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Securities
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March 15, 2024
US Acquittals Don't Upend UK Libor Convictions, SFO Says
The acquittals in the U.S. of two former bankers previously convicted of rigging Libor doesn't undermine the legal rationale — upheld on several appeals — for prosecuting traders in English courts, counsel for the Serious Fraud Office said Friday.
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March 14, 2024
17 Added To SEC's $300M Suit Alleging Crypto Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday expanded its takedown of an alleged $300 million crypto Ponzi scheme with a suit against 17 individuals for their roles in a business that allegedly targeted Latino investors.
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March 14, 2024
Texas Judge Boots PCAOB Constitutional Challenge To DC
A Texas federal judge has stopped short of dismissing a lawsuit accusing the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of operating unconstitutionally, instead sending the case to Washington, D.C., for further proceedings because the case has little to do with the Lone Star State.
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March 14, 2024
Lehman Brothers Can't Undo Trial Loss Over Crisis-Era CDS
A New York appeals court on Thursday affirmed a bench trial loss Lehman Brothers' bankrupt European unit suffered last year in a suit attempting to claw back nearly half a billion dollars from Assured Guaranty over losses on credit default swaps tied to the 2008 financial crisis.
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March 14, 2024
CFTC Awards $1.3M To Whistleblower With Compliance Duties
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Thursday that it has awarded roughly $1.25 million to a whistleblower who the agency said is the first to use a safe harbor provision for whistleblowers who serve in a firm's internal compliance or audit function.
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March 14, 2024
Icahn Enterprises Rips Investors' 'Grab Bag' Of A Suit
Diversified holding company Icahn Enterprises LP and some of its current and former brass have asked a Miami federal judge to toss a proposed investor class action alleging they misrepresented certain details of the company's performance and asset values, arguing that the suit is a lengthy "grab bag of different theories."
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March 14, 2024
Barclays Hit With Short-Seller's Suit Over $17B Overissuance
Barclays PLC and a few members of its top brass have been hit with a proposed securities class action in New York federal court over the bank's $17 billion overissuance of securities, which included exchange-traded notes designed to track volatility index futures.
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March 14, 2024
Pharma Co. Misled Investors On Research Methods, Suit Says
Pharmaceutical company Anavex has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that it misled the public about research methodologies it was using in its clinical studies for neurological treatments.
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March 14, 2024
FTC Says Consolidation Endangering Infant-Formula Market
The Federal Trade Commission has found the country's small number of baby formula manufacturers and the effects of a federal nutrition program contributed to shortages in 2022 and are still making the supply chain vulnerable to disruption.
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March 14, 2024
Tupperware Pans Investor Suit Over 'Small' Accounting Errors
Tupperware wants to dismiss a proposed class action accusing it of damaging investors by knowingly issuing misleading financial reports, arguing the suit fails to show it acted with ill intent when releasing the allegedly inaccurate information to the public, and that its restatements did not actually hurt shareholders.
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March 14, 2024
Koch Can't Bring $30M Claim Against Canada Under NAFTA
Canada prevailed in a $30 million arbitration brought by Koch Industries over the province of Ontario's decision to cancel a cap-and-trade program in 2018, securing dismissal of the claim on jurisdictional grounds.
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March 14, 2024
Ex-Real Estate Exec Accused Of $77M WeWork Stock Fraud
Manhattan federal prosecutors announced Thursday that the former CEO of real estate investment firm ArciTerra was indicted, alleging he issued a bogus $77 million offer for WeWork shares in an ultimately failed attempt to cash in on call options after juicing the stock price.
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March 14, 2024
SEC Asks 5th Circ. To Hold Off On Climate Reg Ruling
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was too early for the Fifth Circuit to delay the implementation of freshly adopted emissions reporting requirements given that those requirements don't go into effect for another two years, offering the first glimpse of possible defenses it could use as it attempts to fend off lawsuits challenging the rules.
