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Securities
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June 07, 2024
Battle Lines Drawn As Major Del. Corporate Law Tweak Looms
On Tuesday morning, seven Delaware state senators are set to open the first public round of debates on a fast-tracked Delaware General Corporation Law amendment package that would allow boards to cede some governance rights to big stockholders and Delaware Court oversight for some corporate actions to other jurisdictions.
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June 07, 2024
SEC Fines Asian Food Supplier $3.9M Over Splurging Ex-CEO
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a $3.9 million settlement with HF Foods Group Inc. over claims that the food distributor issued false and misleading disclosures, just two days after the regulator settled with two HF Foods executives in a separate case over similar claims.
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June 07, 2024
Atty Comms Are Fair Game After NJ Guilty Plea, Feds Say
Prosecutors told a New Jersey federal court Friday that communications between convicted and later pardoned fraudster Eliyahu Weinstein and Shlomo Erez, his Israeli attorney, must be turned over in Weinstein's new fraud case as Erez pled guilty to involvement in the alleged scheme in late May.
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June 07, 2024
Baker Donelson Can't Ax Ponzi Scheme Suit, Receiver Says
A federal receiver has urged a Mississippi federal judge to reject Baker Donelson's summary judgment bid seeking a pretrial win on civil conspiracy claims the firm allowed a nine-figure timber business Ponzi scheme to unfold,
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June 07, 2024
Shein's Pursuit Of London IPO Proves US-China Rift Persists
Online fashion giant Shein's expected pivot to London rather than the United States for its initial public offering — triggered by persistent tensions between China and the U.S. — will be closely watched by IPO prospects mulling where to list their shares in a dicey geopolitical climate, experts say.
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June 07, 2024
Emboldened SEC Spells Double Trouble For Defense Bar
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division has taken an increasingly aggressive stance in recent years thanks in part to an influx of federal prosecutors joining the agency and court decisions that have gradually become more permissive on parallel civil and criminal investigations, defense lawyers say.
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June 07, 2024
Former Allianz Unit Exec Admits Role In $6B Fund Fraud
A former portfolio manager at Allianz SE's U.S. unit told a Manhattan federal judge Friday that he lied to investors about the risks of the German finance giant's now-defunct Structured Alpha Funds, admitting to his role in a $6 billion fraud.
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June 06, 2024
Tesla Sued Over Vote On Revived $55B CEO Pay, Texas Move
Tesla, its board of directors and CEO Elon Musk were hit with a proposed class action in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday over the company's plan to seek stockholder approval for the same $55.8 billion Musk compensation plan voided in January, along with reincorporation of Tesla as a Texas company.
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June 06, 2024
NY Prosecutor Says DOJ Self-Disclosure Policies Are Working
The proliferation of policies across the U.S. Department of Justice crediting firms and individuals for voluntarily self-disclosing misconduct indicates the approach is effective, even though instances of such disclosures aren't overwhelming, a senior federal prosecutor in New York told a gathering of compliance officers on Thursday.
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June 06, 2024
Health Co. CEO Sold Stock Amid Souring Cigna Deal, Jury Told
A stock analyst told California federal jurors Thursday he noticed in disclosure forms that the founder of healthcare company Ontrak Inc. was starting to sell company shares a few weeks before Cigna announced it was terminating its $90 million contract with the company.
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June 06, 2024
Treasury Eyes AI As OCC Chief Calls For More 'Accountability'
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday launched an inquiry into the rollout of artificial intelligence in financial services, a move that came as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's acting chief cautioned that a Wall Street "nightmare" scenario involving the technology "seems uncomfortably plausible."
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June 06, 2024
White Collar Boutique Sued By Ex-Client Over Representation
White collar boutique Clark Smith Villazor LLP and one of its name partners is facing a lawsuit from a former client, a convicted securities fraud defendant who claims the firm caused him to be arrested by the FBI and face millions of dollars in fines.
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June 06, 2024
Calif. Judge Pauses Wells Fargo Investor Row Over State Case
A California federal judge has paused a pension system's proposed class action accusing top Wells Fargo & Co. officers of enabling a "culture of lawlessness," making way for a state court suit that alleges similar wrongdoing.
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June 06, 2024
SEC Sued For Info On Text Message Sweeps
The American Securities Association sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Florida federal court on Thursday, pushing for the disclosure of evidence it says could shed light on how the regulator came to impose billions of dollars' worth of fines against firms whose employees communicate business-related information over unmonitored texting and chat apps.
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June 06, 2024
Pharma Co. Misled Investors On Seizure Drug Trial, Suit Says
Marinus Pharmaceuticals has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that the company understated the risks of an epilepsy drug trial and did not warn investors that trial enrollment would be suspended when it failed to meet certain criteria.
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June 06, 2024
Investors Say Fund Preyed On Alums For RICO Scheme
A group of Chinese and American investors alleged this week that they were ripped off to the tune of millions of dollars by a group of fraudsters who, through a series of fraudulent bank loans, bogus tax filings and false advertising, induced them into putting their money into a Los Angeles real estate project.
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June 06, 2024
NY AG Says $1B Crypto Pyramid Scheme Targeted Immigrants
The New York Attorney General's Office on Thursday accused a digital assets trading firm, its founders and an affiliated crypto mining firm of running a billion-dollar pyramid scheme that defrauded hundreds of thousands of investors, many of whom are members of Haitian and other immigrant communities.
