Practice Areas
Securities
-
January 27, 2012
Conspirator In Conn. Ponzi Scheme Gets 14 Months
A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Venezuelan man to 14 months in prison after he admitted to hindering a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of a Ponzi scheme by Connecticut hedge fund adviser Francisco Illarramendi.
-
January 27, 2012
Dutch Pension Fund Targets Goldman Over 'Toxic' RMBS
The Netherlands' government employee pension fund on Friday sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alleging the bank misled investors into buying toxic residential mortgage-backed securities.
-
January 27, 2012
SEC Can Pursue Late Billionaire Wyly's Heirs For $50M
A New York federal judge on Friday allowed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pursue the family of late billionaire Charles Wyly to recover approximately $50 million in alleged fraudulent earnings, saying they should not benefit from his insider trading.
-
January 27, 2012
Husch Blackwell Accused Of Bungling Oil Co. Stock Offering
Nevada-based onshore oil company EnerJex Resources Inc. hit Husch Blackwell LLP with a legal malpractice suit in Missouri state court Monday, saying the firm bungled the company's 2008 stock offering and caused EnerJex to suffer $50 million in losses.
-
January 27, 2012
In-House Accounts May Stop Insider Trading, 9th Circ. Hears
A financial industry group urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to uphold a ruling for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC letting brokerage firms require employees to keep personal trading accounts in-house, saying the policy is needed to help detect violations like insider trading.
-
January 27, 2012
Travelzoo Sold Assets To Founder At Discount: Suit
A Travelzoo Inc. shareholder filed a derivative suit Friday accusing the company's executives of shortchanging shareholders by selling Travelzoo's Asia Pacific assets to the company's founder, Ralph Bartel, at a discount.
-
January 27, 2012
Ex-McKesson Chair Asks High Court To Toss Guilty Verdict
Convicted securities fraudster Charles McCall, the former chairman of health care company McKesson Corp., this month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his 2009 jury verdict, claiming a lower court judge improperly instructed the jury to consider whether McCall "recklessly disregarded" warnings about accounting improprieties at the company.
-
January 27, 2012
White House Rolls Out New RMBS Crackdown Effort
Just days after President Barack Obama promised a crackdown on reckless mortgage lending in his State of the Union address, the administration kicked off its new investigation effort Friday with 11 subpoenas to financial institutions and the creation of a new mortgage-backed securities working group.
-
January 27, 2012
Imax Investors Reel In $12M In Securities Action
Imax Corp. has agreed to pay $12 million to wind up a putative class action alleging the movie pioneer misled investors about shoddy accounting methods, according to settlement papers filed Thursday in New York federal court.
-
January 27, 2012
Gupta Defense To Hinge On Alleged Falling-Out With Raj
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta will fight charges that he fed confidential information to now-convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam by showing the two had a falling-out that made any tipping unlikely, Gupta's attorney said Friday.
-
January 27, 2012
Akin Gump Hit With 2nd $120M Defamation Suit
A California business consultant on Wednesday filed a $120 million defamation suit against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and one of its securities partners, the second such suit filed against the firm in Los Angeles this week.
-
January 27, 2012
Proskauer, Chadbourne Take Stanford Fight To Fed. Court
Proskauer Rose LLP and Chadbourne & Parke LLP said Friday that a group of putative class actions accusing the firms of helping shield accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford's bank from investigators belongs in Texas federal court.
-
January 27, 2012
SEC Seeks To Bar Steel Co. Insider Trading Defenses
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday asked a Kentucky federal judge to prevent several defenses from being offered in a suit against Steel Technologies Inc. insiders who allegedly shared and acted on tips about the company's acquisition by Mitsui & Co. Ltd.
-
January 27, 2012
Auditor Settles Claims Over $7M Charter School Bond
Darnell & Meyering PC, an auditor involved in a troubled $7 million bond issue for a Michigan charter school, on Friday settled Michigan federal court claims by a group of investment funds that the auditor had signed off on false financial statements related to the issue.
-
January 27, 2012
2nd Atty In $300M Gold Ponzi Scheme Settles With SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday settled claims in Washington state against an attorney involved in a gold investment firm's $300 million Ponzi scheme, the firm's second lawyer to strike a deal with the regulator in a week.
-
January 27, 2012
EU Joins Growing Chorus Of Dismay Over Volcker Rule
The European Commission will reportedly raise objections with the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury over proposed U.S. regulations to restrict major banks' proprietary trading activities, joining Japanese and Canadian regulators who have already complained about the rule.
