Securities

  • June 17, 2024

    Crypto Trading Firm Nabs NY BitLicense

    Crypto trading firm and liquidity provider Cumberland DRW announced Monday that the New York Department of Financial Services has granted it a BitLicense, which allows it to operate a crypto business within the state.

  • June 17, 2024

    Foreign Investors Sue Over Lost $7.7M NYC Mall Investment

    Fourteen foreign investors who lost the entirety of their $7.7 million investment in a New York City shopping mall project filed suit against two lenders, a developer and the manager of an EB-5 lender in New York federal court, saying they are owed damages.

  • June 17, 2024

    CFTC Fines Trafigura $55M In Novel Whistleblower Action

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a first-of-its-kind settlement Monday with Trafigura Trading LLC, which agreed to pay a $55 million penalty over allegations that it manipulated oil derivatives prices while discouraging employees from reporting potentially illegal activity.

  • June 17, 2024

    Hertz Warrant Holder Sues In Chancery For Contract Breach

    Two investment affiliates of Discovery Capital Management LP have sued Hertz Global Holdings Inc. in Delaware's Court of Chancery, alleging willful failure to redeem warrants issued in 2021 as part of the company's Chapter 11 and demanding at least $187 million plus interest.

  • June 17, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Proposed amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law that were prompted by several recent Chancery Court rulings sailed through the state Senate last week despite loud opposition from corporate law professors and other Chancery Court watchers, and Tesla shareholders filed two new suits against CEO Elon Musk. 

  • June 17, 2024

    Feds Take Hard Line On Tycoon's Pilots After He Goes Free

    Manhattan federal prosecutors asked a sentencing judge to consider aggravating circumstances for two pilots who allegedly traded on stock tips from U.K. billionaire Joe Lewis, despite not seeking a prison term for the private equity honcho and former soccer club owner.

  • June 17, 2024

    SEC Head Of Crypto Assets And Cyber Unit Departs Agency

    The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's crypto and cyber enforcement team said Monday that he has left the agency after nearly nine years.

  • June 17, 2024

    Justices To Hear Nvidia Case On Securities Pleading Standard

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived investors' claims over chipmaker Nvidia's crypto mining sales, giving the high court a chance to weigh in on the pleading requirements needed to sustain a shareholder class action.

  • June 14, 2024

    Ozy Trial Gets Heated, Exec Tells Of Lies, Google CEO Pops In

    Courtroom tempers flared, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai dropped by and a former Ozy Media executive on Friday told the jury weighing fraud charges against the startup's charismatic founder Carlos Watson of how they nearly conned Buzzfeed into buying the company by faking its financials.

  • June 14, 2024

    2nd Circ. Releases Citi From Order To Freeze Assets In Gabon

    The Second Circuit vacated a protective injunction requiring Citibank to freeze more than $151 million at its Gabon branch amid a shareholder battle for control of a Cameroonian oil pipeline company, saying the New York district court exceeded its jurisdiction by ordering the freeze.

  • June 14, 2024

    Global Payments Inks $3.6M Deal Over Fee Disclosure Fallout

    Atlanta-based payment tech company Global Payments Inc. has agreed to pay $3.6 million as part of a deal to resolve a proposed investor class action tied to allegations that its summer camp payment processor subsidiary allegedly "tricked" consumers into signing up for a program that had fees it didn't properly disclose.

  • June 14, 2024

    SEC Fines Pa. Adviser In Marketing Rule Action

    A Pennsylvania investment adviser has agreed to pay $100,000 as part of an agreement to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations it broke the regulator's rules barring misleading advertising about fund performance.

  • June 14, 2024

    Potato Co.'s Software Rollout Fried Its Revenue, Suit Says

    Potato product manufacturer Lamb Weston has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action in Idaho federal court alleging that it concealed from investors information about the botched implementation of software that had been intended to improve the efficiency of the company's operations but ended up costing the company millions in lost sales.

  • June 14, 2024

    Judge Declines To Decide Whether Gemini Misled CFTC

    A Manhattan federal judge declined to decide whether crypto exchange Gemini is responsible for alleged misstatements made to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission through the listing exchange of a proposed bitcoin futures contract.

  • June 14, 2024

    Elon Musk's Court Cases Remain A Live Issue In Delaware

    Delaware's courts will continue to assert control over a multibillion-dollar Tesla Inc. legal fee dispute despite the company's rushed effort to reincorporate in Texas and potentially put CEO Elon Musk's massive, multiyear compensation plan beyond the state's reach, those familiar with the case said Friday.

  • June 14, 2024

    SEC Says Bahamas Firm Was Set Up To Skirt Day Trading Rules

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened its case Friday against high-frequency trading expert — and former government informant — Guy Gentile, telling jurors in Florida federal court that he set up a broker-dealer in the Bahamas specifically to evade U.S. day trading regulations designed to protect American investors.

  • June 14, 2024

    Ripple Cites Terraform Fine In Call To Limit SEC Penalty

    Ripple Labs Inc. says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement with fellow crypto firm Terraform Labs, with the company agreeing to pay a $420 million civil penalty, is further proof of the "unreasonableness" of the agency's request that it be made to pay a much larger fine for activities that did not amount to fraud.

  • June 14, 2024

    Chinese Delivery Co. To Settle IPO Class Action For $4.9M

    Chinese grocery vendor Missfresh Ltd. has agreed to settle an investor class action accusing it of making several misleading statements in the months leading up to its initial public offering, including in regulatory filings and to the media, for $4.9 million.

