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Securities
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October 28, 2024
Labor Dept.'s Proposed ESOP Rule Moves Toward Release
The White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the U.S. Department of Labor's proposal for a rule related to how employee stock ownership valuations are conducted, the last step before the long-awaited proposed regulation is released to the public for comment.
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October 28, 2024
Ozy Media CEO Wants Conviction Nixed Over Judge's Assets
The New York federal judge who presided over the fraud and identity theft trial of former Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson should be disqualified from the case because he failed to disclose that he had investments in four of the companies victimized by Watson, according to the onetime executive, who is trying to get his conviction overturned.
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October 28, 2024
Report Says To Allow Bulk Of Software Investor Suit
A U.S. magistrate judge has recommended against dismissing the bulk of an investor's suit alleging Decentral Life Inc. and a group of its licensees, including a cannabis social media site, misled him into investing more than $1.7 million by boasting bogus user counts.
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October 28, 2024
Cleary Adds Northern Calif. Deputy Criminal Chief As Partner
The deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California has joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP's Bay Area office as a partner in the Americas litigation practice, the firm said Monday.
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October 25, 2024
Alibaba Agrees To $433.5M Deal In Nearly 4-Year Investor Suit
Alibaba Group has agreed to shell out $433.5 million to resolve a proposed class of investors' allegations it made misstatements about its exclusivity practices and the planned $34 billion initial public offering of a fintech affiliate, the Chinese e-commerce company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday.
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October 25, 2024
Crypto Rapidly Transforming IRS Criminal Cases, Agent Says
Cryptocurrency is altering the size of many criminal cases that federal law enforcement agencies are handling, an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator told the UCLA Tax Controversy Conference, commenting that over the past three years the agency broke its record for asset seizures three times.
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October 25, 2024
Sports Co. Says SEC's $4M Damages Bid Spells Disaster
A multimillion-dollar securities fraud judgment against two companies linked to a virtual sports trading platform would be disastrous for the already-struggling organizations, their attorney argued before a D.C. federal judge Friday.
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October 25, 2024
SEC Wants PE Firm's 'Fishing Expedition' Claims Paused
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a Texas federal judge to pause a real estate-focused private equity fund's suit alleging that the regulator subjected it to an unconstitutional "fishing expedition" outside its regulatory purview.
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October 25, 2024
FTX Reaches $228M Deal With Crypto Co. Bybit
The FTX bankruptcy estate reached a deal worth about $228 million to resolve its lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Bybit and the firm's investment arm, Mirana Corp., that alleged they unfairly jumped the line to withdraw funds during FTX's meltdown in late 2022 and held the estate's own funds hostage.
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October 25, 2024
SEC's Crypto Mining Case Belongs In 10th Circ., Court Hears
A Utah man accused of defrauding crypto mining investors out of $18 million is hoping for an opportunity to have his case heard before the Tenth Circuit, arguing that the mining equipment is not a security and that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be forced to drop the suit.
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October 25, 2024
Dental Exec Flees Ahead Of Possible 7-Year Fraud Sentence
An arrest warrant was issued Friday for the former CEO of a dental device company who pled guilty to defrauding investors out of $10.7 million after he did not show up for his sentencing hearing, where Washington federal prosecutors were asking for seven years in prison.
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October 25, 2024
Va. Man Gets 7½ Years For $15M Gov't Contract Investor Scam
A Virginia man was sentenced Friday to over seven years in prison for defrauding dozens of investors out of $15 million by misleading them into believing that his company had millions of dollars in contracts with federal and state government agencies.
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October 25, 2024
Judge Won't Rethink $750K For P&G Worker's Ex-Girlfriend
A Pennsylvania judge won't reconsider her decision to let the estranged ex-girlfriend of a deceased Procter & Gamble employee claim more than $754,000 he had in an investment account, ruling that the employee's estate hadn't cited any new evidence or changes in law to overcome the beneficiary form he'd left untouched since the late 1980s.
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October 25, 2024
9th Circ. Dubious Of Tesla Investors' Appeal Of $12B Trial Loss
Ninth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Friday of Tesla investors' argument that an erroneous trial instruction improperly led a jury to reject their $12 billion claim over Elon Musk's 2018 tweets that he had "funding secured" to take the electric car giant private.
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October 25, 2024
Hawkins Delafield Career Atty Moves To Nixon Peabody In SF
Nixon Peabody LLP hired a Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP partner who has spent his entire legal career with that firm working on public finance tax matters and a range of other tax-related matters, the firm has announced.
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October 25, 2024
Judge Chides Bid To Swap Credit Suisse Suit's Lead Plaintiff
A New York federal judge has rejected an investor's bid to supersede the current lead plaintiff in a securities fraud suit over Credit Suisse's 2023 collapse, saying the petitioning investor had "jumped at the opportunity to sell out his fellow class members" with the replacement motion and criticizing his lawyer too.
