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Securities
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November 05, 2024
SEC Risk Alert Flags Investment Fund Oversight, Disclosures
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's exams unit is flagging common issues among investment funds in recent years, including funds mischaracterizing how so-called ESG factors play into their investment strategies and chief compliance officers failing to submit certain reports to fund boards.
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November 05, 2024
Groups Lose Early Bid To Undo Calif. Climate Disclosure Laws
A California federal judge rejected the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups' attempt to block California's corporate climate disclosure rules before discovery, ruling Tuesday that discovery is needed for the court to answer whether the laws facially violate the First Amendment.
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November 05, 2024
Binance Says New SEC Complaint Suffers Same Old Flaws
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance told a Washington, D.C., federal judge the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can't continue to argue that secondary sales of digital assets are securities transactions in its enforcement suit against the trading platform after the regulator acquiesced that the tokens themselves aren't investment contracts.
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November 05, 2024
Bright Health Beats Investor Suit Over COVID-19 Costs
The health insurer previously known as Bright Health Group Inc. no longer faces a proposed investor class action after a Brooklyn federal judge found that the company's initial public offering risk disclosures hadn't deliberately misled investors about its anticipated costs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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November 05, 2024
Alerus Financial Can't Escape DOL's Stock Valuation Suit
An Idaho federal judge refused to toss the U.S. Department of Labor's suit against Alerus Financial alleging mismanagement of an employee stock ownership plan, but agreed to dismiss some claims against a Norco Inc. executive who sold more than $141 million of private company stock to the ESOP.
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November 05, 2024
New Fortress Energy Faces Investor Suit Over Outlook
New Fortress Energy was hit with a proposed investor class action in New York federal court alleging the natural gas company and its top brass misled investors about the company's growth and revenue outlook, which led to a stock drop once the truth came to light.
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November 05, 2024
Glazer Sues In Del. For Appraisal In $7.2B Squarespace Deal
Five funds of Glazer Capital LLC sued late Monday for Delaware Court of Chancery appraisal of the investment management firm's more than 2.8 million shares of website builder Squarespace Inc., seeking to better the company's $46.50 per share price for a recently closed take-private acquisition by interests of Permira Advisers LLC.
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November 05, 2024
Emerging Cos. Pro With SEC Background Returns To Latham
Latham & Watkins LLP is expanding its West Coast team, welcoming back an emerging companies expert who was a founding partner at Ketsal PLLC and worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is now joining Latham as a partner in its San Francisco Bay Area offices.
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November 05, 2024
On The Ground: How Attorneys Safeguarded The Election
Attorneys worked tirelessly Tuesday to support citizens and election workers on the final day of voting in one of history's most contentious presidential contests.
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November 04, 2024
UK Stock Pumper Admits To $100M Market Manipulation Rap
A London-based trader on Monday admitted to his role in what prosecutors say was a $100 million multi-faceted international stock manipulation scheme that used a Swiss asset manager tied to numerous claims of securities fraud to secretly control and falsely inflate the stock of several microcap companies.
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November 04, 2024
Full 4th Circ. Asked To Hear Fraud Witness, Jury Issues
Two men convicted of investment fraud have asked the full Fourth Circuit to reconsider their appeal concerning a jury hidden from view of the public and accusers allowed to testify by deposition, saying a split panel blessed trial practices that were "unprecedented on multiple levels."
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November 04, 2024
SEC Must Prep For Legal Challenges To Regs, Watchdog Says
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should prepare for more litigation over its rulemaking agenda and make sure its new regulations can pass judicial muster, particularly in light of budget constraints, the agency's inspector general warned in a Monday report.
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November 04, 2024
Security Tech Co. Evolv Misled Shareholders, Suit Claims
Security technology company Evolv Technologies Holdings Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action in Massachusetts federal court by a shareholder alleging the company reported inaccurate revenue for over two years because of weaknesses in its internal controls.
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November 04, 2024
Robinhood Users Denied Class Cert. In Order Flow Suit
A proposed class of Robinhood customers must run their expert's damages model before asking a California federal judge to weigh their class certification bid in litigation alleging that the investing platform failed to disclose financial interests affecting order flow on the platform.
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November 04, 2024
BofA Unit Escapes Trading Firm's Spoofing Suit For Now
An Illinois federal judge has tossed a trading firm's proposed class action claiming that a Bank of America unit manipulated markets for U.S. Treasury futures and options, ruling that the firm fails to allege actual damages, but giving it an opportunity to amend the suit.
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November 04, 2024
Binance Says Lawsuit Can't Connect It To Terrorism Finance
Cryptocurrency platform Binance has asked a New York federal judge to toss a suit alleging the firm helped foster terrorist activity, saying that it "unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism" and that the complaint does not connect the company to the alleged acts.
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November 04, 2024
Ex-Dentons Atty Botched $54M Currency Deal, Jury Told
A Venezuelan lawyer blamed a former Dentons US LLP attorney Monday for a $54 million loss in a bolivar-to-dollars currency swap, telling a Miami jury that the attorney never communicated that the buyer of the bolivars had not agreed to deposit the U.S. dollars into escrow and instead proceeded with a doomed transaction.
