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Capital Markets
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May 24, 2024
SEC Hits Back At SolarWinds' 'Distortion' Allegations
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sent a letter to a New York federal judge Friday pushing back on SolarWinds Corp.'s accusations that it was overstating and distorting its case against the government contractor over a data hack, saying its complaint is "well-grounded in facts" uncovered during its investigation.
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May 24, 2024
OCC Orders Controls Improvements At Comerica
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has ordered a Comerica unit to strengthen its asset management controls and address other "unsafe or unsound practices," according to a newly released consent order.
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May 24, 2024
House Lawmakers Want New Hearing With FDIC's Gruenberg
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Martin Gruenberg is scheduled to appear before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee to answer questions about the damning findings of a probe of the FDIC's workplace culture.
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May 24, 2024
Xponential Fitness Sues Ex-CEO In Del. To Avoid Calif. Court
Fitness brand franchiser Xponential Fitness Inc. sued its recently resigned CEO in Delaware Chancery Court Friday, asking the court to find that the First State's laws, not California's, govern a dispute over the former CEO's right to inspect the company's books and records.
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May 24, 2024
CFTC's Johnson Is Under Consideration For FDIC Top Job
The Biden administration is considering Kristin Johnson, a Democratic member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as a possible candidate to replace Martin Gruenberg at the helm of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Law360 has learned.
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May 24, 2024
Biden's Judicial Impact And What's Left On The Wish List
President Joe Biden secured confirmation of his 200th federal judge Wednesday and has transformed the judiciary by picking more women and people of color than any other president. But the upcoming election season could derail his hopes of confirming many more judges.
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May 24, 2024
NYSE Companies Could Face Heat If Business Focus Changes
A New York Stock Exchange proposal seeking additional authority to delist companies that enact wholesale business changes after going public could subject certain companies to more scrutiny, attorneys say, though such drastic actions are expected to be rare.
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May 24, 2024
Coinbase Says Crypto Securities Question Is Ripe For Review
Crypto exchange Coinbase again urged a Manhattan federal judge to send to the Second Circuit the question of whether digital assets meet the definition of investment contracts, saying the question could "shape or distort a multitrillion-dollar industry."
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May 24, 2024
Ace Global Nixes $150M Greenhouse Farming Services Merger
Special-purpose acquisition company Ace Global Business Acquisition Ltd. on Friday announced that its planned merger with Chinese LED company LE Worldwide Ltd. has been canceled due to "significant" declines in LE Worldwide's revenues.
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May 24, 2024
CFPB Seeks $20M Penalty For Inaccurate Loan Data
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has urged a Florida federal court to hit Freedom Mortgage with a $20 million civil penalty for allegedly submitting error-filled government mortgage loan data.
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May 24, 2024
Investor CriteriaCaixa Buys Construction Biz Stake For €983M
Spanish investor CriteriaCaixa said on Friday that it has purchased a 9.4% stake in construction and infrastructure firm ACS for €983 million ($1.1 billion), boosting its portfolio of investments.
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May 24, 2024
DLA Piper Adds Corporate Ace From Goodwin In Calif.
A finance lawyer with deep expertise has joined DLA Piper from Goodwin Procter LLP in its Palo Alto shop, strengthening its offerings in the Golden State.
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May 23, 2024
SEC Opens Gate To Ether ETFs, But Firms Await Green Light
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission started the process of bringing exchange-traded funds holding the cryptocurrency ether to market on Thursday when it approved a series of filings permitting national securities exchanges to list the products, leaving firms to wait for the next step before trading can begin.
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May 23, 2024
Influencer Can't Duck SEC Suit Over Crypto Sale, Promotion
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scored a partial win in a Texas federal court case in which the agency accused an influencer of unlawfully reselling and promoting cryptocurrencies to followers on social media, with a judge finding the tokens were unregistered securities and the promoter could not escape liability in the lawsuit.
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May 23, 2024
Governance In Focus As ESG Gains Ground This Proxy Season
Support for corporate governance and compensation shareholder proposals has reached a five-year high this year, while support for environmental and social proposals has risen slightly after two years of decline, according to a new report.
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May 23, 2024
'Not Us At Our Best:' SEC's Top Cop Talks Debt Box Error
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement director Gurbir Grewal took responsibility Thursday for his agency's sanctioned actions in a lawsuit against crypto project Debt Box, saying that the case did not represent the agency "at our best" but was not a sign that there were any widespread problems with the way it conducts its enforcement proceedings.
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May 23, 2024
Investors Lose $600M Mass Claim Over Cyprus Bank Failures
The Republic of Cyprus said Thursday that an international arbitral tribunal has dismissed an unprecedented $600 million mass claim by Greek depositors and bondholders affected by the restructuring of Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus.
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May 23, 2024
FTX Judge Declines To Undo Ch. 11 Digital Claim Estimation
The judge overseeing the Chapter 11 case of cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. on Thursday denied a request to vacate an earlier ruling allowing the debtor to estimate the claims of creditors holding digital assets based on their petition date value, saying the party seeking to undo the order had not provided any new evidence to justify the action.
