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Securities
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August 29, 2024
Starbucks Overpromised On 'Reinvention' Plan, Investor Says
Coffee chain Starbucks faces a proposed investor class action alleging it misled the markets about prospects for its so-called Triple Shot Reinvention strategy, hurting investors after trading prices for its shares slid when it announced disappointing quarterly results in April 2024.
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August 29, 2024
SEC Says PE Firm Ran $3.3M Real Estate Investment Scam
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a suit in California federal court accusing a private equity firm and its managing partner, who was previously convicted of financial crimes, of fraudulently raising $3.3 million through a Ponzi-like real estate investment scheme.
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August 29, 2024
SEC Slams Crypto Co.'s Bid To Curb Its Enforcement Powers
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to rid itself of a lawsuit that aims to limit its ability to oversee the crypto industry, telling a Texas federal judge that there is no evidence that the agency's staff was even aware of the startup that is suing to head off a non-existent enforcement action.
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August 29, 2024
Ex-SPAC Agrees To Face 'Springing Penalty' In SEC Case
Former blank check company National Energy Services Reunited Corp. has agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $400,000, with a potential additional penalty of $1.2 million if it doesn't undertake certain remediation efforts, over alleged financial reporting and controls failures stemming from its acquisition of 2 companies.
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August 29, 2024
Schwab's 'Cash Sweep' Paid For TD Ameritrade Buy, Suit Says
The Charles Schwab Corp. has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court by three customers alleging that the investment bank obtains "outsized benefits" from its cash sweep programs and used a significant amount of the cash to finance its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. several years ago.
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August 29, 2024
Nigerian Fintech Ex-CEO Hit With $32M Fine In SEC Fraud Suit
A New York federal judge has levied a nearly $32 million penalty against a Nigerian businessman whom the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused of fraudulently inflating the value of his food and agriculture technology businesses, while also ordering him and various affiliated businesses to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.
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August 29, 2024
Class Attys Seek Chancery Doc Sanctions In Santander Suit
An attorney for Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. stockholders urged a Delaware vice chancellor Thursday to exercise the court's "common law" document retention enforcer role during arguments for sanctions against the big auto lender's board, controller and parent for deleting messages before a $2.5 billion minority squeeze-out merger.
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August 29, 2024
GAO Suggests IRS Improve Retirement Account Oversight
The Internal Revenue Service needs to beef up its oversight of conflicts of interest between fiduciaries and individual retirement account investors, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.
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August 29, 2024
JPMorgan Says Ex-Adviser Poached Clients Worth $13M
JPMorgan Chase has accused a former adviser of attempting to solicit clients for Wells Fargo, an effort JPMorgan alleged has so far been successful in converting 16 clients worth $13 million to its competitor.
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August 29, 2024
Feds Say Ex-BigLaw Atty Can't Shake OneCoin Conviction
Federal prosecutors have told the Second Circuit that former Locke Lord LLP partner Mark S. Scott has "greatly exaggerate[d]" the importance of testimony from a government witness, some of which was later shown to be perjury, in a bid to have his money laundering conviction reversed.
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August 29, 2024
Nasdaq To Pay $22M CFTC Fine Over Incentive Program
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission slapped Nasdaq Futures Inc. with a $22 million fine Thursday based on allegations that the now-shuttered derivatives exchange failed to disclose an incentive program for high-volume traders.
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August 28, 2024
Calif. Assembly OKs 1st-Of-Its-Kind AI Safety Bill
California lawmakers on Wednesday approved a groundbreaking proposal that would set safety and security standards for large artificial intelligence models.
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August 28, 2024
TikTok Moderation Co. Can't Beat Investor Suit Over Exposés
A Florida federal judge ruled Wednesday that TikTok content moderation company Teleperformance must face a pension fund's proposed class action alleging that investors were harmed after investigative reports were published claiming that the company was working its staff into the ground and forcing them to watch harmful content with no support.
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August 28, 2024
SEC Says Repeat Offenders Ran Medical Co. Investment Scam
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a settlement with one of two men it accused of inflating the price of a healthcare company before an initial public offering with a shell company, saying he has violated a trading bar from the agency's previous suit against him.
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August 28, 2024
BofA Units Fined $3M Over Trade Surveillance Compliance
Two Bank of America units have agreed to pay $3 million to settle the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's claims that they did not sufficiently safeguard against potentially manipulative trading by customers.
