Practice Areas
Industries
Securities
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May 25, 2012
US Drops 9th Circ. Appeal In Lindsey FCPA Case
Federal prosecutors on Friday dropped their Ninth Circuit appeal of the dismissal of the Lindsey Manufacturing Co. indictment, five months after a judge lambasted them for their misconduct in the first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case that resulted in a corporation’s conviction.
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May 25, 2012
JPMorgan Unit Faces $293M Suit Over MBS Loan Buyback Deal
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its unit EMC Mortgage LLC were sued Friday for $293 million by a securitization trust that had financed the purchase of residential mortgage loans EMC had sold, claiming EMC violated an agreement to repurchase shoddy loans.
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May 25, 2012
Ex-AIG, Gen Re Execs In Settlement Talks With US
Federal prosecutors are discussing settling a high-profile criminal case against five former executives of General Reinsurance Corp. and American International Group over a $500 million accounting scandal that included securities fraud charges, a motion filed Thursday revealed.
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May 25, 2012
HealthCor Wins Quick Hearing In Allscripts Proxy Fight Case
HealthCor Management LP has won expedited review of its lawsuit seeking to force a proxy fight with Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., the hedge fund said Friday, ensuring the case will heard before the electronic health records company's annual meeting.
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May 25, 2012
Shareholders Drop Suit Against French Utility Giant
Plaintiffs who accused French water utility multinational Veolia Environnement SA in a New York federal court shareholder class action of overstating financial results by using improper accounting practices on Friday agreed to the voluntary dismissal of their case.
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May 25, 2012
Gupta Likely Source Of P&G Tips, Ex-Galleon Trader Says
A former Galleon Group LLC trader testified Friday in the trial of Rajat Gupta, the most prominent defendant ensnared in the government’s insider trading crackdown, that Gupta may have used his role on the board of Procter & Gamble Co. to supply the hedge fund with illegal tips.
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May 25, 2012
Dow Jones, S&P Shut Down ISE's Index Option Sales
An Illinois appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court's decision barring International Securities Exchange LLC from selling Dow Jones and S&P 500-linked index options without a license, agreeing that misappropriation claims by The McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. and others aren't preempted by federal copyright law.
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May 25, 2012
Highland Affiliates Want Out Of UBS' $686M CDO Suit
Two affiliates of private fund firm Highland Capital Management LP asked a New York state judge Friday to dismiss them from a $686 million fraud lawsuit by UBS AG that claims Highland and its affiliates tricked UBS into restructuring a debt securities agreement.
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May 25, 2012
6th Circ. Nixes KeyCorp ERISA Case Over Lack Of Injury
A KeyCorp 401(k) plan participant who sold company stock while its price was allegedly artificially inflated suffered no out-of-pocket loss and has no standing to sue, the Sixth Circuit said Friday, declining to revive a putative class action.
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May 25, 2012
Hedge Fund Exec Denied Witness Sanctions In Fraud Suit
A California federal judge on Friday denied former Paron Capital Management LLC partner James Crombie’s request for sanctions against a witness who allegedly misbehaved in a deposition in a suit alleging Crombie lied in a National Futures Association audit.
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May 25, 2012
Top Banks Look To Take Raser's Short-Selling Suit Federal
A group of major investment banks — including Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. LP — are seeking to duke it out with Raser Technologies Inc. in Georgia federal court over allegations that naked short selling led to the energy company's stint in bankruptcy.
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May 25, 2012
Benihana Investor Sues To Nix $296M Angelo Gordon Buyout
A Benihana Inc. shareholder on Thursday hit the restaurant chain with a putative class action in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to derail the chain's proposed $296 million sale to New York-based private equity firm Angelo Gordon & Co.
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May 25, 2012
Freddie Mac Can't Duck Suit Over Subprime Exposure
A federal judge on Friday declined to dismiss a proposed securities class action brought by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System against Freddie Mac over the housing entity's alleged failure to disclose its true subprime exposure, saying the plaintiffs properly stated their claims.
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May 25, 2012
JPMorgan CEO Tenuously Set To Testify In Congress In June
The Senate Banking Committee on Friday announced that JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon was set to testify about his bank's surprise $2 billion trading loss in early June, but Dimon reportedly has turned down the request and will appear at some later point.
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May 25, 2012
SEC Advises High Court To Leave Madoff Investor Suits Alone
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday advised the U.S. Supreme Court not to review cases challenging the methods of the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which would allow the trustee to start distributing roughly $9 billion to victims.
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May 25, 2012
Human Genome Denies Hiding Suicide Risks In Lupus Drug Case
Biopharmaceutical firm Human Genome Sciences Inc. on Thursday asked a federal judge to scuttle proposed securities class actions accusing it of concealing suicide risks associated with lupus drug Benlysta, saying that investors cherry-picked the public record in a desperate attempt to build a case.