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May 23, 2024
Big Banks Hit With Claims Of Turning Man Into 'Money Mule'
A wealthy Texas entrepreneur says Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab and Deutsche Bank turned him into a "money mule" by using his accounts to launder billions of dollars over multiple decades, alleging a conspiracy also involving his family and a prominent lawyer that cost him millions.
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May 23, 2024
7th Circ. Unsure VIX-Fix Claims Were Wrongly Tossed
The Seventh Circuit seemed unsure Thursday that two investment companies should be allowed to pursue volatility index manipulation claims against Barclays, Morgan & Stanley Co. and other financial institutions after a lower court found that one lacked standing and the other missed a statutory deadline.
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May 23, 2024
Ex-Fund Manager Settles SEC's $264M Offering Fraud Claims
A former private fund manager has agreed to pay $250,000 to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims he violated securities fraud laws by making promises that funds he handled would invest almost $264 million that they did not actually have on hand in issuers, including two special purpose acquisition vehicles.
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May 23, 2024
Archegos Witness Admits Lying To Exec Charged In Collapse
An Archegos manager who pled guilty to fraud and is cooperating with prosecutors conceded to a Manhattan federal jury Thursday that he fostered an effort to mock his former boss and hide information before the hedge fund's $36 billion collapse.
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May 23, 2024
House Passes Bill To Block Fed-Issued Digital Dollar
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital dollar in a vote that fell starkly along party lines, with Democrats decrying the bill as fearmongering over privacy concerns and a departure from the previous day's bipartisan passage of a regulatory framework for digital assets.
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May 23, 2024
Virtual Reality Startup's $150M SPAC Merger Is Scrapped
Blank-check company Maquia Capital Acquisition Corp. and virtual reality software provider Immersaid have mutually agreed to cancel their planned merger that would have taken Immersed public at an estimated $150 million valuation.
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May 23, 2024
Wow Such Basic: Justices Back Crypto Fans In Dogecoin Duel
It's up to judges, not arbitrators, to figure out whether contracts between businesses and consumers have subtly superseded earlier agreements to hash out disputes in arbitration rather than litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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2nd Circ.'s Binance Locus Test Adds Risk For Blockchain Cos.
The Second Circuit’s recent use of the irrevocable liability test to rule a class action may proceed against decentralized crypto exchange Binance heightens the possibility that other blockchain-based businesses with domestic customers and digital infrastructure will find themselves subject to U.S. securities laws, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.
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The Challenges SEC's Climate Disclosure Rule May Face
Attorneys at Debevoise examine potential legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new climate-related disclosure rule — against which nine suits have already been filed — including arguments under the Administrative Procedure Act, the major questions doctrine, the First Amendment and the nondelegation doctrine.
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2 Issues For Venture-Backed Climate Tech Startups To Avoid
As climate tech startups become more common, poor equity dilution management and stacked seed financing are two common pitfalls that apply more acutely to climate tech startups than to the broader venture-backed startup space, say attorneys at Goodwin.
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Investment Advisers Should Prep For Money Laundering Regs
Investment advisers should prepare for a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed rule that would significantly expand anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism obligations by assessing illicit financing risks, and expect examiners to scrutinize unregistered advisers and those with certain foreign clients, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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How Private Funds Can Navigate New FinCEN Reporting Rules
In light of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's new regulations implementing beneficial ownership reporting requirements, private fund managers must assess whether certain obligations apply to entities within their structures and whether potential structural changes could simplify those obligations, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection
Recent enforcement actions in the fintech and finance industries show that the government is increasingly pursuing fraud enabled by artificial intelligence — at the same time it’s using AI innovations to enforce regulations and investigate fraud, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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Innodata Suit Highlights 'AI Washing' Liability Risk For Cos.
A class action against software company Innodata over so-called AI washing, one of the first of its kind, underscores the litigation and enforcement risks that can arise from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's novel theory about misleading artificial intelligence capabilities, say attorneys at Bracewell.
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Tips For CCOs Submitting Annual Compliance Reports
Recent settlement actions by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, coupled with statements made by both CFTC and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission leadership, demonstrate why this year's chief compliance officer annual report filing is no ordinary exercise, and highlight the increasing importance of the report and its usage, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Fintech 'Prenups': Planning For A Card Program Breakup
After a year of economic downturns, some banks and their fintech partners are realizing they may have rushed to the altar without a good prenup, but planning ahead can curb both foreseeable and unexpected issues in the event of a termination of a bank-fintech card-issuing agreement, say Andrew Grant at Ketsal and Richard Malish at Community Federal Savings Bank.
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SEC's Final Climate Disclosure Rules: What Cos. Must Know
While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's scaled-back final rules requiring public companies to disclose certain climate-related information still face challenges in court, companies should begin preparing now to comply with the rules, say Celia Soehner and Erin Martin at Morgan Lewis.
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2nd Circ.'s Nine West Ruling Clarifies Safe Harbor Confusion
The Second Circuit’s recent ruling in Nine West’s Chapter 11 suit clarifies that courts in the circuit will apply a transfer-by-transfer analysis to determine the applicability of Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, and that to be safe harbored, a financial institution must act as an agent with respect to the specific transfer at issue, says Leonardo Trivigno at Carter Ledyard.