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Securities
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September 04, 2024
FINRA Fines Broker-Dealer $900K Over Lax AML Compliance
Broker-dealer Brex Treasury has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's claims that it overrelied on automated anti-money laundering compliance software not reasonably designed to meet its needs.
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September 04, 2024
Feds Say Litigation Funding Co. Was A $10M Ponzi Scheme
A purported investment company's owner faces criminal charges and a suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after she allegedly made false claims to investors that she would lend their money to personal injury attorneys but instead used the money for a Ponzi-like scheme and personal expenses.
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September 04, 2024
Brazilian Oil Bribery Case Jury Warned Of 'Liar' Witness
Attorneys for a Connecticut trader accused of bribing Brazilian oil officials urged a jury on Wednesday not to trust an alleged co-conspirator scheduled to testify for the government, calling that man a "skilled and adept liar" who would "substantially assist" prosecutors in possible return for a favorable family immigration decision.
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September 11, 2024
Hausfeld Snaps Up Litigation Pro From Covington In London
Hausfeld LLP has hired a partner from Covington & Burling LLP in London to boost its profile in commercial disputes, after its office in the U.K. capital recently underwent changes in leadership.
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September 04, 2024
J&J Hit With $1B Damages In Del. Merger Milestone Fight
Johnson & Johnson owes more than $1 billion to a medical robotics developer and entrepreneur caught up in a multibillion-dollar post-acquisition dispute, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled Wednesday.
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September 04, 2024
CFTC Fines Uniswap Over Bitcoin, Ether Liquidity Pools
Decentralized finance platform Uniswap Labs has agreed to pay the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission $175,000 to settle allegations that it illegally offered access to liquidity pools underpinned by bitcoin and ether, the regulator said Wednesday.
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September 03, 2024
8th Circ. Again Scraps Class Cert. For TD Ameritrade Clients
The Eighth Circuit reversed Tuesday a lower court's ruling certifying a class of TD Ameritrade clients for the second time in a lawsuit alleging the stockbroker routed orders to trading venues that didn't always provide the best execution, rejecting the named plaintiff's new class-wide damages theory based on commissions.
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September 03, 2024
Teva Investors Get Go-Ahead To Resume Kickbacks Class Suit
A shareholder's certified class action against pharmaceutical company Teva can resume after being paused for two years, as the company says it is working towards a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over related claims it used kickbacks to raise the price of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, a Philadelphia federal judge has decided.
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September 03, 2024
2nd Circ. Backs Toss Of Ericsson Investors' ISIS Bribes Suit
The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a New York federal judge's decision to toss an investor class action against telecom giant Ericsson and several members of its top brass over claims that they hid knowledge of possible bribes to the Islamic State from U.S. investors and committed other violations of federal securities laws.
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September 03, 2024
Alphabet Beats Investor Suit Over Antitrust Issues, For Now
A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed a proposed securities fraud class action against Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc., saying investors failed to adequately allege that Google intended to deceive them when responding to a congressional query on concerns of anti-competitive ad tech practices.
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September 03, 2024
PE Firm Investors Say False SEC Filings Caused Big Losses
Private equity firm Migom Global Corp., its subsidiary bank and its CEO have been named in a proposed securities class action alleging they inflated financial statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to conceal their diversion of tens of millions of dollars in customer deposits to personal ventures.
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September 03, 2024
Super Micro Faces Investor Suits Over Short Seller Report
Artificial intelligence server manufacturer Super Micro Computer Inc. has been hit with at least three investor lawsuits in California federal court over claims its shares fell by about 20% after a short seller report accused it of violating its previous settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting improprieties.
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September 03, 2024
SEC Fines Adviser That Lost Clients' Crypto In FTX Collapse
An investment adviser that lost client funds in the collapse of FTX found itself on the receiving end of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action on Tuesday, with Galois Capital Management LLC settling allegations that it failed to find a proper custodian for those crypto assets.
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September 03, 2024
5th Circ. Hesitant To Call Tornado Cash 'Entity'
A Fifth Circuit panel prodded the U.S. Department of the Treasury's argument that Tornado Cash counts as a corporation-like organization, telling the agency that its reasoning for calling the sanctioned crypto mixer an entity was "slippery" during oral arguments Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
SEC Fines 6 Credit Rating Firms $49M Over Texting Records
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that six nationally recognized statistical rating organizations agreed to pay a combined $49 million for failing to preserve electronic communications, the latest wave of settlements in an ongoing crackdown that has yielded billions in fines.
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September 03, 2024
Trustee, Trader Culled From Jury In $1M Brazilian Bribery Trial
A bankruptcy trustee and a commodities trader were among the potential jurors weeded out Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's opening statements in the criminal trial of a Connecticut oil trader accused of bribing officials with Brazil's state-owned oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA and its U.S. subsidiaries.
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September 03, 2024
Adviser Lied About Wall Street Skyscraper Digs, SEC Says
A purported $10 million private fund investment adviser faces U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it lied about being a public company with an office on Manhattan's Wall Street as part of a filing in which it claimed registration exemption.
