Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Securities
-
December 10, 2024
SEC Says Xtreme Fighting CEO And GC Defrauded Investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Xtreme Fighting Championships and CEO Steven Smith of defrauding investors by selling millions of dollars of stock in the martial arts organization without disclosing the involvement of Smith or its criminally charged general counsel, according to a Florida federal lawsuit.
-
December 10, 2024
Crypto Groups Rally Against Reappointing SEC's Crenshaw
Cryptocurrency industry groups are pushing back on a potential second term for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw with an online ad campaign and letters to lawmakers ahead of a Senate Banking Committee vote Wednesday on the Democrat's confirmation.
-
December 10, 2024
Soft Landing For Pilot As Billionaire's Insider Case Wraps
A pilot who admitted to dodging taxes on $500,000 in income after he was accused of taking stock tips from Joe Lewis, his billionaire boss, avoided prison on Tuesday at a sentencing that closed a high-profile insider trading prosecution.
-
December 09, 2024
Trump Media Investors Urge Stay Denial In Del. Suit
Investors in Donald Trump's social media website urged a Delaware Chancery Court to deny a temporary stay brought by the president-elect in order to let Florida litigation play out first, saying presidential immunity doesn't extend to unofficial acts, and the lawsuit can proceed against Trump's affiliates.
-
December 09, 2024
Akin Gump 'Totally Messed Up' With Texts, Vaxart Judge Says
A California federal judge asked by Vaxart investors to impose sanctions over a hedge fund's deleted text messages in a case claiming Vaxart inflated its stock price with deceptive headlines about a COVID-19 vaccine said Monday that the fund's lawyers at Akin Gump "totally, totally messed up."
-
December 09, 2024
Blockchain Co. IP Fight With Investment Firm Teed Up For Trial
A California federal judge has said a jury should decide whether the investment firm Franklin Templeton misappropriated trade secrets of Blockchain Innovation LLC and breached its fiduciary duty and contract with the firm when it shut down a digital asset startup that Blockchain later acquired.
-
December 09, 2024
Morgan Stanley Pays SEC $15M Over Theft By Ex-Reps
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a $15 million penalty against a Morgan Stanley subsidiary Monday, saying the company failed to put in place procedures that may have earlier caught four former employees who spent years stealing from clients.
-
December 09, 2024
Satellite Co. Sued In Del. For Docs After $450M Merger
Two stockholders of satellite venture Terran Orbital Corp. sued the business in Delaware's Court of Chancery Friday for access to company records, linking the demand to their investigation of events leading up to the company's $450 million, 25-cents-per-share sale to Lockheed Martin in October.
-
December 09, 2024
Feds Says Colo. Man's Investing Scheme Fleeced Pro Athletes
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a civil lawsuit accusing a Colorado man of swindling investors, including unidentified professional athletes, out of more than a million dollars.
-
December 09, 2024
MIT Grads Say $25M Crypto Fraud Charges Not Rooted In Law
The two Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated brothers accused of a $25 million crypto heist have told a New York federal judge that the indictment against them is "far removed from the heartland of wire fraud" since their novel trades can't be considered misrepresentations and that they had no notice their activity would be considered unlawful.
-
December 09, 2024
SocGen Unit To Pay FINRA $950K Over Fingerprinting Lapses
A U.S.-based unit of French financial services company Societe Generale will pay a $950,000 fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to settle the self-regulatory organization's claims that the firm failed to fingerprint roughly 2,000 current and former employees at certain affiliates as required by law.
-
December 09, 2024
Facebook Execs Deny Email Breach Harm In Del. Hearing
Two former Facebook directors turned to "chutzpah" in answering a stockholder class call for sanctions against them for deleting uncounted emails regarding privacy violations and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a stockholder attorney told a Delaware vice chancellor on Monday.
-
December 09, 2024
EV Carmaker Lucid Wants To Shed More Of Inflated Biz Suit
Electric carmaker Lucid Group has asked a California federal judge to toss most of the latest version of a proposed investor class action alleging its production forecasts were misleading, arguing that parts of the suit that remained intact after a recent dismissal order involved statements taken out of context.
-
December 09, 2024
SEC's Trading And Markets Director Zhu To Leave Agency
Haoxiang Zhu is stepping down as head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, the agency announced Monday, leaving the group that oversees orderliness of U.S. markets as leadership continues to change at regulatory bodies following President-elect Donald Trump's election victory.
-
December 09, 2024
Feds Seek 2-Year Sentence In Landmark Crypto Tax Case
The first person ever criminally charged for failing to report gains from the sale of cryptocurrency by filing false returns should be sentenced to more than two years in prison after he admitted underreporting $4 million in bitcoin proceeds, prosecutors told a Texas federal court.
-
December 06, 2024
SEC Says Market Forecaster Ran Biotech Pump-And-Dump
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued a subscription-based investment advice company and its owner, accusing them of making nearly $1.4 million in a pump-and-dump scheme involving a purported drugmaker.
-
December 06, 2024
Allianz Exec Avoids Prison For $7B Investor Fraud
A New York federal judge on Friday declined to sentence a former portfolio manager for Allianz SE's U.S. unit to any time in prison for lying to investors about the riskiness of a group of private investment funds that lost over $7 billion when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
-
December 06, 2024
Life Insurance Investments Aren't Securities, 9th Circ. Told
Agents who sold interests in life insurance policies for Pacific West Capital Group — which struck a $64 million SEC deal to end investment fraud claims — urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to reverse an order requiring them to pay back some of their commissions, saying the deals weren't investment contracts.
