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Capital Markets
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April 04, 2024
Crypto Co. Fined $700,000 For Duping Investors Into 'AI' Trading
The owner of an unlicensed cryptocurrency investment firm wooed a cancer patient and other investors with promises of AI-driven trading, only to use their funds for rent payments and other personal expenses, Connecticut regulators said Wednesday in ordering a $700,000 fine.
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April 04, 2024
SEC Fines Adviser Senvest $6.5M In Texting Probe Case
Investment adviser Senvest Management LLC has agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $6.5 million for its failure to hold on to certain electronic communications, the SEC said, expanding the list of settlements the agency has secured with firms in recent months over off-channel texting violations.
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April 04, 2024
BAE Stuck $8.2B Retirement Plan With Hefty Fees, Court Told
Aerospace and defense company BAE Systems breached federal benefits law by saddling its $8.2 billion retirement plan with excessive recordkeeping fees and causing participants' savings to plummet, a proposed class action filed in D.C. federal court said.
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April 04, 2024
Ginnie Mae, HUD Must Face Bank's Vacated Lien Suit
A Texas federal judge trimmed but declined to dismiss Texas Capital Bank's suit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its Government National Mortgage Association program over a vacated loan lien that the bank says was worth tens of millions of dollars.
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April 04, 2024
BitMEX Can't Ax Investor Suit After 2nd Circ.'s Binance Ruling
A New York federal judge has refused to toss a proposed class action accusing cryptocurrency platform BitMEX and its executives of using their "God access" to customer accounts to manipulate trades and liquidate the accounts, finding that under the Second Circuit's recent Binance ruling, the transactions occurred in the U.S.
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April 04, 2024
Attys Awarded $1.5M In Fees On Tax Disclosure Suit
Attorneys who won a $4.5 million settlement for a class of investors claiming a Chinese startup misrepresented its tax liability will receive their requested $1.5 million in attorney fees, a New York federal judge ruled.
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April 04, 2024
SEC Voluntarily Puts Climate Regs On Ice During Court Battle
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that it is voluntarily delaying the implementation of climate disclosure regulations while it fights an Eighth Circuit challenge seeking to vacate the rules, with the regulator saying that it hopes the voluntary stay will speed resolution of the case.
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April 04, 2024
Ex-CEO Reaches Legal Fee Agreement With Trump-Tied SPAC
A Delaware vice chancellor has signed off on an agreement between Donald Trump-tied Digital World Acquisition Corp. and its former CEO to have the venture pay his legal costs related to federal probes and litigation in multiple states.
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April 04, 2024
Del. Justices Reverse Chancery On Match.com Deal Fairness
Delaware's Supreme Court on Thursday undid a Chancery Court dismissal of a challenge to Match.com's 2019 reverse-spinoff from Barry Diller-controlled IAC Interactive, in a closely watched case rejecting the lower court's finding that Match had justified the use of a less onerous fairness test.
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April 04, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Alphabet, Honeywell, Syngenta IPO
Google parent Alphabet is exploring whether to make an offer to acquire software company HubSpot; Chinese regulators encouraged pesticides giant Syngenta to pull its $9 billion IPO over concerns it could unsettle China's volatile market, and Honeywell wants to sell its personal protective equipment unit. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
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April 04, 2024
Withers Adds Former In-House Corp. Atty In San Francisco
Withers has hired the former in-house general counsel for a financial software company, who joins the firm to continue his practice working with entrepreneurs in the technology, e-commerce and digital publishing industries, the firm announced Wednesday.
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April 03, 2024
Accused 'Shadow Trader' Takes Stand To Slam SEC's Case
A former Medivation executive accused of "shadow trading" when he purchased stock in rival Incyte testified in his California federal civil trial Wednesday that he didn't base that decision on confidential information, and he didn't think even "for one second" that he was violating securities laws.
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April 03, 2024
Judge Consolidates Wells Fargo Unwanted Products Suits
A San Francisco federal judge has consolidated five suits asserting proposed class claims that the bank sought to shortchange customers who deserved compensation after they were enrolled in financial products without their knowledge.
