Capital Markets

  • January 14, 2025

    SEC Sues Elon Musk Over Late Twitter Buy-Up Disclosure

    Elon Musk violated securities laws by failing to timely disclose his initial buy-up of Twitter stock ahead of his $44 billion acquisition of the company, allowing him to purchase shares at artificially low prices, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a D.C. federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

  • January 14, 2025

    Fla. Judge Won't Toss CFTC Suit Over $283M Trading Scheme

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's claims accusing an agent of financial firm Algo FX Capital Advisor LLC of helping The Traders Domain orchestrate a $283 million commodity transactions scheme.

  • January 14, 2025

    DXC Says Investor Suit Shows Integration Problems, Not Fraud

    DXC Technology has asked a Virginia federal court to toss a shareholder suit alleging the information technology giant overhyped efforts to reduce restructuring and integration costs after acquiring several companies, arguing hindsight critiques from the current CEO do not establish securities fraud.

  • January 14, 2025

    Luxembourg Investor Sells Dunhill Parent Shares For £1.2B

    Reinet Investments SCA said Tuesday that it has agreed to sell its remaining stake in cigarette giant British American Tobacco PLC to institutional investors for approximately £1.2 billion ($1.46 billion).

  • January 13, 2025

    Quinn Emanuel Scoops Up SDNY Securities Fraud Chief

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP announced Monday that it has hired the former chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York's securities and commodities fraud task force as a partner in its Manhattan office.

  • January 13, 2025

    Robinhood Users Oppose Arbitration Of 'Meme Stock' Claims

    Stock trading platform Robinhood has failed to lay the groundwork for sending user disputes to arbitration, seven users of the platform claimed Monday in a bid to keep their claims in federal court over the company's 2021 suspension certain so-called meme stock trades.

  • January 13, 2025

    SEC Fines Robinhood $45M For Recordkeeping, Cyber Woes

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that Robinhood's broker-dealer units will pay a combined $45 million to settle a host of claims ranging from an alleged failure to file timely suspicious activity reports and address cybersecurity risks to alleged failures concerning data retention and recordkeeping.

  • January 13, 2025

    Binance Can't Get High Court To Review Class Cert. Decision

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday passed on a petition from crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. and its former CEO to consider whether transactions on its platform were beyond the reach of U.S. securities laws after a Second Circuit decision found enough stateside ties to revive a suit from the exchange's users.

  • January 13, 2025

    Colo. Justices Reject Co.'s Challenge To Storm Gas Bill

    Colorado's highest court on Monday rejected a building materials company's challenge to charges on its electric bill related to extra natural gas purchased ahead of a 2021 winter storm, finding the company presented no facts to back its claim that the charges amounted to an unconstitutional taking.

  • January 13, 2025

    Shift4 To Pay SEC $750K For Undisclosed Family Payments

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said payment processing firm Shift4 Payments Inc. will pay $750,000 to settle allegations it failed to report over $4 million in payments it made to immediate family members of the company's executives and directors.

  • January 13, 2025

    Investment Firm Seeks Coverage For Hertz Buyback Suits

    An investment adviser said its insurers must provide coverage for underlying actions related to the adviser's involvement in car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s stock buybacks, telling a Delaware state court that its primary carrier improperly denied coverage.

  • January 13, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Crypto Exec Doesn't Belong On Mining IP

    A Delaware federal judge properly found that a cryptocurrency company's founder shouldn't be added as an inventor onto a rival company's energy consumption patent, the Federal Circuit affirmed Monday.

  • January 13, 2025

    Truth Social SPAC Ex-CEO Seeks Del. Suit Toss Or Freeze

    The former manager of the blank check company that sponsored a deal to take now President-elect Donald Trump's social media platform public heads into a pivotal Delaware Court of Chancery hearing Wednesday, seeking to freeze or scuttle a suit claiming that he and others secretly diverted millions of shares from co-investors.

  • January 13, 2025

    SEC To Collect $63M In Latest Recordkeeping Sweep

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that subsidiaries of Blackstone Inc. and Charles Schwab Corp. were among those swept up in the latest round of recordkeeping fines, promising to collect over $63 million from 12 firms whose employees are accused of discussing business through their personal devices.

  • January 13, 2025

    Natural Gas Exporter Venture Global Gears Up For $2.2B IPO

    Liquefied natural gas producer Venture Global Inc. on Monday launched plans for an estimated $2.2 billion initial public offering, potentially marking the year's first billion-dollar-plus listing, represented by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and underwriters counsel Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

  • January 13, 2025

    SEC Must Explain Coinbase Crypto Rule Denial, 3rd Circ. Says

    A Third Circuit panel delivered a partial win to Coinbase on Monday when it ordered the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to provide "a more complete explanation" of why it denied the crypto exchange's request for rulemaking on how securities laws apply to digital assets.