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October 25, 2024
MVP: Robbins Geller's Shawn Williams And Mark Solomon
Shawn Williams and Mark Solomon, managing partners at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, represented a British pension fund in a shareholder lawsuit against one of the deepest-pocketed companies in the world, Apple Inc. After years of litigation, Apple agreed in March to settle the case for $490 million, an outcome that landed both Solomon and Williams on the list of the 2024 Law360 Securities MVPs.
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October 24, 2024
Truth Social SPAC Founder Wants $1M Award For Payout Suit
The investment sponsor of the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that took former President Donald Trump's Truth Social media company public has asked for a $1 million fee award for driving the Delaware Chancery Court litigation over the Trump camp's attempts to slash a SPAC deal stock conversion ratio that would have cost some preferred investors millions.
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October 24, 2024
FINRA Says Its Regs Apply To Metaverse, Seeks Comments
Broker-dealers and other firms that are weighing incorporating the metaverse into their business operations should be mindful of how Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rules apply to such activities and reach out with any concerns about regulatory ambiguities, the regulator said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
SEC Says Broker Still Owes $3.5M Over Pre-IPO Stock Scheme
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants a Manhattan federal court to enforce its nearly $3.5 million administrative order against an unregistered broker-dealer and its managing member, who allegedly made over $65 million selling interests in a portfolio of companies that hadn't yet gone public.
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October 24, 2024
No Tax Break For Bad Debt Investors, Wash. Justices Say
The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday that a group of funds that buy and sell distressed credit card debt can't claim a state business tax deduction on investment income because those investments were not incidental to their main business purpose.
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October 24, 2024
CAT Is 'Out Of The Bag': Judge Won't Block SEC Data Tool
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can continue to monitor markets through a surveillance tool known as the consolidated audit trail while it fights a class action lawsuit challenging the tool's existence, with a Texas federal judge saying Thursday that enjoining data collection now would cause chaos and disruption.
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October 24, 2024
Chancery Won't Block Dura Medic Merger Insurance Claims
Dura Medic, a private equity-controlled medical equipment supplier, and its directors and officers won their bid Thursday in Delaware's Court of Chancery to beat back, for now, a request for a temporary restraining order blocking a settlement that could put a $5 million directors and officers insurance policy beyond the reach of the previous owners' damage claims.
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October 24, 2024
Feds Ask To Adjourn Trial For Crypto Maven After He Flees
Prosecutors asked a Brooklyn federal judge to push back the trial date for a German cryptocurrency firm founder who they said tampered with his ankle monitor and absconded while out on bail on investor fraud charges.
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October 24, 2024
FINRA Fines Broker Over Securities Lending Algorithm Issues
Interactive Brokers LLC has agreed to a $475,000 fine from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to resolve alleged issues with its securities lending algorithm that resulted in the firm returning borrowed shares to customers when it should not have and for allegedly allowing an unregistered person to work on the algorithm's software development.
Expert Analysis
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How Ripple Final Judgment Fits In Broader Crypto Landscape
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.
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5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond
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.
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Series
After Chevron: SEC Climate And ESG Rules Likely Doomed
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.
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Assessing Whether Jarkesy May Limit FINRA Prosecutions
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.
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Series
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
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.
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Amid SEC Rule Limbo, US Cos. Subject To ESG Regs In EU
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.
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How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'
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.
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6 Considerations To Determine If A Cyber Incident Is Material
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.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process
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.
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Carbon Offset Case A Win For CFTC Enviro Fraud Task Force
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.
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RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny
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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Whistleblowers Must Note 5 Key Differences Of DOJ Program
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently unveiled whistleblower awards program diverges in key ways from similar programs at other agencies, and individuals must weigh these differences and look first to programs with stronger, proven protections before blowing the whistle, say Stephen Kohn and Geoff Schweller at Kohn Kohn.
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What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires
Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.
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Foreign Threat Actors Pose Novel Risks To US Tech Cos.
A recent bulletin jointly issued by several U.S. intelligence agencies warns technology startups and the venture capital community about national security risks posed by foreign threat actors, so companies interested in raising foreign capital should watch for several red flags, say Robert Friedman and Jacob Marco at Holland & Knight.
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Open Questions 3 Years After 2nd Circ.'s Fugitive Ruling
The Second Circuit’s 2021 decision in U.S. v. Bescond, holding that a French resident indicted abroad did not meet the legal definition of a fugitive, deepened a circuit split on the fugitive disentitlement doctrine, and courts continue to grapple with the doctrine’s reach and applicability, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert.