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Securities
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September 27, 2024
Binance Founder Zhao Released From Federal Custody
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was released from a California correctional facility Friday after he was sentenced to four months in prison for his failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering program at the global cryptocurrency exchange, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Law360.
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September 27, 2024
Corporate Raider Accused Of Shirking $180M SEC Judgment
Corporate takeover specialist Paul A. Bilzerian, accused of ducking a more than $180 million judgment owed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for decades, was indicted alongside his longtime accountant and his cannabis company on Thursday, California federal prosecutors said Friday.
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September 27, 2024
SEC Says Ex-Chewy Exec Inside Traded On Pet Insurer Deal
A former executive at pet supply company Chewy agreed Friday to pay more than $35,000 to settle charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that he traded on inside information about the company's plans to announce a deal with a pet insurance company.
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September 27, 2024
CFTC Fines Olam Group $3.25M Over Cotton Sales Reports
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday fined Singapore-based integrated supply chain manager Olam Group Ltd. $3.25 million for allegedly submitting false, misleading or inaccurate reports to the CFTC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture about its sale of U.S. cotton worth more than $190 million.
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September 27, 2024
SEC Drops Case Against Marcum CPA After High Court Ruling
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission quietly dropped an in-house proceeding Friday against a Marcum LLP accountant whose case was called into question by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that curtailed the agency's use of its administrative courts.
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September 27, 2024
SEC Fines Firms, Sues Ex-Reps' Over Cherry-Picking Scheme
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that Illinois-based Cetera Investment Advisers LLC and formerly California-based First Allied Advisory Services Inc. have each agreed to pay $200,000 to settle claims that two investment advisers formerly associated with both firms ran separate, multiyear, cherry-picking schemes that harmed investors.
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September 27, 2024
FTX Users Say Binance Manipulated Market To Spark Collapse
Users of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX told a Florida federal judge that social media posts by competing exchange Binance still manipulated markets to cause the collapse of FTX and harm users even if the statements themselves weren't false.
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September 27, 2024
Ex-CEO To Pay SEC Fine For Pre-SPAC Disclosure Failures
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday it has reached a settlement with the former CEO of an electric vehicle battery company who allegedly concealed its supply chain issues ahead of its merger with a blank check company, leading to a nearly 20% drop in the company's share price once the shortage was revealed.
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September 27, 2024
Disney Warns Investor Streaming Suit Could Chill Innovation
Allowing securities litigation over The Walt Disney Co.'s underperforming streaming service to go forward would discourage companies from trying "new, risky business plans," counsel for the entertainment giant told a California federal judge in an attempt to toss the suit Friday.
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September 27, 2024
UK Man Indicted On $4M 'Hack-To-Trade' Scheme
New Jersey federal prosecutors announced Friday that a U.K. man has been arrested and is awaiting extradition on charges of hacking into the email accounts of several corporate executives in order to steal nonpublic information that he used to turn a profit of almost $4 million.
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September 27, 2024
Mango Markets Crypto Cos. Ink $700K Deal Over SEC Claims
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday that the business entities behind decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Mango Markets agreed to a nearly $700,000 settlement to resolve alleged registration violations, which the regulator brought after the marketplace was bilked of more than $100 million.
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September 27, 2024
Juul Stockholder Class Sues In Del. Over Controller Windfall
Two stockholders of e-cigarette venture Juul Labs Inc. sued the company's controllers and board on Friday in a proposed class derivative action seeking damages for an alleged top stockholder scheme to avoid huge liabilities under terms said to have cost the company billions.
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September 27, 2024
Musk Skirts Sanctions In Missed Twitter Deposition, For Now
A California federal judge on Friday declined to sanction Elon Musk, for now, after he skipped a deposition over his $44 billion Twitter takeover, allowing the parties to resolve the issue and advising them to wait to see if he appears for the deposition that's been rescheduled for this coming Friday.
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September 27, 2024
CFTC Accuses Firms Of $3.6M Retail Forex Fraud
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday targeted a commodity trading platform the regulator alleged was behind a scheme that scammed $3.6 million from Asian American customers who thought they were investing in retail foreign exchange and commodity futures contracts.
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September 27, 2024
CFTC Fines Futures Firm $650K For Botched Records, Trades
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has fined CHS Hedging LLC $650,000 to settle allegations that it did not properly record thousands of calls between associates and customers and failed to obtain customer authorizations before entering trades over a four-year period.
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September 27, 2024
2nd Circ. Won't Revive Danimer Investors' 'Greenwashing' Suit
The Second Circuit on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Danimer Scientific Inc. of over-hyping the environmentally friendly nature of a plastics alternative it produced, with the appellate court saying that there was no proof that company executives purposefully misled investors.
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September 27, 2024
Early Trump Media Backer Dumps Shares As Lockup Expires
An early investor in former President Donald Trump's social media platform has unloaded most of its stake, marking the first divestiture following the expiration of a lockup period that restricted sales after Trump's entity went public earlier this year.
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September 27, 2024
Pharma Co. Amarin Beats Class Action Over Patent Issues
A New Jersey federal judge has tossed a proposed class action against pharmaceutical company Amarin and its top brass, alleging they misled shareholders about their products and the prospects of related patent litigation, saying the investors have failed to plead any actionable misleading statements or omissions made by the defendants.
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September 27, 2024
Cooley Accused Of Hiding Fraud From Startup Investors
A former board member of a dry-cleaning delivery startup has alleged in New Jersey federal court that Cooley LLP and its attorneys deliberately kept investors in the dark about fraud claims against the startup's chief executive.
