, 2024

    Wells Fargo Dodges 2nd Circ. Rehearing In $500M Plunge Suit

    The Second Circuit has rejected a rehearing bid by two investors seeking to revive their proposed class action accusing Wells Fargo Securities LLC of causing a Chicago fund manager lose at least $500 million by wrongfully forcing the liquidation of its mutual fund and other investments.

  • November 26, 2024

    Crypto Miner Can't Get Quick Appeal In SEC Fraud Suit

    A Utah man accused of defrauding crypto mining investors out of $18 million must face the claims that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought against him after a lower court judge on Tuesday declined his request to send the case to the Tenth Circuit.

  • November 26, 2024

    Netflix Ditches Investor Suit Over Account Sharing For Good

    A California federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a proposed class action accusing Netflix and its executives of misleading investors about growth challenges tied to account sharing, concluding "further leave to amend would be futile," since the investor plaintiffs were already given a chance to show that statements made were misleading.

  • November 26, 2024

    Autodesk Wants Out Of Investor Suit Over Internal Controls

    Autodesk Inc. asked a California federal judge on Tuesday to toss a proposed class action alleging the software company's stock price dropped after investors learned it lacked proper internal controls due to issues with its free cash flow and operating margin practices, saying its business plan statements at issue were "forward-looking" and accompanied by "cautionary" language.

  • November 26, 2024

    California's Top Bank, Fintech Regulator To Exit At Year's End

    The top banking and fintech regulator for California is departing from the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in a little more than a month, an agency spokesperson told Law360 on Tuesday.

  • November 26, 2024

    DraftKings Wants Damages In NFLPA's Licensing Suit Axed

    DraftKings Inc. wants partially tossed a suit launched by the NFL Players Association alleging the sports betting giant failed to make good on a licensing agreement related to nonfungible tokens, saying that the players are not entitled to any damages but that as a threshold matter, the maximum potential damages should be capped.

  • November 25, 2024

    Ex-Wamco Exec Charged In 'Criminal Cherry-Picking Scheme'

    Federal prosecutors have accused Ken Leech, the former chief investment officer of Western Asset Management Co., of participating in a $600 million "criminal cherry-picking scheme" in which he favored certain clients at the expense of others, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in New York federal court.

  • November 25, 2024

    Native Corp. Faces Default In $3.4M Stock Scam Suit

    A Native American microcap company has until Dec. 6 to tell a federal district court judge why it shouldn't face a default judgment in a $3.4 million stock scam lawsuit after the Securities and Exchange Commission said its chief executive officer's "willful disobedience" warrants such a ruling.

  • November 25, 2024

    SEC Secured Historic $8.2B Enforcement Haul In 2024

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission obtained $8.2 billion in civil penalties and disgorgement via successful enforcement actions in 2024, the highest amount in the history of the agency despite a significant decline in total enforcement actions, the SEC has announced. 

  • November 25, 2024

    Grayscale Seeks Win In Rival's $2M Unfair Practices Suit

    Digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments LLC seeks a quick finding in its favor that certain securities-related conduct it is being sued over did not violate Connecticut's unfair trade practices law because the law has a securities matters carveout.

  • November 25, 2024

    Lampert, Sears Stockholders Set Appraisal Share Faceoff

    Delaware's Court of Chancery has teed up an argument on how to handle class member claims of former Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. stockholders whose share appraisal demand was torpedoed by the company's bankruptcy in 2022.

  • November 25, 2024

    Microsoft-Activision Atty Snubs $15M Class Fee In Del. Suit

    An attorney for Microsoft Corp. and Activision Blizzard Inc. on Monday downplayed the benefits from an ongoing stockholder suit seeking $15 million for mid-case fixes to the two companies' $68.7 billion merger, saying the action's modest advantages should be weighed more as disclosure matters than a deal rescue.

  • November 25, 2024

    Broker Appeals For Pause of FINRA's 'Unconstitutional' Case

    A Philadelphia-area broker challenging the constitutionality of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's in-house proceedings told a Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday the regulator's case against him should be put on ice while he argues his case before the Third Circuit.

  • November 25, 2024

    Beyond Meat Told It's Likely To Beat Production Woe Suit

    A Los Angeles federal judge appeared poised Monday to toss, for good, a reworked investor class action accusing Beyond Meat of concealing major problems with its efforts to scale production on plant-based meat substitutes for fast food chains like McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut.

  • November 25, 2024

    $65M Deal In Texas Drilling Suit Gets Final OK

    A Texas federal judge gave the final green light Monday to a $65 million settlement against oil and gas company Apache Corp. filed by investors alleging they were deceived by promises of a potentially lucrative drilling project that ultimately led to a $3 billion write-down when it went bust.

  • November 25, 2024

    Self-Driving Truck Co. Founder Sues To Regain Share Control

    A founding member of TuSimple Holdings, a company formed to develop software and systems to support autonomous long-haul trucking operations, has sued a large company shareholder in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to invalidate a voting agreement that allegedly handed off all of the founder's voting power to the shareholder.

