The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday unveiled its long-awaited innovation exemption, permitting certain crypto projects and liquidity providers to support tokenized stock trading for a five-year period without registering as exchanges or dealers.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

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SEC Issues Innovation Exemption For Tokenized Stock Trading

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday unveiled its long-awaited innovation exemption, permitting certain crypto projects and liquidity providers to support tokenized stock trading for a five-year period without registering as exchanges or dealers.

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Broker TradeZero Fined Over Data Breach Tied To Chatbot

By Julie Manganis

An unvetted chatbot and lax security policies allowed hackers to access personal and financial information of nearly 15,000 customers of online brokerage TradeZero America, the Massachusetts Securities Division said Thursday in announcing a $750,000 fine against the company.

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Analysis

Sue To Stop AI Armageddon? Not So Fast, Attys Say

By Y. Peter Kang

As executives at leading artificial intelligence companies increasingly assert that their own technology could one day pose an existential threat to humanity, a natural question follows: If the risk is real, can anyone sue to stop it before disaster strikes?

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Immigration Attorney Wants SEC Sanctioned In EB-5 Case

By Tom Lotshaw

An immigration attorney and her firm asked a New York federal judge to sanction the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to reasonably investigate an allegedly bogus unregistered securities claim it brought against them in an EB-5 immigrant investor case.

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Dickinson Wright Denied Fees For SEC Trade Suspension Win

By Katryna Perera

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has denied a request from Dickinson Wright PLLC for roughly $572,000 in attorney fees for its representation of Nano Magic in getting the company's COVID-19-era trading suspension overturned in 2024.

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Watchdogs Sue Trump Over Early Truth Social Post Access

By Jared Foretek

Two government watchdog groups are suing President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials, claiming that their sale of early access to Trump's policy-focused Truth Social posts violates the First and Fifth amendments and only serves to enrich the president and his social media platform.

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POLICY & REGULATION

FDIC Pitches Plan For Faster Bank Merger Reviews

By Jon Hill

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. moved Thursday to revamp its procedures for vetting bank mergers, floating a package of proposed changes that could speed up the agency's reviews for many transactions and lead to fewer getting held up over competition concerns.

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TEXAS

Texas Judge Won't Block Voting Rule For Rick Perry's AI Co.

By Katryna Perera

A Texas business court judge has denied billionaire businessman Toby Neugebauer's bid to block a corporate governance measure at the artificial intelligence infrastructure company co-founded by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, finding, among other things, Neugebauer has not shown he would suffer an injury absent relief.

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Appeals Court Skeptical Biz Court Is Wrong Place For Perot Suit

By Spencer Brewer

Texas appellate judges seemed skeptical Thursday of a Dallas businessman's claim that the Texas Business Court doesn't have jurisdiction over his multimillion-dollar suit against Ross Perot Jr., saying the money at stake seems to make the case a fit for the Business Court.

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CIVIL ENFORCEMENT

Analysis

For Single-Party FTC, Easier Suits May Come With A Cost

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission has ditched its historical multimember, multiparty ethos for a one-party regime in which fewer dissents might make it easier for Chairman Andrew Ferguson to pursue his agenda, but it also forecloses the potential "moderating influence" that comes with winning broad buy-in from commissioners of two parties.

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WHITE COLLAR

StraightPath-Linked Stockbroker Gets 4.5 Years For Fraud

By Pete Brush

A New York federal judge has sentenced a former Long Island stockbroker to 4.5 years in prison, after he admitted to duping investors as he and others hawked nearly $200 million of pre-initial public offering shares, including for fraud-ridden vendor StraightPath.

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DELAWARE

Inovalon Investors Reach $44M Deal Over $7.3B Take-Private

By Jarek Rutz

Inovalon Holdings Inc. investors have agreed to a $44 million settlement to end their Delaware Chancery Court suit challenging the healthcare data company's $7.3 billion take-private sale to a Nordic Capital-led consortium, resolving claims that stockholders were misled about conflicts involving the deal's financial advisers.

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Alteryx Stockholders' 'Cleansing' Vote Dooms $4.4B Sale Suit

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court has dismissed a stockholder suit challenging the $4.4 billion sale of analytics software company Alteryx Inc. to private equity firms Insight Venture Management LLC and Clearlake Capital Group LP, finding that an overwhelming stockholder vote approving the deal wiped out the investors' fiduciary duty claims.

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INVESTOR ACTIONS

Ex-YPF Investors Take Argentina To ICSID Over 2012 Seizure

By Joyce Hanson

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes has picked up a bid for arbitration by investors in Argentine oil and gas exploration company YPF SA, making good on their statement to a New York federal judge that they will arbitrate their claims over Argentina's nationalization of YPF.

