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Securities
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May 21, 2013
Chevron Sues Sunoco Over Texas Pipeline Deal
A unit of Chevron Corp. fired off a derivative lawsuit Monday in Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of West Texas Gulf Pipeline Co. and against a subsidiary of Sunoco Inc., alleging that Sunoco's representatives on WTG's board approved an unfair pipeline lease.
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May 21, 2013
GOP Sens. Hammer Lew On IRS Targeting Scandal
Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew on Tuesday said he will push regulators to speed up finishing capital, proprietary trading and other Dodd-Frank Act-mandated rules even as questions over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups dominated his appearance before a Senate panel.
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May 21, 2013
Venable Shouldn't Shake $11M Facebook IPO Suit, ESG Says
ESG Capital Partners argued on Monday that a legal malpractice suit against Venable LLP should stick, alleging that the law firm helped a known con man defraud the investment manager of $11.2 million by falsely promising to secure ESG pre-IPO Facebook shares.
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May 21, 2013
Ex-SAC Trader Lashes Back At Feds In $276M Tipping Case
Former SAC Capital Advisors LLP portfolio manager Mathew Martoma told a New York federal court Monday that prosecutors were trying to “have it both ways” by insisting their $276 million insider trading case was focused on specific deals in July 2008, but also included allegations dating back to 2006.
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May 21, 2013
Former DBSI Brass Deny Ponzi Scheme Charges
The former general counsel and two executives of bankrupt DBSI Inc. pled not guilty to fraud charges in Idaho federal court Monday, following accusations that they were running a Ponzi scheme under the guise of a supposedly profitable real estate investment company.
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May 21, 2013
LPL Financial Penalized $9M For Email System Failures
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday hit LPL Financial LLC, the largest independent broker-dealer in the U.S., with $9 million in penalties over outdated email systems that left regulators and others unable to access some of the broker-dealer’s correspondence.
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May 20, 2013
Strine Tells Wal-Mart To Dig Deeper For Mexican Bribery Docs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. must conduct a more detailed search for documents requested by an institutional investor seeking information about how the retailer's board handled allegations of bribery by its Mexican affiliate, Delaware Chancellor Leo E. Strine Jr. said Monday.
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May 20, 2013
Michaels Fights To Avoid Legal Fees In $550M Wyly Fraud
A Texas state judge on Monday said Michaels Stores Inc. has the right to limited information about what one of its former board of directors has disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about his role in an alleged fraud before ponying up more than $1 million for his legal defense.
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May 20, 2013
SAC Indictment Would Put Feds In Uncharted Waters
As rumors swirled Monday that prosecutors might indict Steven Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors LLP, defense attorneys called the move highly unusual for an insider trading case focused on individual wrongdoing.
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May 20, 2013
Duane Morris Adds Orrick Partner To NY Corporate Group
Duane Morris LLP's New York corporate practice group is adding a new partner from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP who counsels investment banks and corporations on a range of securities issues, the firm announced Monday.
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May 20, 2013
High Court May Use SOX Case To Put DOL In Its Place
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear its first-ever Sarbanes-Oxley Act whistleblower case, in which it might not only decide whether SOX's anti-retaliation provision covers employees at private contractors of public companies, but also clarify how much deference courts should afford agencies like the U.S. Department of Labor when it comes to interpreting the law, attorneys say.
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May 20, 2013
Fighting Agencies May Be Tougher After High Court Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's Monday ruling in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which held that courts should apply a deferential standard of review when federal agencies interpret the limits of their own authority, may make it tougher for regulated businesses to fight agency actions, attorneys say.
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May 20, 2013
Dallas Brokerage Fends Off RICO Claim For Trade Fees
A Texas judge on Monday said two independent brokers at S&P Investors Inc. haven’t yet proven their allegations the principal of a Dallas brokerage firm intentionally stole from them by overcharging for a decade the fees charged against their trade commissions.
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May 20, 2013
Lew Likely To Face Flak Over IRS, Not Financial Rules
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is scheduled to address potential risks to the financial system when he appears before Congress this week, but the growing scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups threatens to overshadow his eagerly anticipated faceoff with lawmakers over everything from systemically important financial institutions to money market fund reform.
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May 20, 2013
Tessera Proxy's Write-In Option Draws SEC's Eye
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has objected to Tessera Technologies Inc.'s efforts to let shareholders write in two dissident director nominees, a first-of-its-kind tussle set up by what some critics say are antiquated proxy voting rules.