  • November 25, 2024

    Cadwalader Adds Hughes Hubbard Investigations Co-Chair

    Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP said Monday that it was bolstering its compliance, investigations and enforcement team with the addition of a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor who most recently was a practice leader at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.

  • November 25, 2024

    NC Biz Owner Settles SEC's $28M Fraud Claims

    An investment firm owner has agreed to return the proceeds of an alleged $28 million Ponzi-like manufacturing debt investment scheme and pay a civil penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an order signed by a North Carolina federal judge.

  • November 25, 2024

    Fla. Judge Won't Toss Banker's Suit Over $1.7M Stolen Funds

    A Florida judge said Monday he would not dismiss a lawsuit by a Miami banker who is the son of Ecuador's former comptroller accusing his company's ex-CFO of embezzling $1.7 million to invest in a condominium unit, but the judge ordered the banker to provide a more specific breakdown of the allegedly misused funds.

  • November 25, 2024

    Macy's Delays Earnings Report After $154M Employee Error

    Macy's said Monday that an employee had misstated up to $154 million in delivery expenses since 2021, forcing the retailer to delay releasing its third-quarter results for the year, just ahead of the holiday shopping season.

  • November 25, 2024

    SDNY's Williams To Resign Before Trump Takes Office

    Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Monday he will resign Dec. 13, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Jay Clayton, to run the office next year.

  • November 22, 2024

    Split DC Circ. Punts On FINRA's Constitutionality

    A partially divided D.C. Circuit panel on Friday blocked the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from removing Alpine Securities Corp. from its membership rolls while the corporation sues in federal court to challenge the agency's constitutionality, which the appeals court declined to remark on.

  • November 22, 2024

    Fox Corp., Class Battle Over Multibillion Del. Defamation Suit

    Fox Corp. "demonstrated willingness to republish demonstrably false material" promoting bogus 2020 election conspiracies to bolster its market share, a class attorney said during dismissal arguments Friday in a Delaware Court of Chancery suit seeking billions of dollars in damages.

  • November 22, 2024

    Private Cos. Seek Pre-IPO Share Sales Amid Liquidity Crunch

    Following a dearth of initial public offerings in recent years, more private companies are arranging secondary-share sales to help employees and early investors pare down equity stakes without waiting for a public listing, a trend capital markets attorneys expect will continue for the foreseeable future, even if IPOs rebound.

  • November 22, 2024

    Democratic SEC Member To Step Down Amid GOP Takeover

    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Jaime Lizárraga said Friday that he plans to step down before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a day after SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced his plans to leave, further clearing the way for new Republican Party leadership.

Expert Analysis

  • How Transaction Lookbacks Can Guide Fintech Companies

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    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.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    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.

  • 5 Ways Life Sciences Cos. Can Manage Insider Trading Risk

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    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.

  • Series

    A Day In The In-House Life: Narmi GC Talks Peak Productivity

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    On a work-from-home day in August, Narmi general counsel Amy Pardee chronicles a typical day in her life in which she organizes her time to tackle everything from advising on products and contract negotiations to volunteering and catching up on the New York Times crossword.

  • How Ripple Final Judgment Fits In Broader Crypto Landscape

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    The Southern District of New York's recent $125 million civil penalty levied in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple will have a broad impact on the crypto industry as it was the first to hold that blind sales of digital assets are not securities, even if deemed securities in other circumstances, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Series

    After Chevron: SEC Climate And ESG Rules Likely Doomed

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    Under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright, without agency deference, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure and environmental, social and governance rules would likely be found lacking in statutory support and vacated by the courts, says Justin Chretien at Carlton Fields.

  • Assessing Whether Jarkesy May Limit FINRA Prosecutions

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jarkesy v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, holding that civil securities fraud defendants are entitled to jury trials, may cause unpredictable results when applied to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority prosecutions, say Barry Temkin and Kate DiGeronimo at Mound Cotton.

  • Series

    Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.

  • Amid SEC Rule Limbo, US Cos. Subject To ESG Regs In EU

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    Though the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is facing legal challenges to its climate-disclosure rulemaking, the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in the European Union will force U.S. companies to comply with exactly the kinds of ESG disclosures that are not yet mandated in the U.S., say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'

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    Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.

  • 6 Considerations To Determine If A Cyber Incident Is Material

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent guidance on material cybersecurity incidents covers a range of ransomware scenarios, from a company paying a sum and regaining operations to recovering payment via cyberinsurance, but makes it clear that no single factor determines whether a cybersecurity incident is material, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Opinion

    Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process

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    Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.

  • Carbon Offset Case A Win For CFTC Enviro Fraud Task Force

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    An Illinois federal court's decision in Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Ikkurty — earning the CFTC a sizeable monetary award that will likely incentivize similar enforcement pursuit — shows the impact of the commission's Environmental Fraud Task Force, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.

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