  • June 14, 2024

    Brazil Telecom Tower Investor Sues For Delaware Litigation

    A Mexican investor with a small equity position in a Delaware limited partnership that builds and operates telecommunications towers in Brazil sued the partnership in Delaware's Court of Chancery Friday for injunctive relief, seeking to ensure that any litigation with the partnership or its affiliates takes place in the First State and not Brazil.

  • June 14, 2024

    Guo's Crypto Venture Raised 'Red Flags,' Investigator Says

    A compliance investigator at cryptocurrency wallet provider BitGo testified in Manhattan federal court Friday that he identified multiple "financial crime red flags" in the digital asset exchange promoted by Chinese dissident Miles Guo.

  • June 14, 2024

    McDermott Says Financial Firm Owes $800K In Atty Fees

    McDermott Will & Emery LLP says it is owed more than $800,000 in legal fees for representing a financial firm's employee in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a lawsuit by his former employer.

  • June 13, 2024

    Goldman Exec's 'Mind Entirely Blown' By Fake Ozy Media Call

    A former Goldman Sachs executive who was looking into taking a stake in Carlos Watson's Ozy Media testified on Thursday that she was floored during a due diligence call when it became clear that someone was impersonating a YouTube executive in an apparent effort to persuade the bank to invest in Watson's startup.

  • June 13, 2024

    Judge Orders $2.9M Chinese Dissident's Fund Share Sale

    A Connecticut bankruptcy judge approved a request by the Chapter 11 trustee overseeing exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo's case to liquidate $2.9 million in investment fund shares held by Lamp Capital LLC, a shell company whose assets the judge already determined belonged to Guo's estate.

  • June 13, 2024

    Zoom's $150M Investor Deal Nears OK, But $50K Award Iffy

    A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he'll preliminarily approve Zoom's $150 million deal to end claims it misled investors by stating that it offered end-to-end encryption on its videoconferencing software, but told the plaintiffs' lawyers, "You're going to have to persuade me" to award the lead plaintiff $50,000.

  • June 13, 2024

    Tesla Investors Sue Over Musk's Extracurricular xAI Diversion

    A union pension fund and two individual investors hit Elon Musk and Tesla's board of directors with a derivative suit Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court over the CEO's breakaway effort to develop a new artificial intelligence venture, xAI, by diverting talent and resources from Tesla's own AI initiative.

Expert Analysis

  • An Energy Industry Case Study In Expropriation Risk

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    Andrés Chambouleyron at Berkeley Research breaks down how expropriation risk and damage mitigation calculations vary considerably by different energy sources, and uses Argentina as a case study for how energy investors might protect their interests.

  • At 'SEC Speaks,' A Focus On Rebuilding Trust Amid Criticism

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    At the Practising Law Institute's SEC Speaks conference last week, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission leadership highlighted efforts to rebuild and restore trust in the U.S. capital markets by addressing investor concerns through regulatory measures and enforcement actions, emphasizing the need for cooperation from market participants, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Series

    Fla. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    Early 2024 developments that could have a notable impact on Florida's finance community include progress on a bill that would substantially revise the state Securities and Investor Protection Act, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule capping late fees for larger credit card issuers, say Benjamin Weinberg and Megan Riley at Leon Cosgrove.

  • Comparing Corporate Law In Delaware, Texas And Nevada

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    With Elon Musk's recent decision to reincorporate his companies outside of Delaware, and with more businesses increasingly considering Nevada and Texas as corporate homes, attorneys at Baker Botts look at each jurisdiction's foundation of corporate law, and how the differences can make each more or less appealing based on a corporation's needs.

  • Management Incentives May Be Revisited After PE Investment

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    As the economic climate shifts, key parties in private equity investment transactions may become misaligned, and management incentive plans could become ineffective — so attentive boards may wish to caucus with management to evaluate continued alignment, say Austin Lilling and Nida Javaid at Morgan Lewis.

  • Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease

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    This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.

  • Calif. Verdict Showcases SEC's New 'Shadow Trading' Theory

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    Last week's insider trading verdict, delivered against biopharmaceutical executive Matthew Panuwat by a California federal jury, signals open season on a new area of regulatory enforcement enabled by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's shadow trading theory, say Perrie Weiner and Aaron Goodman at Baker McKenzie.

  • Climate Disclosure Mandates Demand A Big-Picture Approach

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    As carbon emissions disclosure requirements from the European Union, California and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission take effect, the best practice for companies is not targeted compliance with a given reporting regime, but rather a comprehensive approach to systems assessment and management, says David Smith at Manatt.

  • Series

    Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.

  • ESG Challenges In Focus After Sierra Club Opposes SEC Rule

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    The Sierra Club's recent objection to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosures for investors presents an unusual — pro-disclosure — legal challenge and an opportunity to take a close look at the varying critiques of ESG regulations, say Colin Pohlman, and Jane Luxton and Paul Kisslinger at Lewis Brisbois.

  • Opinion

    High Court Should Settle Circuit Split On Risk Disclosures

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should grant the petition for writ of certiorari in the Facebook case to resolve a growing circuit split concerning when risk disclosures can be misleading under federal securities laws, and its decision should align with the intent of Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says Richard Zelichov at DLA Piper.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • Bankruptcy Courts' Role In Shaping Crypto's Legal Framework

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    Massive financial and criminal liability has led to the recent collapse of major cryptocurrency companies and put bankruptcy courts in the spotlight, underscoring the urgent need for a comprehensive regulatory framework, say Tara Pakrouh and Eric Monzo at Morris James.

  • Private Capital Considerations Amid Market Revival

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    As improved market conditions position traditional financing to regain lost market share, it's also worth considering the pace and structure of private credit and other forms of private capital, especially when seeking to set unique terms or build new corporate relationships, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law

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    A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.

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