Securities

February 25, 2025
FBI Came For Abramoff Asking About Russian Spy-Linked Pal

Disgraced lobbyist and government witness Jack Abramoff told jurors Tuesday during his cross-examination at the fraud trial of a cryptocurrency company founder he worked for that the FBI initially approached him in 2018 with questions about his connection to a conservative operative once linked to a Russian agent.
February 25, 2025
DC Judge Blocks Trump's Federal Funding Freeze

A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from implementing a federal spending freeze while a group of nonprofits challenge the freeze, calling the measure "ill-conceived from the beginning."
February 25, 2025
Binance Can't Evade Terror Victims' Suit, But It's Trimmed

The New York federal judge overseeing Hamas attack survivors' claims against Binance and its former CEO said on Tuesday that the defendants can't dodge the suit claiming they aided terrorist groups on a jurisdictional basis, but said some of the plaintiffs are not closely related enough to the victims to bring claims under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
February 25, 2025
Block Considers NY Settlement Over Money-Laundering Curbs

Block Inc., the parent company of the peer-to-peer mobile payments platform Cash App and payments platform Square, is working to resolve allegations from New York state's financial regulator touching on its compliance with money-laundering restrictions, the company says.
February 25, 2025
Horse-Racing Co.'s 'Unregistered' NFTs Cost Gains, Suit Says

A nonfungible token project that once allowed users to invest in virtual versions of real-life racehorses is caught in a proposed class action from an investor who alleges that "Game of Silks" failed to register its tokens as securities and disclose key information to buyers before it collapsed.
February 25, 2025
Primary Sponsor Of Del.'s Corporate Law Rework Defends Bill

Delaware Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend cited the "urgency of the moment" Tuesday during an interview with Law360 on fast-tracking proposed amendments to the state's General Corporation Law, aimed at increasing protections from liability for directors, officers and controlling stockholders in an effort to stem a feared corporate exodus from The First State.
February 25, 2025
SEC Reaffirms Defense Of Market Surveillance Tool

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has said it is not done defending the existence of a controversial market surveillance tool despite the agency's recent curtailment of the types of information it collects.
February 25, 2025
Another Crypto Co. Says SEC Inquiry Ends Without Action

Decentralized finance platform Uniswap Labs announced Tuesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission closed its multi-year investigation into the firm, marking the latest crypto business to claim the regulator is walking away without taking action.
February 25, 2025
SEC Is Asked For Background On Fugitive Trader's Death Docs

A Connecticut federal judge has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information about its investigation into what appears to be a forged death certificate for a fugitive trader who fled to India nearly a decade ago.
February 25, 2025
Tampa Bay Rays To Return $200K In Alleged Ponzi Proceeds

A Georgia federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement in which the Tampa Bay Rays have agreed to relinquish $200,000 the baseball team received for marketing services as part of an alleged Ponzi scheme.
February 25, 2025
PCAOB Fines PwC Israel $2.75M For Training Exam Cheating

An Israeli accounting firm affiliated with PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday agreed to pay the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board $2.75 million to settle allegations that hundreds of personnel cheated on mandatory internal training courses.
February 25, 2025
Macquarie Investors Fight To Keep Stock-Drop Suit Alive

Investors accusing Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. of hiding the expected impact of a high-sulfur fuel ban on its oil storage business say that because the U.S. Supreme Court left most of their claims against the company intact, the district court should not grant dismissal on remand.
February 25, 2025
Dem Commissioner To Leave CFTC Upon New Chair's Arrival

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Christy Goldsmith Romero said Tuesday afternoon that she plans to exit the agency as soon as Congress confirms the appointment of a new chair, likely leaving the financial markets regulator with only a single Democrat overseeing its activities.
February 25, 2025
SEC's Small Biz Panel Seeks Relief For Venture Funds

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission advisory group is recommending the agency ease rules to allow qualifying venture funds to attract more investors without registering with the SEC, hoping to bolster capital available to small businesses.
February 25, 2025
Masimo Aims To DQ Hueston Hennigan As Ex-CEO's Counsel

Masimo Corp. is urging the Delaware Chancery Court to disqualify Hueston Hennigan LLP from representing its founder and former CEO in a lawsuit over his quest for a $450 million payout from the medical technology company, arguing the firm has a conflict of interest.
February 25, 2025
Securities Group Of The Year: Cravath

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP helped Robinhood successfully navigate sprawling "meme stock" litigation, steered freight provider Forward Air to a soft landing in a merger suit and secured a pair of precedential appellate wins for insurance startup Root and Mylan, earning a spot among the 2024 Law360 Securities Practice Groups of the Year.
February 25, 2025
Ex-Allianz Exec Avoids Prison As Massive Fraud Case Wraps

A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday allowed a former fund executive from New Jersey to avoid prison for lying to clients of Allianz's U.S. unit, citing his cooperation as the government investigated a fraud that cost the German finance giant $6 billion.
February 24, 2025
Lobbyist Abramoff Testifies At Fraud Trial Against Crypto CEO

Disgraced Washington, D.C., power broker Jack Abramoff told jurors on Monday that he participated in a conspiracy with the founder of an "anti-money laundering" cryptocurrency company accused of bilking investors out of $5 million, testifying remotely due to a recent cancer diagnosis.
February 24, 2025
Mining Co. Hit With Derivative Suit Over Stock Repurchases