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April 03, 2024
OneCoin Atty Gets 4 Years For Role In $4B Crypto Fraud
The former head of legal and compliance at OneCoin on Wednesday was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the $4 billion cryptocurrency scheme that defrauded millions of investors around the world.
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April 03, 2024
Mortgage Co. Targeted In News Report Hit With RICO Suit
United Wholesale Mortgage LLC, its parent company and its CEO were hit with a proposed class action Tuesday in Michigan federal court accusing them of scheming with mortgage brokers to steer borrowers into more expensive loans the same day that Hunterbrook Media, a new journalism and hedge fund outfit, published its first investigative piece focused on the company.
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April 03, 2024
SEC Atty Says Macquarie 'Overstated' High Court Case
A leading attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of a Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. investor would be unlikely to open the "floodgates" to private disclosure litigation, as the company claims, reminding a Washington, D.C., audience Wednesday that the agency is backing the investor before the high court.
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April 03, 2024
Healthcare Company Hid Rising Costs Before IPO, Suit Says
Elder-focused healthcare company Agilon Health was hit with an investor's proposed class action in New York federal court alleging that the company failed to acknowledge ahead of its initial public offering that it had been affected by rising medical costs for providers.
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April 03, 2024
FIS Didn't Lie To Itself About Short-Lived Merger, Execs Say
Fidelity National's top brass recently urged a Florida federal court to toss an investor's lawsuit over a $46 billion market cap drop resulting from spinning off a payment business it had acquired a few years prior, arguing the company can't "be deceived by its own statements," which a pension fund alleged artificially inflated share prices.
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April 03, 2024
NY Bank, Investors Want Derivative Suits Merged, Paused
New York Community Bancorp Inc. and several of its investors asked a New York federal judge to consolidate and stay the investors' derivative shareholder suits against the bank.
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April 03, 2024
NY High Court Ruling Significance Debated In $2B Note Suit
VR Capital and Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, both told a federal court on Tuesday that a ruling from New York's highest court, which cleared a path for PDVSA to argue that nearly $2 billion in defaulted notes are invalid under its domestic law, benefits their case.
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April 03, 2024
SEC Investigators Say Attys Harm Clients By 'Behaving Badly'
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff warned attorneys at a Washington, D.C., conference Wednesday that delaying regulatory investigations destroys their credibility and could potentially harm their clients' chances of striking a favorable deal as the agency's Enforcement Division pushes for more cooperation from targeted businesses and individuals.
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April 03, 2024
Kirkland Lands Former SEC Enforcement Leader In Dallas
A former leader in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's regional office in Fort Worth, Texas, has moved to Kirkland & Ellis LLP's Dallas office, the firm announced on Wednesday, strengthening Kirkland's government, regulatory and internal investigations practice group.
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April 03, 2024
Top 10 Deals Of Q1 Led By GE Energy Spinoff, Capital One
It may be wishful thinking to imagine that earlier hopes for a major rebound in 2024 mergers and acquisitions activity will pan out, but by many indications the year was at least off to a better start than 2023.
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April 03, 2024
Disney Thwarts Trian Revolt, Retaining All 12 Board Members
Walt Disney Co. shareholders reelected the entertainment company's 12 current board members at a shareholder meeting Wednesday afternoon, rejecting all nominees pushed by activist investors Trian Fund Management and Blackwells Capital.
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April 03, 2024
Truth Social Investors Cop To Fraud In $23M Insider Case
Two Florida venture capitalists on Wednesday admitted to insider trading on confidential plans to take former President Donald Trump's media company public, after prosecutors charged that the Truth Social fraud netted them and a third defendant $23 million.
Expert Analysis
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Espinosa On 'Lincoln Lawyer'
The murder trials in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” illustrate the stark contrast between the ethical high ground that fosters and maintains the criminal justice system's integrity, and the ethical abyss that can undermine it, with an important reminder for all legal practitioners, say Judge Adam Espinosa and Andrew Howard at the Colorado 2nd Judicial District Court.
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What ESG Investing Ruling Means For Fiduciaries
A Texas federal court’s recent ruling — upholding a U.S. Department of Labor rule allowing retirement plan fiduciaries to consider ESG factors in certain investment decisions — provides welcome clarity for plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that have long been buffeted by partisan noise and misinformation, say attorneys at Covington.