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May 20, 2013
Exxon Can't Nix Ex-VP's $5M In Stock, Texas Justices Told
A former Exxon Mobil Corp. vice president on Friday told Texas’ highest court that compensation agreements he inked with the oil and gas giant allowing it to cancel $5 million in stock incentives he held after he went to work for a rival are unenforceable.
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May 20, 2013
Investors Give Libor Antitrust Claims Another Shot
Investors pushed Friday to revive their antitrust claims against Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other top banks accused of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate as part of multidistrict litigation over the rate scandal.
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May 20, 2013
BMC Investor Sues To Block $7B Sale To Bain, Golden Gate
A BMC Software Inc. investor on Friday launched a proposed class action in Texas court, complaining that a planned $7 billion sale of the company to Bain Capital LLC and Golden Gate Capital shortchanges shareholders.
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May 20, 2013
Ex-Morgan Stanley Exec Fights Kickback Rap In 2nd Circ.
A former Morgan Stanley & Co. executive asked the Second Circuit on Monday to overturn a conviction on charges he steered stock-loan business to his family in exchange for kickbacks, arguing that some work was performed for the money.
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May 20, 2013
Baker Donelson, Dilworth Paxson DQ'd From Investment Suit
A Louisiana federal judge on Monday disqualified Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC and Dilworth Paxson LLP from representing foreign investors suing over a failed investment venture to help them get permanent residency, saying a Dilworth Paxson attorney had worked for the venture.
Expert Analysis
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SEC Must Stop The Latest Effort To Impede Whistleblowers
Increasingly, employees have been presented with language in severance and settlement agreements that impose on whistleblowers a number of restrictions. These provisions pose a serious threat to the success of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower program, say David Marshall and Debra Katz of Katz Marshall & Banks LLP.
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Mixed Messages Over Municipal Adviser Registration
In the three years since Congress mandated that all municipal advisers must register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, there has been enormous debate about just what a 'municipal adviser' is. To make matters worse, the SEC is now sending mixed messages concerning when it might complete its rulemaking, say Thomas Potter and Benjamin Coulter of Burr & Forman LLP.
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Insights From An Under-The-Radar CDO Case
A case that seems to have gone relatively unnoticed is ASR Levensverzekering NV v. Swiss Re Financial Products Corporation. Dismissed by the New York Supreme Court, the case provides useful insights into the application of New York fraud and contract law in the context of complex financial transactions, say James Bliss and Kevin Broughel of Paul Hastings LLP.
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E-Discovery In The Cloud: Who Can Get Your Data?
Many lawyers are asking whether placing electronically stored information in the cloud could inadvertently waive the attorney-client privilege and whether the government or a civil litigant could obtain ESI directly from a cloud service provider. In answering these questions, there are a number of aspects of the cloud worth considering, say Timothy Broas and Matthew Saxon of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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Get Ready For A 'Substituted Compliance' Regime
In a complete 180-degree reversal of its previous position, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is on the verge of accepting an international financial regulatory regime of mutual recognition. "Substituted compliance" will help inform foreign market participants about which rules they must follow when their swap activities cross U.S. borders, says Bradley Dizik of Tiberian Regulatory Advisers LLC.
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Why The Libor Lawsuits Are Not Dead
In the wake of a recent court ruling in the Southern District of New York, many people have suggested that London Interbank Offered Rate litigations are now nearly over. Although the ruling represents a significant victory for the defendant banks, and a major challenge to the litigation strategy of many of the claimants, it is by no means the end of the Libor litigations, says Ilan Guedj of ARPC.
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FINRA's Position On Pre-Inception Index Performance Data
FINRA has now formalized its position (albeit in a limited way) on pre-inception index performance data for exchange-traded products. Although the agency permits firms to distribute PIP data only to institutional investors, the recent guidance nonetheless provides some much-needed regulatory clarity for market participants, say Richard Morris and John O’Brien of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
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Lessons From Philips FCPA Settlement Over Polish Bribes
While Poland has not received particular Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement focus over the years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent order against Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV over Polish bribes underscores the fact that, in given circumstances, any country can present high corruption risk, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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A Model For Facing Meritless Derivative Suits In Pa.
The decision by the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in In re H.J. Heinz Co. Derivative and Class Action Litigation represents a faithful application of the American Law Institute’s Principles of Corporate Governance, which were formally adopted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the landmark decision Cuker v. Mikalauskas, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.
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Sui Generis At Supreme Court
Not since Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933 have we seen a Supreme Court so imbalanced that it would throw its own power away as it did in Twombly, Iqbal and Concepcion, or devalue its own authority through matters of little interest, simply for the benefit of large American corporations, says Fred Isquith of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.