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Securities
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March 28, 2024
Bankman-Fried Gets 25 Years For 'Very Bad Bet' Of FTX Fraud
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for stealing more than $11 billion from customers, investors and lenders of his now-collapsed cryptocurrency empire, with a Manhattan federal judge saying the infamous risk-taker "made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught."
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March 27, 2024
No New Trial For Hedge Fund Boss In Forex Rigging Case
A New York federal judge on Friday refused to acquit or call for a new trial for a U.K.-based hedge fund chief convicted of illegally manipulating a currency exchange rate, rejecting his argument that his alleged conduct lacked sufficient ties to the United States.
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March 27, 2024
Evidence On Ex-Mozambique Official Stays In $2B Fraud Suit
A former Mozambique finance minister can't keep evidence from his phone out of a case alleging his involvement in a $2 billion scheme to siphon government-backed project funds from that country after a federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday backed the phone's seizure and search.
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March 27, 2024
DOJ, SEC Looking At Chemours After Internal Accounting Probe
The Chemours Co. said on Wednesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have launched a probe into the chemical company after an internal review revealed that former executives engaged in unethical accounting practices.
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March 27, 2024
Merger News Boosts Rivals, 'Shadow Trading' Jury Told
Medivation's 2016 sale announcement would have an expected positive "spillover effect" on rival Incyte's stock price, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission expert testified Wednesday in a "shadow trading" trial over claims an ex-Medivation executive exploited confidential news of his company's imminent acquisition to buy shares in the competitor.
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March 27, 2024
AI Software Co. Hid Oil Biz Partnership's Collapse, Suit Says
Executives and directors of artificial intelligence company C3.ai Inc. have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in California federal court claiming they failed to disclose that the company's partnership with oil company Baker Hughes Co. was falling apart and that its sales team was experiencing high turnover.
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March 27, 2024
Video Streamer Escapes Crypto Token Holder's Fraud Suit
A New York federal judge has permanently tossed a suit accusing video streaming service Open Props Inc. and its executives of misrepresenting to investors that it would become a decentralized blockchain network following the sale of its native cryptocurrency tokens.
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March 27, 2024
Minor League Players Charged With Insider Trading
California federal prosecutors have hit current and former minor league baseball players with claims they made profits totaling over $162,000 trading off insider information about burger chain Jack in the Box's $575 million acquisition of its fellow chain Del Taco.
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March 27, 2024
BlackRock's Non-ESG Funds Have Green Agenda, Miss. Says
Mississippi's secretary of state announced Wednesday that it intends to fine BlackRock multiple millions of dollars, alleging the asset manager has repeatedly made false and misleading statements about its involvement in "pushing" environmental, social and corporate governance factors on portfolio companies.
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March 27, 2024
SEC Wins Nearly $1M Against Penny Stock Influencer
A California man who used his large social media following to manipulate penny stock prices has been ordered to pay more than $917,000 by a federal judge who said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proved the influencer committed fraud by failing to tell his followers he was selling off the very same stocks he was urging them to buy.
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March 27, 2024
Energy Co. Origis Exits Investor Suit Over Devalued Shares
Renewable energy company Origis USA Inc. has escaped a suit by former shareholders after a New York federal judge concluded that the plaintiffs failed to show that the company was privy to an alleged scheme by its now-former CEO to induce them to sell their stakes for considerably less than the $1.4 billion they were later sold for.
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March 27, 2024
Binance Says Fla. Suspension Order Violates Due Process
Binance on Wednesday told a Florida appeals court that state regulators wrongly suspended its license to operate as a money transmitter, saying an emergency order issued earlier this year telling the cryptocurrency exchange to cease operations wasn't sufficiently justified and violates due process.
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March 27, 2024
Backers Of Trump-Tied SPAC Sue To Confirm Manager Purge
Investors behind the sponsor of the special-purpose acquisition company that took Donald Trump's Truth Social public sued its managing member, seeking a declaration from the Delaware Chancery Court that they have validly removed him from his post and that he has no authority to act on their behalf.