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June 06, 2024
Kwok's 'Whole Movement Is A Scam,' Ex-Fundraiser Tells Jury
A former top deputy in exiled Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kwok's anti-Chinese Communist Party movement testified in Manhattan federal court this week that she raised millions of investor dollars out of a deep belief in the cause, but has since realized the entire enterprise was a "scam."
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June 06, 2024
Ex-Autonomy CEO, VP Both Cleared In HP Criminal Fraud Trial
A California federal jury on Thursday acquitted former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch and former finance Vice President Stephen Chamberlain of criminal fraud and conspiracy charges following an 11-week trial over allegations that the two conned HP into overpaying billions for the British tech company.
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June 06, 2024
Trump Media SPAC Sponsor Must Post Bond In Chancery Row
Dissenting members of the LLC sponsor for the blank check company that took Trump Media & Technology Group public in March must post a hefty 10% security for potential losses on more than 1.5 million shares — now trading at $46 — snarled in a sponsor control dispute.
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June 06, 2024
Biote Investors Sue Cooley, SPAC After Huge Merger Loss
Family trust investors in Biote Corp. have sued Cooley LLP and the "hormone optimization" company's top brass over the $700 million merger Biote completed with a special purpose acquisition company, saying the deal was a "disastrous transaction to divert approximately $70 million of merger consideration to themselves and gain control of an enterprise they did not build."
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June 06, 2024
Latham Leads Robinhood In $200M Buy Of Crypto Exchange
Robinhood said on Thursday that it will buy cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp for approximately $200 million, as the electronic trading platform looks to scale up its global services for digital assets.
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June 05, 2024
Tokenizing Real Assets Touches Crypto Concerns, Reps Say
Putting stocks and other real-world assets on the blockchain is markedly different from issuing cryptocurrencies, but federal lawmakers on Wednesday showed that the debate about how to regulate so-called tokenization is decidedly similar when it comes to weighing its potential efficiencies against threats to privacy and consumer protection.
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June 05, 2024
Adviser Can't Unfreeze Assets To Pay Atty Fees
A Connecticut federal judge is standing by his earlier decision refusing to release $50,000 in frozen assets to pay the attorneys of an investment adviser and his wife, who face a $5.9 million fraud suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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June 05, 2024
Bank Shareholders Say Venezuelan Takeover Cost Them $27M
Shareholders in a small Miami bank told jurors Wednesday that board members working for the Venezuelan government had taken control of the bank and cost shareholders $27 million by engaging with the sanctioned Venezuelan government.
Expert Analysis
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: May Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from automobile insurance to securities — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including circuit-specific ascertainability requirements and how to conduct a Daubert analysis prior to class certification.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Opinion
Del. Needs To Urgently Pass Post-Moelis Corporate Law Bill
After the Delaware Chancery Court's decision in West Palm Beach Firefighters' Pension v. Moelis sparked confusion around governance rights, recently proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law would preserve the state's predictable corporate governance system, says Lawrence Hamermesh at Widener University Delaware Law School.
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4 Arbitration Takeaways From High Court Coinbase Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's May 23 decision in Coinbase v. Suski, which provides clarity to parties faced with successive contracts containing conflicting dispute resolution provisions, has four practical impacts for contracting parties to consider, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.
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Series
Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.
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How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case
The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.
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FEPA Cases Are Natural Fit For DOJ's Fraud Section
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent announcement that its Fraud Section would have exclusive jurisdiction over the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act — a new law that criminalizes “demand side” foreign bribery — makes sense, given its experience navigating the political and diplomatic sensitivities of related statutes, say James Koukios and Rachel Davidson Raycraft at MoFo.
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Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.
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The State Of Play In DEI And ESG 1 Year After Harvard Ruling
Almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, attorney general scrutiny of environmental, social and governance-related efforts indicates a potential path for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to be targeted, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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2 Oil Trader FCPA Pleas Highlight Fine-Reduction Factors
Recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlements with Gunvor and Trafigura — the latest actions in a yearslong sweep of the commodities trading industry — reveal useful data points related to U.S. Department of Justice policies on cooperation credit and past misconduct, say Michael DeBernardis and Laura Perkins at Hughes Hubbard.
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Influencer Considerations As FINRA Initiates Crackdown
To avert risks when evaluating influencer and referral programs, firms should assess the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's recent settlements involving the supervision of social media tastemakers, as well as recent FINRA guidance in this area, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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New Crypto Reporting Will Require Rigorous Recordkeeping
The release of a form for reporting digital asset transactions is a pivotal moment in the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to track cryptocurrency activities that increases oversight by requiring brokers to report investor sales and exchanges, say Shaina Kamen and Max Angel at Holland & Knight.
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What Transactional Attys Must Know About Texas Biz Courts
As Texas prepares to launch its new business courts, transactional attorneys — especially those involved in commercial, securities and internal governance matters — should keep several issues in mind when considering use of the state's business court system to facilitate deals and settle disputes, say attorneys at Katten.
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Crypto Mixer Laundering Case Provides Evidentiary Road Map
A Washington, D.C., federal court’s recent decision to allow expert testimony on blockchain analysis software in a bitcoin mixer money laundering case — which ultimately ended in conviction — establishes a precedent for the admissibility of similar software-derived evidence, say Peter Hardy and Kelly Lenahan-Pfahlert at Ballard Spahr.
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Series
Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.