A shareholder of Newmont Corp. has sued the Colorado-based gold mining company's top brass, alleging they misrepresented financial information that artificially inflated stock prices and caused the company to overpay for repurchases of its own stock, among other things.
February 24, 2025
SEC Crypto Task Force Wants Input, Commissioner Says

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce urged firms to bring their input to her Crypto Task Force in a Friday statement that outlined a series of questions the group is grappling with, including the taxonomy of tokens.
February 24, 2025
Biotech Minority Investor Sues In Del. To Block Control Moves

A company control and takeover battle between Aurion Biotech Inc. and a large investor made its second landing in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Monday, in a minority stockholder's direct and derivative suit accusing Alcon Research Inc. and its board designates of multiple fiduciary breaches.
February 24, 2025
Robinhood, OpenSea Say SEC Closed Crypto Inquiries

Robinhood said Monday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "has officially closed" an investigation into its cryptocurrency arm without any enforcement action, joining a growing number of crypto matters the SEC has dropped or paused under the new Trump administration.
February 24, 2025
PBMs To Challenge FTC Case At 8th Circ., But Without Pause

A Missouri federal judge summarily refused, again, on Monday to temporarily block the Federal Trade Commission's in-house case accusing Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx of artificially inflating insulin prices, letting the case proceed while the pharmacy benefits managers appeal to the Eighth Circuit.
February 24, 2025
SEC Could Loosen Income Limits On Startup Investments

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's acting chairman said Monday that the agency is looking at a number of changes aimed at freeing up capital for investment, including the possibility of allowing lower- and middle-income Americans to invest in private, early-stage companies.
February 24, 2025
3rd Circ. Says $31M Order To Refill Class Funds Isn't Enough

The Third Circuit on Monday vacated and sent back a district court's order for a New Jersey man convicted of stealing $40 million from settlements in stockholder class actions to pay $31 million in restitution, ruling the order didn't fully compensate each victim of the fraud.

Expert Analysis

Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.
What 2024's Noncompete Turmoil Means For Banks In 2025

A look back at the most significant legal challenges to the enforceability of various restrictive covenants like noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements in 2024 can help financial institutions address the use of these critical tools this year, say attorneys at Maynard Nexsen.
Opinion

3 New Year's Resolutions For Antitrust Agencies To Consider

James Fredricks at Skadden rings in 2025 with his wish list for the federal antitrust agencies, starting with a provision for a presumptive safe harbor for information sharing.
New Year, New Risks: 8 Top Cyber Issues For Finance In 2025

As financial institutions forge ahead in 2025, they must strike a delicate balance between embracing technological innovation and guarding against its darker threats, which this year could include everything from supply chain vulnerabilities to deepfakes, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.
FTC Focus: A Changing Of The Guard

While rigorous antitrust enforcement is unlikely to slow down at the Federal Trade Commission, the focus will undoubtedly change, including when it comes to Big Tech, as Andrew Ferguson prepares to take the reins from Chair Lina Khan, say attorneys at Proskauer.
5th Circ.'s Nasdaq Ruling Another Piece In DEI Policy Puzzle

The Fifth Circuit's recent en banc opinion vacating Nasdaq's board diversity listing rule wades into the hotly debated topic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at a time when many public companies are navigating the attention that DEI commitments are drawing from activists and shareholders, say attorneys at Debevoise.
8 Trends And Predictions Following PE's Late 2024 Surge

Private equity will remain at the forefront of value creation in 2025, and anticipated market trends include sponsors' desire to return capital to investors and a more business-friendly tack by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, say attorneys at Weil.
Series

Playing Esports Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis.
Lessons From The SEC's 2024 Crackdown On AI Washing

AI washing was the subject of increased scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024 following a surge in the commercial adoption of generative artificial intelligence technologies in 2023, highlighting the importance of transparency, accuracy and accountability when communicating about AI, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
The 6 Most Significant FCRA Litigation Developments Of 2024

From a key sovereign immunity decision at the U.S. Supreme Court to a ruling on creditworthiness out of the Seventh Circuit, several important Fair Credit Reporting Act cases wound their way through the courts in 2024, each offering takeaways for both plaintiffs and defendants, say attorneys at Shipkevich.
An Associate's Guide To Career Development In 2025

As the new year begins, associates at all levels should consider establishing career metrics, fostering key relationships and employing other specific strategies to help move through the complexities of the legal profession with confidence and emerge as trailblazers, say EJ Stern and Amanda George at Fractional Law Firm.
The Securities Litigation Trends That Will Matter Most In 2025

2025 is shaping up to be a significant year for securities litigation, as plaintiffs and defendants alike navigate shifting standards for omission theories of liability, class certification, risk disclosure claims and more, say attorneys at Willkie.
Predicting The Lasting Changes CFPB May Face In 2025

President-elect Donald Trump and the incoming Republican-controlled Congress' likely attempts to reshape the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could significantly alter its rulemaking, supervisory and enforcement abilities for years to come, says Jim Sandy at McGlinchey Stafford.
What To Watch For In The 2025 Benefits Landscape

While planning for 2025, retirement plan sponsors and service providers should set their focus on phased implementation deadlines under both Secure 1.0 and 2.0, an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and the fate of several U.S. Department of Labor regulations, says Allie Itami at Lathrop GPM.
How White Collar Enforcement May Shift In Trump's 2nd Term

After President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, the administration’s emphasis on immigration laws, drug offenses and violent crime will likely reduce the focus on white collar crime overall, but certain areas within the white collar world may see increased activity, say attorneys at Keker Van Nest.