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March 27, 2024
Colo. Judge Unplugs Vague EV-Maker Investor Suit
A Colorado federal judge has dismissed a shareholder suit against commercial electric vehicle company Lightning eMotors, agreeing with a magistrate judge's conclusion that the shareholders failed to bring specific allegations that the company knowingly misled investors on matters like its production capacity.
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March 27, 2024
BlockFi Wins Approval Of 'Tremendous' Deal With FTX
A New Jersey bankruptcy judge gave his blessing on Wednesday to a global settlement that ends disputes between fallen cryptocurrency giants BlockFi Inc. and FTX, saying the results were "tremendous."
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March 27, 2024
Ex-NJ Corrections Officer Admits To Scamming $600K
A former New Jersey corrections officer has admitted to orchestrating two fraud schemes, including an alleged cryptocurrency scam that resulted in losses of more than $600,000, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey has announced.
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March 27, 2024
Coinbase Denied Early Victory Over SEC Enforcement Action
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday rejected crypto exchange Coinbase's bid to defeat the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's claims that it operated as an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency.
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March 27, 2024
COVID Prompted Equity Plan Edit, Raytheon Tells Chancery
Raytheon Technologies Corp. amended employee compensation plans in early 2020 to mitigate "head-spinning unprecedented volatility" from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a shareholder's allegations that directors acted in bad faith by failing to seek stockholder approval should be dismissed, the aerospace company told Delaware's Court of Chancery on Wednesday.
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March 27, 2024
Chancery Sides With Cannabis Company On Legal Fees Row
A Delaware Court of Chancery judge at a Wednesday hearing gave Left Coast Ventures Inc. time to fulfill a court order requiring it to cover legal fees for three former directors of the cannabis company defending a merger-related suit, after a company attorney told the judge the money will be coming.
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March 27, 2024
3 Firms Vie To Lead Instacart Pre-IPO Action
Levi & Korsinsky LLP, Pomerantz LLP and The Rosen Law Firm PA have each asked a California federal judge to lead a securities lawsuit against grocery delivery company Instacart for allegedly misrepresenting its growth potential in the lead-up to its initial public offering.
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March 27, 2024
SEC Cyber Enforcement Top Concern For Compliance Pros
More than 40% of compliance personnel from asset management, investment adviser and private markets firms are concerned about how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will enforce its new cybersecurity rules, according to findings from a recent survey.
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March 27, 2024
Feds Say Murdaugh Lied, Broke Plea Deal Over $9M Fraud
Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina attorney serving a life sentence for killing his wife and son, was dishonest with the government and should potentially face a harsher prison sentence than the one proposed in a plea agreement on federal charges of stealing at least $9 million from clients, prosecutors said.
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March 27, 2024
Everbridge Investor Seeks To Block $1.8B Thoma Bravo Deal
A shareholder in Massachusetts-based emergency management platform Everbridge Inc. is asking a state court to intervene in a pending $1.8 billion acquisition by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LP, alleging in a Wednesday lawsuit that investors are being misled about the true value of shares and the motives of those promoting the deal.
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March 27, 2024
Real Estate Exec Asks To Toss Shareholder's Self-Dealing Suit
The president of a real estate management and investment firm asked a California federal court to toss a derivative shareholder suit accusing him of misusing nearly $35 million of company revenue in various ways, including hiring a business he owned with his mistress.
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March 27, 2024
Terraform Loses Mistrial Bid After Rakoff Query About 'Lying'
Manhattan U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff on Wednesday rejected a mistrial bid by counsel for Terraform Labs and creator Do Kwon centering on the judge's move to ask an investor if the bankrupt crypto startup had disclosed potential risks about "lying" to the public.
Expert Analysis
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5 Steps To Meet CFTC Remediation Expectations
After the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently updated its enforcement policies, organizations should implement elements of effective remediation — from root-cause analyses to design effectiveness tests — to mitigate the risk of penalties and third-party oversight, say Jonny Frank and Chris Hoyle at StoneTurn Group.