  • January 13, 2025

    BMO Unit To Pay SEC $40M Over Bond Desk Supervision

    BMO Capital Markets has agreed to pay $40 million to end a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the broker-dealer's supervision of its mortgage-back bonds salespeople, with the SEC saying Monday that the brokerage firm failed to stop employees from providing inaccurate information about the bonds.

  • January 10, 2025

    FDIC's Hill Calls For 'New Direction' In Preview Of Agenda

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chairman Travis Hill signaled Friday that he intends to steer the agency in a "new direction" when he takes over as its acting chief later this month, mapping out plans for a more tech-friendly, lighter-touch approach.

  • January 10, 2025

    4 Trends That Will Shape Venture Capital Funding In 2025

    Venture capital funding appears primed to improve in 2025 as market participants shake off the effects of a post-pandemic crash, with surging demand for artificial intelligence, expectations of friendlier government policies, and more exits through public listings and acquisitions.

  • January 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms Hearing Aid Co.'s Win Over Investor Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday handed a win to Eargo Inc. and affirmed the dismissal of a securities class action against the hearing aid company, which alleged that the company and its top brass acted with intent to commit insurance billing fraud.

  • January 10, 2025

    SEC Fines Cannabis Co. Acreage Over Accounting Violations

    A multi-state cannabis industry operator recently acquired by Canadian cannabis industry giant Canopy will pay $225,000 to resolve administrative U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that it orchestrated a $4.2 million round-trip transaction with an affiliate to inflate its reported cash balance.

  • January 10, 2025

    SafeMoon CEO Wants 'Misleading' Reddit Post Explained

    The CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency asset company SafeMoon LLC asked a Brooklyn federal judge Friday to order the government to explain whether it had a role in a social media user's "misleading" post that promised to connect SafeMoon investors with the U.S. government.

  • January 10, 2025

    Liquidnet To Pay SEC $5M Over Market Access Rule Issues

    Liquidnet Inc. agreed Friday to pay $5 million to resolve claims from the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission that the broker-dealer failed to have the proper controls and procedures related to market access in place and failed to protect confidential subscriber trading information, among other things.

  • January 10, 2025

    Feds Say Russians Behind North Korea-Linked Crypto Mixers

    Georgia federal prosecutors on Friday announced money laundering and unlicensed money transmission charges for three Russian nationals who allegedly operated crypto mixing services previously sanctioned over their apparent use by North Korean hackers and other cybercriminals.

  • January 10, 2025

    Law Firm's Fee Suit Can't Proceed In Ga., Investment Co. Says

    A Michigan-based investment firm has asked a Georgia federal judge to toss a suit accusing it of failing to pay more than $180,000 in legal fees owed to an Atlanta-area law firm, arguing the court lacks jurisdiction under the state's long-arm statute.

Expert Analysis

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Making Sure Your Co. Isn't In The Next Section 13(f) Sweep

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    Enforcement actions taken against 11 institutional investment managers for alleged failures to file forms required by Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act serve as a reminder that firms should carefully monitor their obligations to avoid becoming the target of the next enforcement sweep, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Breaking Down CFTC's Novel Theory Driving Uniswap Action

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement action against Uniswap concerning digital asset liquidity appears to be a unilateral attempt to expand its regulatory authority in the absence of official congressional approval, putting forth a novel theory of liability that will likely be tested through litigation, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Applying High Court's Domestic Corruption Rulings To FCPA

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the domestic corruption statutes in three decisions over the past year and a half, it’s worth evaluating whether these rulings may have an impact on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and if attorneys can use the court’s reasoning in international bribery cases, says James Koukios at MoFo.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.

  • 2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules

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    In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Series

    A Day In The In-House Life: Best Egg CLO Talks Power Of Prep

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    On a typical Monday in her life, Best Egg Chief Legal Officer Amy Thoreson Long chronicles a remote workday in which she makes time for everything from getting ahead on regulatory issues and researching recent Supreme Court decisions to dog walks and podcast breaks.

  • Takeaways From TOTSA Settlement And Critical CFTC Dissent

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent settlement with TOTSA highlights the agency's commitment to enforcing market integrity and deterring manipulative practices, while Commissioner Caroline Pham's dissent to the settlement spotlights the need for transparency and consistency in enforcement actions, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

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