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March 14, 2024
Ex-AutoZone CEO Sued Over $1M In 'Short-Swing' Profits
Car parts retailer AutoZone Inc. and its former CEO face an investor suit seeking to recover "short-swing" trading profits on behalf of the company that the onetime executive should allegedly be required to hand over.
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March 14, 2024
Food Delivery App Can't Beat Investor Suit Over SPAC Deal
A New York federal judge has trimmed a suit against Grab Holdings Ltd., a company that operates mobile food delivery and ride-hailing services, but retained allegations that several sections of a proxy statement Grab filed with a special-purpose acquisition company were false and misleading.
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March 14, 2024
FINRA Ordered Less Restitution, More In Fines In 2023
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority brought fewer disciplinary actions and ordered less restitution in 2023 compared to 2022, but doled out a higher amount of fines, largely because of one major fine against Bank of America's securities unit, according to a new report by Eversheds Sutherland.
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March 14, 2024
Chancery Concedes Appraisal Math Error In HBK Share Award
Delaware's Court of Chancery has issued a rare post-merger appraisal ruling correction, adding $6.1 million to an earlier post-deal valuation of Pivotal Software Inc. shares held by two HBK Capital Management affiliates at the time of Pivotal's $2.7 billion sale to VMWare Inc. in 2019.
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March 14, 2024
Ex-Chase Banker Gets 4 Years For $2.4M Embezzlement
A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. private bank teller to four years in prison Thursday for draining $2.4 million from client accounts, saying there's "no excuse" for the embezzlement scheme.
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March 14, 2024
Bankman-Fried Taps New Firm For SEC, CFTC Defense
Convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has swapped his Cohen & Gresser LLP counsel for attorneys at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoades LLP in his stayed civil cases.
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March 14, 2024
Katten Adds Ex-Paul Hastings Securities Litigation Co-Chair
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced Thursday that it has hired a longtime Paul Hastings LLP attorney who was global co-chair of his former firm's securities litigation practice for its New York office.
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March 14, 2024
Chesapeake Investor Challenges $7.4B Southwestern Deal
A shareholder of Chesapeake Energy Corp. sued the company and some of its officers and directors on Wednesday in an attempt to enjoin a proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Southwestern Energy, saying investors cannot make an informed decision on whether to approve the deal or not based on the incomplete financial information provided.
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March 14, 2024
JPMorgan Fined Nearly $350M Over Trade Surveillance
Federal regulators said Thursday that they have ordered JPMorgan Chase & Co. to pay nearly $350 million in fines as part of enforcement actions tied to alleged deficiencies in the bank's program for monitoring employee and client trading activities.
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March 13, 2024
Velodyne Investors Seek OK On $27.5M Deal Over CEO Ouster
Velodyne Lidar stockholders asked a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily approve a $27.5 million deal to resolve claims that the company failed to disclose adverse facts regarding the ouster of its founder and that it omitted from securities filings that it'd been investigating director misconduct that led stock prices to fall.
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March 13, 2024
Sierra Club Joins Fray With SEC Climate Rule Suit
The Sierra Club is the latest organization to sue the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its newly passed greenhouse gas reporting requirements, with the environmentalists saying Wednesday that the finalized rules failed to fully shield investors from the risks of climate change.
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March 13, 2024
Treasury Says Crypto Mixer Is 'Corporation In All But Name'
The U.S. Department of the Treasury told the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday that it was justified in sanctioning crypto mixer Tornado Cash because the crypto project "is a corporation in all but name" rather than ownerless computer code, as its users contend.
Expert Analysis
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New SDNY Whistleblower Program May Be A Game-Changer
A new pilot program in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York promises to immunize from prosecution certain individuals who blow the whistle on financial crimes and corruption, and if similar self-disclosure programs are any indication, this significant new policy may measurably increase white collar investigations, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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Series
Playing Competitive Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experience playing competitive tennis has highlighted why prioritizing exercise and stress relief, maintaining perspective under pressure, and supporting colleagues in pursuit of a common goal are all key aspects of championing a successful legal career, says Madhumita Datta at Lowenstein Sandler.