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Asserting 'Presence-Of-Counsel' Defense In Securities Trials
As illustrated by the fraud trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, defense attorneys in securities trials might consider arguing that counsel had some involvement in the conduct at issue — if the more formal advice-of-counsel defense is unavailable and circumstances allow for a privilege waiver, say Joseph Dever and Matthew Elkin at Cozen O'Connor.
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Series
ESG Around The World: Mexico
ESG has yet to become part of the DNA of the Mexican business model, but huge strides are being made in that direction, as more stakeholders demand that companies adopt, at the least, a modicum of sustainability commitments and demonstrate how they will meet them, says Carlos Escoto at Galicia Abogados.
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The Case For Post-Bar Clerk Training Programs At Law Firms
In today's competitive legal hiring market, an intentionally designed training program for law school graduates awaiting bar admission can be an effective way of creating a pipeline of qualified candidates, says Brent Daub at Gilson Daub.
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What SEC Retreat In Ripple Case Means For Crypto Regulation
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has chosen a regulation-by-enforcement approach to cryptocurrency policy rather than through rulemaking, but the agency's recently aborted enforcement action against two Ripple Labs executives for alleged securities law violations demonstrates the limits of this piecemeal tactic, says Keith Blackman at Bracewell.
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SEC Whistleblower Action Spotlights Risks For Private Cos.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent whistleblower action against Monolith Resources holds important implications for private companies, who could face unprecedented regulatory scrutiny amid the agency's efforts to beef up environmental, social and governance reporting and enforcement, say attorneys at Wiley.
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Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary
The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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Questions Linger Over Texas Business Court's Jurisdiction
If parties to a case in Texas' new business court do not agree on whether the court has supplemental jurisdiction over their claims, then those claims may proceed concurrently in another court — creating significant challenges for litigants, and raising questions that have yet to be answered, says Ryan Sullivan at Reichman Jorgensen.
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DOL's Retirement Security Rule Muddies Definitional Waters
The latest proposal changing how the Employee Retirement Income Security Act defines "investment advice," which the White House framed as a narrowly tailored regulation, would implement a sweeping regulatory overhaul that changes how the retirement services industry interacts with plans, participants and account owners, says Michael Kreps at Groom Law Group.
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When Courts Engage In Fact-Finding At The Pleading Stage
It remains to be seen whether the Ninth Circuit's pleading-stage factual determination in a securities class action against Nvidia was sui generis or part of a trend, but the court has created a template for district courts to follow, says Jared Kopel at Alto Litigation.
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A Deep Dive Into FSOC's Expansion Of Nonbank Oversight
The Financial Stability Oversight Council's new nonbank guidance, designed to provide the council with added flexibility in risk response, not only modifies the process for designating nonbanks as systemically important institutions, but also sends a clear signal that the FSOC may assume a more active role in addressing financial stability risks across the economy, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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9th Circ. ERISA Ruling Informs DOL's New Fiduciary Proposal
The Ninth Circuit's reasoning in its recent Bugielski v. AT&T decision illustrates the importance of the U.S. Department of Labor's proposals to expand the reach of Employee Retirement Income Security Act third-party compensation disclosure rules and their effect on investment adviser fiduciaries, says Jeff Mamorsky at Cohen & Buckmann.
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AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier
Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.
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Are CCOs Really In The SEC's Crosshairs?
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal recently gave a speech to address the concerns of chief compliance officers in light of recent enforcement actions taken against them, but CCOs need to understand when to push back against management, quit, or report issues to the board or to regulators, say Brian Rubin and Adam Pollet at Eversheds Sutherland.
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2nd Circ. Holding Could Disrupt SEC Disgorgement Methods
A recent Second Circuit decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Govil that held disgorgement to be an equitable remedy has the potential to substantially disrupt the SEC's long-standing approach to monetary remedies in many of the cases the agency brings, say attorneys at Debevoise.