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AppLovin Hit With Investor Suit Over AI Growth Claims

By Sydney Price

Advertising solutions company AppLovin was hit with a shareholder's proposed class action accusing it of overstating the strength and utility of its artificial intelligence models and failing to disclose delays affecting a promised AI video tool.

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Doximity Hit With Investor's Suit Over Ad Strategy Claims

By Sydney Price

Medical professional networking platform operator Doximity Inc. was hit with a shareholder's proposed class action accusing it of concealing it was losing market share to its competitors and that its website did not rely on the "deep engagement" advertising strategy it had previously touted.

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TRANSACTIONS

Holtec Nuclear Delays $750M IPO Citing Market Conditions

By Nate Beck

Nuclear power plant equipment company Holtec Nuclear Corp. on Thursday said it has postponed an expected initial public offering advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

How AI Fraud Alerts May Raise Banks' Elder Exploitation Risk

As banks deploy artificial intelligence fraud detection, documented alerts and review decisions may shape elder exploitation claims, discovery disputes and defenses over what institutions knew before releasing suspect payments, say Michael Gilfix and Benjamin Gicqueau at Gilfix & La Poll.

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9th Circ. Ruling Marks New Chapter In Risk Factor Tug-Of-War

The Ninth Circuit's recent dismissal of a securities fraud class action against SunPower is the latest in a growing line of cases addressing whether, if ever, a company's risk factor disclosures can give rise to potential liability, an area where the law remains unsettled, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Senate Confirms Kirkland Partner To Texas Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 49-45 on Thursday to confirm Kasdin Miller Mitchell, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas.

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Clancy Atty Denies Malpractice Claim By Man Serving Life

By Julie Manganis

A prominent Massachusetts criminal defense attorney best known for representing Lindsay Clancy has been accused in a separate case of "abandoning" a client who is serving life sentences for second-degree murder and home invasion, allegations the lawyer denies.

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AI Flubs, More Secure PACER Get Judiciary Forum Spotlight

By Jeff Overley

Misuse of artificial intelligence tools and a "state-of-the-art" revamp of electronic dockets in federal cases were among the hottest topics Thursday at a major meeting of judiciary leaders, who also heard a lawmaker warn of eroding trust in the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Weaponization Fund Plaintiffs Say Discovery Ruling Was Right

By Jared Foretek

Plaintiffs suing over the Trump administration's once-proposed "anti-weaponization fund" are telling a Virginia federal judge to reject the U.S. Department of Justice's objections to a magistrate judge's discovery order, accusing the administration of stonewalling their requests and urging prompt discovery production.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abrams & Bayliss

Alston & Bird

Baker Botts

Bernstein Litowitz

Block & Leviton

Burns Charest

Cozen O'Connor

Davis Polk

Dickinson Wright

Frederick M. Lehrer Attorney at Law

Gerstein Harrow

Gibson Dunn

Gilfix & La Poll

Glast Phillips

Grant & Eisenhofer

Haynes Boone

Kellogg Hansen

Kessler Topaz

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Labaton Keller

Latham & Watkins

Loretta A. Preska

McGuireWoods

Mona Shah & Associates

Morris Nichols

Morrison Cohen

Pomerantz LLP

Quinn Emanuel

Ratzan Weissman

Sidley Austin

Tillotson Patton

Vinson & Elkins

Wiley Rein

Willkie Farr

Wilson Sonsini

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Adidas AG

Aires

Alphabet Inc.

Alteryx Inc.

Amalgamated Bank

American Bankers Association

Anthropic PBC

AppLovin Corp.

Bank of America Corp.

Bread Financial Holdings Inc.

Burford Capital LLC

Clearlake Capital Group LLC

Coinbase Global Inc.

Conference of State Bank Supervisors

Credit Suisse Group AG

Democracy Forward Foundation

Eton Park Capital Management LP

Evercore Inc.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

George Washington University

Google LLC

HSBC Holdings PLC

Inovalon Holdings Inc.

Insight Venture Management LLC

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Med-Trans Corp.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Morgan Stanley

NVIDIA Corp.

Nasdaq Inc.

National Rifle Association of America

National Treasury Employees Union

Nordic Capital Ltd.

NuRide Transportation Group LLC

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Peloton Interactive Inc.

Phantom Technologies Inc.

Phillips ADR Enterprises

Qatalyst Partners LP

Renaissance Capital

Repsol SA

S&S Worldwide Inc.

SunPower Corporation

The Associated Press

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

U.S. Bancorp

Wells Fargo & Co.

YPF SA

Yum Brands Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Delaware Court of Chancery

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Federal Trade Commission

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Judicial Conference of the United States

Superior Court of Massachusetts

Texas Tenth Court of Appeals

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Nevada