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A Guide To New Russia Sanctions For Foreign Financial Cos.
Attorneys at Foley Hoag take foreign financial companies on a deep dive into the compliance advice the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control issued after President Joe Biden's December executive order widened a Russian import ban and authorized sanctions against businesses that transact with Russia's military-industrial base.
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The Questions Around Prometheum's SEC-Compliant Strategy
While the rest of the crypto industry has been engaged in a long-running battle to escape the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's jurisdiction, a once-obscure startup called Prometheum has instead embraced the SEC's view to become the first crypto special-purpose broker-dealer, but it's unclear whether it can turn its favored status into a workable business, says Keith Blackman at Bracewell.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Djerassi On Super Bowl 52
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy Djerassi discusses how Super Bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles prevailed over the New England Patriots, provides an apt metaphor for alternative dispute resolution processes in commercial business cases.
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Reverse Merger Tips For Biotechs After SEC's Recent Actions
Several recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission developments could limit the viability of reverse mergers for biotech companies, and will require additional creativity and analysis for private companies looking to go public, say attorneys at Orrick.
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Black-Led VC Fund Case Could Hinge On Nature Of Grants
Organizations whose missions involve any manner of race-conscious funding should closely monitor arguments this week in American Alliance v. Fearless Fund, a case filed against a grant program that seeks to address the gap in venture capital funding for Black women-led businesses, which will examine whether grants are charitable under Civil Rights Act Section 1981 liability, say Kali Schellenberg and John Stapleton at LeVan Stapleton, and Kenneth Trujillo at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.
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Ex-OpenSea Staffer Case May Clarify When Info Is Property
In considering the appeal of a former OpenSea manager’s wire fraud conviction in U.S. v. Chastain, the Second Circuit may soon provide guidance about whether economic information is traditional property in certain insider trading prosecutions — a theory of fraud that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly narrowed, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Takeaways From SEC's Aggressive Cybersecurity Moves
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's intensifying policy on cybersecurity and securities violations in the wake of a data breach — like its enforcement action against SolarWinds and its security officer — has emboldened shareholders to file related suits, creating a heightened threat to public companies, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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Considerations For Lawyer Witnesses After FTX Trial
Sam Bankman-Fried's recent trial testimony about his lawyers' involvement in FTX's business highlights the need for attorney-witnesses to understand privilege issues in order to avoid costly discovery disputes and, potentially, uncover critical evidence an adversary might seek to conceal, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns.
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NY Discovery Stay Ruling Empowers Securities Defendants
A New York state appeals court’s recent decision in Camelot Event v. Morgan Stanley — which extends a federal securities law's discovery stay to state courts — clarifies an issue that has perplexed state courts across the country and provides the advantage of reduced discovery costs to securities defendants, say Katherine Kelly Fell and Jeremy Wertz at Milbank.
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Del. Dispatch: Efforts Clause Trumps Contractual Right
The Delaware Court of Chancery's Chordia v. Lee ruling this month — that the efforts clause set forth in a stockholders' agreement overrode the acquired company's right to fire its officers and employees — highlights key considerations for parties in such agreements to avoid post-acquisition disputes, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Employee Experience Strategy Can Boost Law Firm Success
Amid continuing business uncertainty, law firms should consider adopting a holistic employee experience strategy — prioritizing consistency, targeting signature moments and leveraging measurement tools — to maximize productivity and profitability, says Haley Revel at Calibrate Consulting.
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And Now A Word From The Panel: A Strong Year For MDLs
While the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation granted even fewer MDL petitions last year than in 2022, hitting a 21st-century low, a closer look at the record-setting number of total actions encompassed within current proceedings reveals that MDL practice is still quite robust, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.
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What EU And UK Corp. Corruption Reform Means For US Cos.
Legislative developments in the U.K. and European Union have signaled that the prosecution of fraud and corruption is becoming a greater priority, and large U.S. companies with a global presence should view them as an opportunity to create and revise their global compliance programs, say attorneys at DLA Piper.