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Unearthing The Lesser-Known 'Buried Facts' Doctrine
A New York federal judge’s recent suggestion that the “buried facts” doctrine may be applicable in the fraud trial of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried should serve as a reminder to attorneys in all kinds of cases involving corporate disclosures that this lesser-known rule could torpedo their defense, say Corban Rhodes and Li Yu at DiCello Levitt.
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Opinion
Newman Suspension Shows Need For Judicial Reform
The recent suspension of U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman following her alleged refusal to participate in a disability inquiry reveals the need for judicial misconduct reforms to ensure that judges step down when they can no longer serve effectively, says Aliza Shatzman at The Legal Accountability Project.
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How 2 Cases Could Undermine The Anti-ESG Movement
A decision from a federal court in Texas and another case currently making its way through Missouri federal court signal an emerging judicial recognition of the link between environmental, social and governance considerations and maximizing financial returns, say Amy Roy and Robert Skinner at Ropes & Gray.
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DeFi Enforcement Is Growing, Despite CFTC Dissonance
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s recently settled actions against operators of three decentralized finance protocols appear to be part of an enhanced enforcement push, though commissioners don’t agree on how to promote constructive regulation, say Michael Philipp and Sarah Riddell at Morgan Lewis.
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SEC's Life Sciences Actions Utilize Novel Tools And Theories
Recent enforcement actions show that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is employing new forms of data analytics and noteworthy applications of insider trading laws in its scrutiny of fraud within the life sciences and health industries, say Edward Imperatore and Jina Choi at MoFo.
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How And Why Your Firm Should Implement Fixed-Fee Billing
Amid rising burnout in the legal industry and client efforts to curtail spending, pivoting to a fixed-fee billing model may improve client-attorney relationships and offer lawyers financial, logistical and stress relief — while still maintaining profit margins, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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Opinion
SEC Actions Against Musk Are Constitutionally Defective
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent subpoena enforcement action against Elon Musk may be constitutionally and statutorily deficient — and the commission staff who issued the subpoenas and the action may have been unconstitutionally appointed, say Alex Lipman at Lipman Law and Justin Weddle at Weddle Law.
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What Fed Supervision Letters Mean For Bank-Fintech Collabs
Recent Federal Reserve guidance, which creates a program to supervise bank-fintech partnerships and requires banks to obtain advance approval before offering stablecoins, may reflect both regulators’ skepticism of banks engaging in cryptocurrency-related activities and a growing realization that these collaborations require novel supervisory approaches, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Needs Defense Amid Political Threats
Amid recent and historic challenges to the judiciary from political forces, safeguarding judicial independence and maintaining the integrity of the legal system is increasingly urgent, says Robert Peck at the Center for Constitutional Litigation.
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How Law Firms Can Use Account-Based Marketing Strategies
Amid several evolving legal industry trends, account-based marketing can help law firms uncover additional revenue-generating opportunities with existing clients, with key considerations ranging from data analytics to relationship building, say Jennifer Ramsey at stage LLC and consultant Gina Sponzilli.
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Leveraging Municipal Bonds For Green Energy Finance
The U.S.'s transition to renewable energy will require collaboration between public and private capital sources — and that means that lawyers used to working in corporate finance must understand how the municipal bond market functions differently, due to its grounding in the U.S. Constitution, says Ann Fillingham at Dykema.
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Strategic Succession Planning At Law Firms Is Crucial
Senior partners' reluctance to retire, the rise of the nonequity partner tier and generational differences in expectations are all contributing to an increasing number of departures from BigLaw, making it imperative for firms to encourage retirement among senior ranks and provide clearer leadership pathways to junior attorneys, says Laura Leopard at Leopard Solutions.
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Feds' Long-Term Debt Proposal Could Be Costly For US Banks
Federal banking regulators recently released a proposal for long-term debt requirements for certain U.S. banking organizations, which would significantly increase the cost of capital for most covered organizations, and the burden would be exacerbated by other factors in the current lending environment, say Matthew Bisanz and Anna Pinedo at Mayer Brown.