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May 25, 2012
Chartis Accused Of Failing To Cover $17M Ponzi Loss
Chartis Inc. was hit with a suit in Texas federal court Thursday claiming that the insurance giant wrongfully denied coverage of $17 million lost by an electrical manufacturer unwittingly caught up in a $670 million Ponzi scheme.
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May 25, 2012
CFTC Hits Coventry Asset Managers With Forex Fraud Claims
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is taking civil enforcement action in Washington federal court against Coventry Asset Managers LLC for fraud in foreign currency exchange trading, the CFTC announced Friday.
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May 25, 2012
Ex-CCI Sales Chief To Change Plea In FCPA Case
A former Control Components Inc. executive on Tuesday will change his not guilty plea to charges stemming from his part in an alleged foreign bribery scheme, according to a California federal court docket.
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May 25, 2012
Repsol Lodges 2nd US Suit Over YPF Nationalization
Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF SA on Monday accused Argentina of violating securities filing rules in New York federal court, the second action the company has taken in American court over the country's decision to nationalize Repsol's local operation YPF earlier this year.
Expert Analysis
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Avoiding FCPA Prosecution For Employee Conduct
Contrasting the enforcement positions in the recent Morgan Stanley and Noble Corp. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases, a few factors stand out as potentially influencing when companies will be held responsible for the actions of their employees, and when such actions will be viewed as “rogue” conduct, say attorneys with Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
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Why Draft A Standstill Provision When 'Between' is Enough?
Although Martin Marietta has stated that it will appeal the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court, the Chancery Court’s opinion Martin Marietta Materials Inc. v. Vulcan Materials Company provides a clear roadmap for lawyers that will result in an implied standstill even though a confidentiality agreement does not have an express standstill, say David Robbins and Janice Liu of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
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Volcker Rule — Potential Perils To The Muni Bond Market
While many advocates of the Volcker Rule want to leave it as is, it seems likely, and certainly just, that exceptions for municipal securities and tender offer bond programs will be made. Without these exceptions, there will be increased costs in borrowing for state and local governments, the municipal bond market will be disrupted, and a key class of short-term debt available for money market investors will be eliminated, says Jamie Kocis of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.
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Best Practices For Corporate Social Responsibility
As with many industries, the legal services industry has adapted to the demand for sustainability practices. An effective Corporate Social Responsibility program will manifest itself in all strategic planning, from best firm employee practices and environmental sustainability to providing legal services, recruiting and retention of employees, business development, marketing and philanthropy, says Howard Dakoff of Levenfeld Pearlstein LLC.
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Cracking Down On Cross-Market Hedging
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission insists that its rules concerning manipulative energy transactions are clear, and that it has the jurisdiction to pursue manipulation claims wherever the trail may lead, even if it is to markets that lie beyond its traditional stomping grounds in wholesale gas and electric markets for physically delivered products. But industry observers question both propositions, say attorneys with Winston & Strawn LLP.
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Case Study: SEC V. Morgan Keegan
The Eleventh Circuit's decision in Morgan Keegan follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Matrixx Initiatives Inc. v. Siracusano, which declined to establish a bright-line test for evaluating materiality and instead reaffirmed that whether an alleged misstatement or omission is material is a fact-specific inquiry, say Kenneth Hausman and Arthur Luk of Arnold & Porter LLP.
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Up In The Air: JOBS Act Effect On Private Equity
When fully implemented, the JOBS Act may affect private equity and venture capital funds in a number of ways. In particular, due to mandated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rulemaking, private funds may be able to raise more capital in less time and may come to regard IPOs as more than just a theoretical exit strategy for their portfolio companies, says Robert Rapp of Calfee Halter & Griswold LLP.
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Old-Fashioned Conspiracy In Cutting-Edge Technology
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the U.S. Department of Justice will continue to pursue litigation against Apple Inc., Macmillan Publishers Ltd. and Penguin Group Inc. for alleged price-fixing of e-books. The irony of this litigation is that it would appear that all the involved defendants were able to keep pace with technology, but not the simple evolution of corporate governance and compliance expectations, says Debra Rade of Rade Law LLC.
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Unclaimed Property In M&A Deals: Unwelcome Surprises
A target company’s historical compliance with unclaimed property laws is an important, but often overlooked, area for due diligence in M&A transactions. There are various ways for the buyer to control or limit its potential exposure, say Marc Musyl, Sarah Seedig and Jonathan Lessner of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
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TARP Auctions: Considerations For PE Fund Managers
A private fund planning to purchase Troubled Asset Relief Program preferred stock auctioned by the U.S. Treasury should keep in mind the regulatory implications of owning equity in a bank holding company, say Edwin del Hierro and Julie Kunetka of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.