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September 27, 2024
Sen. Bill Would Curb ESG Factors In Retirement Fund Choices
A bill in the Senate would prohibit asset managers from prioritizing environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors over financial gain when selecting retirement investments.
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September 27, 2024
NY Man Convicted In Father-Son Crypto Caper
A Long Island man was convicted by a Manhattan federal jury of conspiring with his son to scam investors out of millions by claiming to invest their cryptocurrency and instead pocketing the funds.
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September 27, 2024
TelexFree Victims Say Payment Processor Lost Key Emails
Victims of the multibillion-dollar TelexFree Ponzi scheme said a payment processor's loss of critical emails and other files related to the ploy amounts to a "blatant coverup" to hide evidence that would have otherwise bolstered their case against the company.
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September 26, 2024
SEC Fines Cassava $40M Over Alzheimer's Treatment Claims
Neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company Cassava Sciences Inc. and two of its former executives agreed to pay over $40 million to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims related to allegedly misleading statements about clinical trial results for a potential Alzheimer's disease therapeutic, the regulator announced on Thursday.
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September 26, 2024
Cannabis REIT Beats Investor Class Action For Good
A New Jersey federal judge has allowed a cannabis-focused real estate investment trust and certain executives to permanently escape a proposed class action brought by the company's shareholders, finding the lawsuit failed to allege the defendants did not conduct proper due diligence on a major tenant accused of engaging in fraud.
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September 26, 2024
2nd Circ. Questions Crypto Co.'s 'Control' In Scam Token Suit
Investors attempting to revive their suit around decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap Labs told a Second Circuit panel on Thursday that their claims were prematurely dismissed, while a judge pressed them to show how any of the defendants had control of the alleged "rampant fraud" on the platform.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Glassblowing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
I never expected that glassblowing would strongly influence my work as an attorney, but it has taught me the importance of building a solid foundation for your work, learning from others and committing to a lifetime of practice, says Margaret House at Kalijarvi Chuzi.
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What DOL Fiduciary Rule Means For Private Fund Managers
Attorneys at Ropes & Gray discuss how the U.S. Department of Labor's recently released final fiduciary rule, which revises the agency's 1975 regulation, could potentially cause private fund managers' current marketing practices and communications to be considered fiduciary advice, and therefore subject them to strict prohibitions.
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Best Practices For Chemical Transparency In Supply Chains
A flurry of new and forthcoming regulations in different jurisdictions that require disclosure of potentially hazardous substances used in companies' products and processes will require businesses to take proactive steps to build chemical transparency into their supply chains, and engage robustly and systematically with vendors, says Jillian Stacy at Enhesa.
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What 11th Circ. Fearless Fund Ruling Means For DEI In Courts
The Eleventh Circuit's recent backing of a freeze on the Fearless Fund's grants to women of color building new companies marks the latest major development in litigation related to diversity, equity and inclusion and may be used to question other DEI programs targeted at providing opportunities to certain classes of individuals, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Money, Money, Money: Limiting White Collar Wealth Evidence
As courts increasingly recognize that allowing unfettered evidence of wealth could prejudice a jury against a defendant, white collar defense counsel should consider several avenues for excluding visual evidence of a lavish lifestyle at trial, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Unpacking The Latest Tranche Of Sanctions Targeting Russia
Hundreds of new U.S. sanctions and export-control measures targeting trade with Russia, issued last week in connection with the G7 summit, illustrate the fluidity of trade-focused restrictions and the need to constantly refresh compliance analyses, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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How Associates Can Build A Professional Image
As hybrid work arrangements become the norm in the legal industry, early-career attorneys must be proactive in building and maintaining a professional presence in both physical and digital settings, ensuring that their image aligns with their long-term career goals, say Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners and Estelle Winsett at Estelle Winsett Professional Image Consulting.
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Considerations For Cooperation Contracts In Loan Trades
Significant challenges to settling trades can arise when lenders of syndicated bank loans enter into defense-oriented cooperation agreements, which are growing in popularity, but working through these issues on the front end of a trade can save hours down the road, says Robert Waldner at Crowell & Moring.
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Emerging Trends In ESG-Focused Securities Litigation
Based on a combination of shareholder pressure, increasing regulatory scrutiny and proposed rulemaking, there has been a proliferation of litigation over public company disclosures and actions regarding environmental, social, and governance factors — and the overall volume of such class actions will likely increase in the coming years, say attorneys at Mintz.
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Firms Must Rethink How They Train New Lawyers In AI Age
As law firms begin to use generative artificial intelligence to complete lower-level legal tasks, they’ll need to consider new ways to train summer associates and early-career attorneys, keeping in mind the five stages of skill acquisition, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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Next Steps After 5th Circ. Nixes Private Fund Adviser Rules
The Fifth Circuit's recent toss of key U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules regarding private fund advisers represents a setback for the regulator, but open questions, including the possibility of an SEC petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, mean it's still too early to consider the matter closed, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing
When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Takeaways From Nat'l Security Division's Historic Declination
The Justice Department National Security Division's recent decision not to prosecute a biochemical company for an employee's export control violation marks its first declination under a new corporate enforcement policy, sending a clear message to companies that self-disclosure of misconduct may confer material benefits, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Deciphering SEC Disgorgement 4 Years After Liu
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Liu v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to preserve SEC disgorgement with limits, courts have continued to rule largely in the agency’s favor, but a recent circuit split over the National Defense Authorization Act's import may create hurdles for the SEC, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Updates To CFTC Large Trader Report Rules Leave Questions
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's updated large trader position reporting rules for futures and options is a much-needed change that modernizes a rule that had gone largely untouched since the 1980s, but the updates leave important questions unanswered, say Katherine Cooper and Maggie DePoy at BCLP.