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September 03, 2024
Kirkland Brings On Ex-Goldman Sachs Debt Finance Pro In NY
Kirkland & Ellis LLP said Tuesday it has added an experienced debt finance partner in New York who most recently worked as a managing director for Goldman Sachs, in the firm's latest move to bulk up its structured finance and structured private credit practice.
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September 03, 2024
$15M Class Atty Fee Sought In Microsoft-Activision Suit
Attorneys for Sweden's state pension fund manager have proposed a $15 million attorney fee for their investigation and intervention in a suit seeking Delaware Court of Chancery fixes for defects in some terms of Activision Blizzard Inc.'s $68.7 billion acquisition by Microsoft Corp. last year.
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September 03, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week in Delaware's court of equity, an iconic rock band got a new member, former President Donald Trump's social media company escaped a contempt ruling, and litigation grew over Illumina Inc.'s $8 billion reacquisition of cancer-testing company Grail Inc. New cases touched on intellectual property, mergers, share transfers and dump trucks. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Court of Chancery.
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September 03, 2024
$2.2M Bowling Co. Investor Settlement Gets Initial Green Light
A Maryland federal judge has preliminarily approved a nearly $2.2 million settlement ending a class action that alleged Bowl America's board of directors acted in bad faith when approving a merger with Bowlero Corp.
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August 30, 2024
Chancery Prunes $2.1M From Atty Fee Bid In Sculptor Merger
Class attorneys who helped secure a 14.4%, or $80.8 million, improvement in proceeds from Sculptor Capital Management's sale to Rithm Capital Corp. — plus a $6.5 million common fund — saw their $5.75 million fee proposal cut to $3.6 million in Delaware's Court of Chancery Friday.
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August 30, 2024
Semiconductor Co. Beats Investor Suit Over Failed $8B Merger
A California federal judge has dismissed a proposed investor class action filed over semiconductor company MaxLinear Inc.'s decision to cancel a planned $8 billion merger with Silicon Motion Technology Corp., finding investors' claims against the former can't stand because they held shares in the latter.
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August 30, 2024
5th Circ. Rejects SEC Whistleblower Award Calculation Appeal
The Fifth Circuit on Friday rejected petitions by two whistleblowers who allege that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shortchanged them after they helped to uncover purportedly the largest fraud in Texas history, by a company that was driven into bankruptcy.
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August 30, 2024
CFTC Grants Clearing Status To Courtroom Foe Kalshi
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has given the all clear for a division of derivatives startup Kalshi to serve as an intermediary in the swaps market, even as the pair continue to duke it out in court over the trading platform's rebuffed request to participate in the stalled elections betting market.
Expert Analysis
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What FTX Case Taught Us About Digital Asset Recoverability
FTX's Chapter 11 plan has drawn lots of attention, but the focus should be on the anticipated outcome for investors, which counters several myths about digital currencies, innovation and recoverability, says Kyla Curley at StoneTurn.
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How To Survive Shareholder Activism
In an era where shareholder activism is on the rise, companies must identify weaknesses, clearly communicate strategies, update board composition and engage with shareholders consistently in order to avoid disruptive shareholder activism and safeguard the interests of both the company and its shareholders, say J.T. Ho at Orrick and Greg Taxin at Spotlight Advisors.
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Will Texas Stock Exchange Provide Regulatory Haven?
While the newly proposed Texas Stock Exchange may represent a market reaction to increasingly complex regulations, those looking to list on a national securities exchange should consider that their choice of an exchange may not relieve them of some of the most burdensome public company requirements, say Elizabeth McNichol and Ryan Lilley at Katten.
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Equity Rights Offering Considerations As Maturity Cliff Looms
Current market uncertainties make an equity rights offering — involving affiliate backstop investors — a cost-effective, capital-raising transaction for distressed companies looking to manage their leverage ahead of the impending maturity of a substantial number of COVID-era debt issuances, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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A Checklist For Lenders Preparing For CRE Loan Defaults
Considering the recent interest rate environment, lenders should brush up on the proper steps that they should take when preparing to respond to a borrower's default on a commercial real estate loan, and borrowers should understand what lenders will be reviewing, says attorney Norma Williams.
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Opinion
Discount Window Reform Needed To Curb Modern Bank Runs
We learned during the spring 2023 failures that bank runs can happen extraordinarily fast in light of modern technology, especially when banks have a greater concentration of large deposits, demonstrating that the antiquated but effective discount window needs to be overhauled before the next crisis, says Cris Cicala at Stinson.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Making Good On Bold Promises
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure in the second quarter cleared the way for the bureau to resume a number of high-priority initiatives, and it appears poised to charge ahead in working toward its aggressive preelection agenda, say Andrew Arculin and Paula Vigo Marqués at Blank Rome.
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Series
After Chevron: Creating New Hurdles For ESG Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, limiting court deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, could have significant impacts on the future of ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions, says Leah Malone at Simpson Thacher.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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Navigating The Extent Of SEC Cybersecurity Breach Authority
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's broad reading of its authority under Section 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act in the R.R. Donnelley and SolarWinds actions has ramifications for companies dealing with cybersecurity breaches, but it remains to be seen whether the commission's use of the provision will withstand judicial scrutiny, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
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Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal
Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.