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August 28, 2024
Capital One Says Merger's Pending Approval Tanks Challenge
Capital One urged a Virginia federal judge to toss or pause a lawsuit challenging the bank's proposed $35 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services, saying the suit's claims are too speculative and contingent on unknown future events since they depend entirely on the acquisition receiving regulatory and government approval.
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August 28, 2024
SEC To Embattled NC Insurance Exec: Show Us The Money
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to force a convicted insurance mogul at the center of an alleged $57 million fraud to tell it what happened to the money he's accused of stealing from the insurance companies he ran, arguing in a North Carolina federal court that his answers thus far don't add up and that he shouldn't be allowed to rely on them at his upcoming trial.
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August 28, 2024
Boston Consulting Group Avoids FCPA Prosecution, Feds Say
The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to prosecute Boston Consulting Group Inc. for former employees' alleged bribery of Angolan officials because of the management consulting firm's self-disclosure of the misconduct, as well as its cooperation, remediation and disgorgement of more than $14.4 million.
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August 28, 2024
Walgreens Brass Hid Pharmacy Division Woes, Suit Says
Walgreens' directors and officers have been hit with a derivative suit by a shareholder who says the company and its executives inflated stock value by publicly expressing confidence in the pharmacy division's growth while hiding its struggles adapting to industry hurdles.
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August 28, 2024
NFT Platform OpenSea Says SEC May Bring Registration Suit
The CEO of nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea said Wednesday that the firm was ready to "stand up and fight" after it received a notice that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was considering an enforcement action claiming that the "creative goods" on its platform are unregistered securities.
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August 28, 2024
Bowl America Board Strikes $2.2M Deal To End Merger Suit
Bowl America board members have agreed to pay nearly $2.2 million to settle a class action that alleged the company's board of directors acted in bad faith when it approved a merger with Bowlero Corp., according to a proposal submitted to a Maryland federal court.
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August 28, 2024
Billionaire Vik Says Deutsche Bank's 'Harassment' Must End
Deutsche Bank AG's Connecticut state court lawsuit against billionaire Alexander Vik and his daughter is a doomed effort to relitigate issues that were already decided in a 2013 case that likewise sprang from the bank's global legal battle to collect a $243 million foreign judgment, the defendants said in seeking an early win.
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August 28, 2024
Conn. Investment Firm Withheld Pay, Commissions, Suit Says
Six former employees of Connecticut investment advisory firm Excel Wealth Management LLC have sued the company and its members in state court seeking hourly wages or commissions they claimed they were never paid, with some alleging they were terminated for speaking out about their compensation.
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August 28, 2024
SEC Omits 'Swing Pricing' Plan From Fund Disclosure Rules
A divided U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday agreed to require more detailed and frequent disclosures from mutual funds, though regulators dropped plans — at least for now — to implement a controversial "swing pricing" provision.
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August 28, 2024
AI Software Co. Must Face SEC's $108M Pyramid Scheme Suit
A Florida federal judge has refused to toss a suit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against the owners of a multilevel marketing company, accusing them of running a fraudulent and unregistered securities offering that raised roughly $108 million from claims that they are using artificial intelligence to develop software, saying the SEC has sufficiently pleaded the existence of a scheme, among other things.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Dapper Settlement Offers Rules Of The Road For NFT Issuers
The terms of a $4 million settlement in a class action alleging that Dapper Labs sold its NBA Top Shot Moments as unregistered securities may be a model for third parties that wish to avoid securities liability in connection with offering digital asset non-fungible token collectibles, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice
The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.
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Navigating The New Rise Of Greenwashing Litigation
As greenwashing lawsuits continue to gain momentum with a shift in focus to carbon-neutrality claims, businesses must exercise caution and ensure transparency in their environmental marketing practices, taking cues from recent legal challenges in the airline industry, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State
On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.
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How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.
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First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants
The Delaware Chancery Court's first full dismissal of claims challenging a special purpose acquisition company transaction under the entire fairness doctrine in the recent Hennessy Capital Acquisition Stockholder Litigation establishes useful precedent to abate the flood of SPAC litigation, say Lisa Bugni and Benjamin Lee at King & Spalding.