-
December 06, 2024
How Paul Atkins' Last SEC Term Might Shape Agency's Future
President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission next year is no stranger to the agency, and Paul Atkins' past speeches, statements and actions as a commissioner may offer a road map for how he would lead the agency in areas such as private funds, shareholder activism and multibillion-dollar enforcement sweeps.
-
December 06, 2024
Boeing Shareholder Attys Intervene In Parallel Chancery Suit
Attorneys for two Boeing Co. stockholders pursuing derivative claims in Virginia federal court secured approval on Friday to intervene in a later filed case in Delaware's Court of Chancery, citing concerns that a "dilatory" approach by the Delaware camp could jeopardize both suits.
-
December 06, 2024
Barclays Investors Get Initial OK For $19M Overissuance Deal
A New York federal judge Friday granted the first green light to a $19.5 million settlement for a class of investors who bought Barclays PLC securities and then claimed the banking giant misled them about its internal controls before selling more than $17.6 billion in securities over its maximum registered amount.
-
December 06, 2024
Two Firms To Rep CVS Investors In Benefit Unit Losses Suit
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP will co-lead a proposed class of investors in consolidated litigation alleging CVS Health Corp. hurt investors as it announced its benefit unit's unanticipated losses.
-
December 06, 2024
Merrill Lynch Can't Beat Stock Loan Class Cert. Bid
A New York federal judge on Friday overruled objections from Bank of America unit Merrill Lynch to certify a class of investors, with a slightly extended class period, in a suit alleging the financial institution colluded with other major banks to avoid modernizing the stock loan market.
-
December 06, 2024
FTX Says Three Arrows Can't Add $1.5B To Ch. 11 Claims
FTX is pushing back against efforts by liquidators for defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital to add more than $1.5 billion to its claims in FTX's Chapter 11 case in Delaware bankruptcy court.
-
December 06, 2024
CFTC Tells DC Circ. Election Bets Turned Kalshi Into 'Casino'
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has told the D.C. Circuit that trading platform KalshiEx LLC "promptly turned its futures exchange into an online casino" when courts gave it the green light to list election contracts, urging the appeals court to overturn a lower court decision that the contracts don't involve unlawful gaming.
Expert Analysis
-
Opinion
It's Time To Sound The Alarm About Lost Labor Rights
In the Fifth Circuit, recent rulings from judges appointed by former President Donald Trump have dismantled workers’ core labor rights, a troubling trend that we cannot risk extending under another Trump administration, say Sharon Block and Raj Nayak at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.
-
SEC Fine Shows Risks Of Nonpublic Info In X, LinkedIn Posts
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a settlement with DraftKings over charges arising from posting material nonpublic information on the CEO's social media accounts, highlighting that information posted to company websites and social media sites does not automatically qualify as "publicly disclosed" for purposes of Regulation FD, say attorneys at O'Melveny.
-
Anticipating Jarkesy's Effect On Bank Agency Enforcement
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, federal courts may eventually issue decisions on banking law principles and processes that could fundamentally alter the agencies' enforcement action framework, and the relationship between banks and examiners, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.
-
CFTC Anti-Fraud Blitz Is A Warning To Carbon Credit Sellers
With its recent enforcement actions against a carbon offset project developer and its senior executives for reporting false information about the energy savings of the company's projects, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is staking out its position as a primary regulator in the voluntary carbon credit market, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
-
Unpacking State AG Approaches To Digital Asset Enforcement
Attorneys at Cozen O'Connor survey recent digital asset enforcement by attorneys general nationwide driven by concerns over regulatory gaps where technological developments and market changes have outpaced legislation.
-
3 Takeaways From Navy Shipbuilder's Fraud Guilty Plea
Austal USA’s recent plea agreement over accounting fraud charges highlights for other companies the benefits of cooperating with government investigations, the challenges posed by senior executives’ involvement in misconduct, and the high stakes for defense contractors, say Michael DeBernardis and Shayda Vance at Hughes Hubbard.
-
Opinion
Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits
With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.
-
Peeling Back The Layers Of SEC's Equity Trading Reforms
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted amendments lowering the tick sizes for stock trading and reducing access fee caps will benefit investors and necessitate broad systems changes — if they can first survive judicial challenges, say attorneys at Sidley.
-
How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program
During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.
-
Bristol-Myers Win Offers Lessons For Debt Security Holders
A New York federal judge's recent dismissal of a $6.4 billion lawsuit against Bristol-Myers Squibb, due to plaintiff UMB Bank's lack of standing, serves as an important reminder to debt security holders to obtain depositary proxies before pursuing litigation, say attorneys at Milbank.
-
Series
Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.
-
Avoiding Merger Disputes Via Careful LLC Agreement Drafting
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently upheld a merger in a dispute over the process of amending the target's limited liability company agreement, underscoring the importance of understanding the Delaware LLC Act default rules and careful drafting to allow for contractual modifications, says Jane Trueper at Lathrop.
-
How Project 2025 Could Upend Federal ESG Policies
If implemented, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's policy playbook for a Republican presidential administration, would likely seek to deploy antitrust law to target ESG initiatives, limit pension fund managers' focus to pecuniary factors and spell doom for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate rule, say attorneys at Mintz.
-
Opinion
FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos
A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.
-
Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.