-
January 27, 2012
Private Equity Manager's Assets Frozen Amid SEC Probe
A Missouri federal judge granted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's motion for an asset freeze Friday against a St. Louis private equity fund manager accused of bilking investors out of more than $9 million.
-
January 27, 2012
Venoco's Shareholders Sue To Block CEO Buyout Bid
Venoco Inc.'s directors were hit with a putative shareholder class action in Colorado federal court on Thursday aimed at blocking the Denver-based energy company's CEO and majority shareholder from buying it out for $12.50 a share.
-
January 27, 2012
Halliburton Fraud Class Wins Cert After SCOTUS Ruling
A Texas federal judge on Friday certified a nearly decade old securities class action lawsuit against Halliburton Co. after the U.S. Supreme Court in June lowered the threshold for such certification.
-
January 27, 2012
Countrywide Fights Lower Fraud Bar In Insurer Suits
Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide Financial Corp. on Wednesday appealed a New York state judge's decision limiting what monoline insurers must show to put Countrywide on the hook for billions of dollars in losses from securitized mortgages they insured.
Expert Analysis
-
Taking Stock Of Tech Stocks — Private Vs. Public
Given the economic headwinds facing the Eurozone and other developed economies in 2012, one could be forgiven for being somewhat downbeat about the prospects for corporate M&A and private equity and venture capital investment in the technology sector. However, we believe technology will account for a growing proportion of corporate activity for the year ahead, say Sam Jardine and Jon Gill of Eversheds LLP.
-
Case Study: ZING VII
Although several questions impacting distressed collateralized debt obligations were left unanswered, the case of Zais Investment Grade Limited VII demonstrates that, under certain circumstances, CDO noteholders may be able to use the bankruptcy process to accelerate the liquidation of underperforming CDOs, say attorneys with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.
-
Overwhelmed? Consider Outsourcing — Carefully!
One way that firms and compliance departments are looking to address the disparity between too much to do and not enough human capital is to outsource some responsibilities. But outsourcing comes with risks, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has put firms on notice of its intent to focus on this issue, say Cheryl Haas-Goldstein and Greg Amoroso of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP.
-
Assessment: PCAOB Enforcement Under Sarbanes-Oxley
With the 10-year anniversary of Sarbanes-Oxley fast approaching, it is an opportune time to review the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s enforcement program to date, say David Hardison and Paul Pashkoff of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.
-
A Change To SEC's 'No Admit, No Deny' Policy
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's limited modification to its longstanding "neither admit nor deny" settlement policy is noteworthy because it is a sign that, despite the growing criticism, the SEC is standing behind its policy of allowing companies and individuals in the vast majority of SEC matters to continue settling without having to admit or deny the SEC’s allegations, say Mark Stein and Nicholas Goldin of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
-
How The Entrepreneur Capital Act Could Impact Startups
Despite the enthusiasm for the concept of crowdfunding, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act raises significant policy concerns as well as practical issues of implementation, say Lauren Lewis and William Manierre of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
-
Encouraging Whistleblowers To Report Internally
One of the more controversial aspects of the final whistleblower regulations adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is that an employee is not required to report an alleged securities law violation internally. But employers can take several actions to encourage employees to make an internal report before approaching the SEC, say attorneys with Blank Rome LLP.
-
Case Study: Assured Guaranty V. JP Morgan
Although the New York Court of Appeals decision in Assured Guaranty (UK) Ltd. v. J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. makes clear that any common law claims brought by investors in a private securities action are not precluded by the Martin Act, the case does nothing to curb the effects of the Securities Litigation Uniform Standard Act, say attorneys with Hogan Lovells LLP.
-
Social Media And The SEC: Investment Advisers Beware
In these challenging economic times, fund advisers should be applauded for their creative efforts to market themselves through social media. But following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first ever social media alert, advisers must revisit their existing protocols to ensure compliance with federal securities laws, say attorneys with DLA Piper.
-
How STOCK Act Could Restrict 'Political Intelligence'
The primary purpose of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act is to close a loophole in the law that may allow members of Congress to legally trade securities based upon nonpublic "political intelligence." However, the legislation could have significant, perhaps unintended, consequences for investment advisers and those in the financial services industry, say Scott Gluck and Rob Smith of Venable LLP.