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November 04, 2024
SEC Dings Adviser For Improper Athlete-Endorsed Ads
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has fined an investment adviser over allegations that its advertisements include endorsements from professional soccer and mixed martial arts athletes without disclosing the athletes were not clients of the firm and were paid for their endorsements.
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November 04, 2024
FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley $1M For Controls Violations
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims it violated the Exchange Act by failing to safeguard its customers against the entry of orders that were placed in error.
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November 04, 2024
Late New Evidence Can't Revive Investor Suit, Judge Says
A Massachusetts federal judge has declined to vacate the dismissal of an investor class action alleging that a hearing loss treatment company and some of its executives concealed disappointing clinical trial results, saying the plaintiff "is playing fast and loose with the Rules of Civil Procedure," and trying to blame the court and the clerk for his own procedural missteps.
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November 04, 2024
Errors Lower Fee Award For Athira Pharma Investors' Counsel
A Seattle federal judge has awarded $2 million in attorney fees to four firms that represented a class of Athira Pharma investors following a $10 million settlement over allegations the company's former CEO manipulated Alzheimer's drug studies, trimming the 25% fee award the firms sought due to an "overall lack of success in this litigation."
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November 04, 2024
Crypto Industry Hopes Election Will Bring SEC Shake-Up
The White House is poised to take a fresh approach to the digital asset industry regardless of who wins the presidency, but experts said the crypto industry's hopes for more rules and fewer enforcement cases ultimately depend on a new head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a renewed push from Congress to pass crypto legislation.
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November 04, 2024
Nextdoor Inc. Investors Sue After De-SPAC Stock Drop
Investors in a special purpose acquisition company that took neighborhood network app Nextdoor Inc. public at a $4.3 billion valuation in July 2021 have sued the SPAC's sponsors and founding directors for damages in Delaware's Court of Chancery, accusing architects of the deal of overvaluing the business.
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November 04, 2024
Coinme Crypto ATMs Suspended By Conn. Banking Chief
Connecticut's banking commissioner has suspended cryptocurrency ATM company Coinme Inc.'s ability to transfer money in the Constitution State and has hinted toward possible fines, citing violations of know-your-consumer laws, complaints of scams, a negative multistate investigation and failures to meet minimum capitalization laws.
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November 04, 2024
Vista Equity Sued In Del. Over Ad Tracking Co. Insider Trades
A stockholder of digital ad evaluator Integral Ad Science Holding Corp. has sued the company's private equity controller and five IAS directors in Delaware's Court of Chancery, seeking recovery of derivative damages for alleged insider trading moves that purportedly saved Vista nearly $270 million.
Expert Analysis
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Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules
A Missouri federal court’s recent order enjoining the state’s anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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New Lessons On Managing Earnout Provision Risks
Earnout provisions can be a useful tool for bridging valuation gaps in M&A, particularly in developmental-stage pharmaceutical transactions, but the Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in Shareholder Representative Services v. Alexion sheds new light on the inherent risks and best practices for managing them, say attorneys at Cleary.
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Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.
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How Companies Are Approaching Insider Trading Policies
An analysis of insider trading policies recently disclosed by 49 S&P 500 companies under a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule reveals that while specific provisions vary from company to company, certain common themes are emerging, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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Increased IPOs In '24 Shows Importance Of Strategic Planning
Initial public offerings, debt issuances and M&A activity so far in 2024 have shown substantial increases over comparable periods in 2023, highlighting why counsel should educate clients on market trends and financing alternatives to proactively prepare them to be ready to take advantage of opportunities, say attorneys at Skadden.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.
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Navigating New Enforcement Scrutiny Of 'AI Washing'
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent lawsuit against Joonko Diversity, its first public AI-focused enforcement action against a private company, underscores the importance of applying the same internal legal and compliance rigor to AI-related claims as other market-facing statements, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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How Fund Advisers Can Limit Election Year Pay-To-Play Risks
With Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now the Democratic candidate for vice president, politically active investment advisers should take practical steps to avoid triggering strict pay-to-play rules that can lead to fund managers facing mutli-year timeouts from working with public funds after contributing to sitting officials, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
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'Pig Butchering': The Scam That Exploits Crypto Confusion
Certain red flags can tip off banks to possible "pig-butchering," and with the scam's increasing popularity, financial institutions need to take action to monitor entry points into the crypto space, detect suspicious activity and provide a necessary backstop to protect customers, say Brandon Essig and Mary Parrish McCracken at Lightfoot Franklin.
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Opinion
Agencies Should Reward Corporate Cyber Victim Cooperation
The increased regulatory scrutiny on corporate victims of cyberattacks — exemplified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against SolarWinds — should be replaced with a new model that provides adequate incentives for companies to come forward proactively and collaborate with law enforcement, say attorneys at McDermott.
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9 Liability Management Tips As Debt Maturity Cliff Looms
As the debt maturity cliff swiftly approaches in this challenging environment, attorneys at Winston & Strawn highlight the top considerations for boards of directors and finance professionals to think about when structuring and executing liability management transactions, including reviewing capital structure, evaluating debt covenants, and more.
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How Transaction Lookbacks Can Guide Fintech Companies
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.
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
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.
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5 Ways Life Sciences Cos. Can Manage Insider Trading Risk
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.