Securities

  • June 17, 2024

    Crypto Trading Firm Nabs NY BitLicense

    Crypto trading firm and liquidity provider Cumberland DRW announced Monday that the New York Department of Financial Services has granted it a BitLicense, which allows it to operate a crypto business within the state.

  • June 17, 2024

    Foreign Investors Sue Over Lost $7.7M NYC Mall Investment

    Fourteen foreign investors who lost the entirety of their $7.7 million investment in a New York City shopping mall project filed suit against two lenders, a developer and the manager of an EB-5 lender in New York federal court, saying they are owed damages.

  • June 17, 2024

    CFTC Fines Trafigura $55M In Novel Whistleblower Action

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a first-of-its-kind settlement Monday with Trafigura Trading LLC, which agreed to pay a $55 million penalty over allegations that it manipulated oil derivatives prices while discouraging employees from reporting potentially illegal activity.

  • June 17, 2024

    Hertz Warrant Holder Sues In Chancery For Contract Breach

    Two investment affiliates of Discovery Capital Management LP have sued Hertz Global Holdings Inc. in Delaware's Court of Chancery, alleging willful failure to redeem warrants issued in 2021 as part of the company's Chapter 11 and demanding at least $187 million plus interest.

  • June 17, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Proposed amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law that were prompted by several recent Chancery Court rulings sailed through the state Senate last week despite loud opposition from corporate law professors and other Chancery Court watchers, and Tesla shareholders filed two new suits against CEO Elon Musk. 

  • June 17, 2024

    Feds Take Hard Line On Tycoon's Pilots After He Goes Free

    Manhattan federal prosecutors asked a sentencing judge to consider aggravating circumstances for two pilots who allegedly traded on stock tips from U.K. billionaire Joe Lewis, despite not seeking a prison term for the private equity honcho and former soccer club owner.

  • June 17, 2024

    SEC Head Of Crypto Assets And Cyber Unit Departs Agency

    The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's crypto and cyber enforcement team said Monday that he has left the agency after nearly nine years.

  • June 17, 2024

    Justices To Hear Nvidia Case On Securities Pleading Standard

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived investors' claims over chipmaker Nvidia's crypto mining sales, giving the high court a chance to weigh in on the pleading requirements needed to sustain a shareholder class action.

  • June 14, 2024

    Ozy Trial Gets Heated, Exec Tells Of Lies, Google CEO Pops In

    Courtroom tempers flared, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai dropped by and a former Ozy Media executive on Friday told the jury weighing fraud charges against the startup's charismatic founder Carlos Watson of how they nearly conned Buzzfeed into buying the company by faking its financials.

  • June 14, 2024

    2nd Circ. Releases Citi From Order To Freeze Assets In Gabon

    The Second Circuit vacated a protective injunction requiring Citibank to freeze more than $151 million at its Gabon branch amid a shareholder battle for control of a Cameroonian oil pipeline company, saying the New York district court exceeded its jurisdiction by ordering the freeze.

  • June 14, 2024

    Global Payments Inks $3.6M Deal Over Fee Disclosure Fallout

    Atlanta-based payment tech company Global Payments Inc. has agreed to pay $3.6 million as part of a deal to resolve a proposed investor class action tied to allegations that its summer camp payment processor subsidiary allegedly "tricked" consumers into signing up for a program that had fees it didn't properly disclose.

  • June 14, 2024

    SEC Fines Pa. Adviser In Marketing Rule Action

    A Pennsylvania investment adviser has agreed to pay $100,000 as part of an agreement to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations it broke the regulator's rules barring misleading advertising about fund performance.

  • June 14, 2024

    Potato Co.'s Software Rollout Fried Its Revenue, Suit Says

    Potato product manufacturer Lamb Weston has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action in Idaho federal court alleging that it concealed from investors information about the botched implementation of software that had been intended to improve the efficiency of the company's operations but ended up costing the company millions in lost sales.

  • June 14, 2024

    Judge Declines To Decide Whether Gemini Misled CFTC

    A Manhattan federal judge declined to decide whether crypto exchange Gemini is responsible for alleged misstatements made to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission through the listing exchange of a proposed bitcoin futures contract.

  • June 14, 2024

    Elon Musk's Court Cases Remain A Live Issue In Delaware

    Delaware's courts will continue to assert control over a multibillion-dollar Tesla Inc. legal fee dispute despite the company's rushed effort to reincorporate in Texas and potentially put CEO Elon Musk's massive, multiyear compensation plan beyond the state's reach, those familiar with the case said Friday.

  • June 14, 2024

    SEC Says Bahamas Firm Was Set Up To Skirt Day Trading Rules

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened its case Friday against high-frequency trading expert — and former government informant — Guy Gentile, telling jurors in Florida federal court that he set up a broker-dealer in the Bahamas specifically to evade U.S. day trading regulations designed to protect American investors.

  • June 14, 2024

    Ripple Cites Terraform Fine In Call To Limit SEC Penalty

    Ripple Labs Inc. says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement with fellow crypto firm Terraform Labs, with the company agreeing to pay a $420 million civil penalty, is further proof of the "unreasonableness" of the agency's request that it be made to pay a much larger fine for activities that did not amount to fraud.

  • June 14, 2024

    Chinese Delivery Co. To Settle IPO Class Action For $4.9M

    Chinese grocery vendor Missfresh Ltd. has agreed to settle an investor class action accusing it of making several misleading statements in the months leading up to its initial public offering, including in regulatory filings and to the media, for $4.9 million.

  • June 14, 2024

    Brazil Telecom Tower Investor Sues For Delaware Litigation

    A Mexican investor with a small equity position in a Delaware limited partnership that builds and operates telecommunications towers in Brazil sued the partnership in Delaware's Court of Chancery Friday for injunctive relief, seeking to ensure that any litigation with the partnership or its affiliates takes place in the First State and not Brazil.

  • June 14, 2024

    Guo's Crypto Venture Raised 'Red Flags,' Investigator Says

    A compliance investigator at cryptocurrency wallet provider BitGo testified in Manhattan federal court Friday that he identified multiple "financial crime red flags" in the digital asset exchange promoted by Chinese dissident Miles Guo.

  • June 14, 2024

    McDermott Says Financial Firm Owes $800K In Atty Fees

    McDermott Will & Emery LLP says it is owed more than $800,000 in legal fees for representing a financial firm's employee in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a lawsuit by his former employer.

  • June 13, 2024

    Goldman Exec's 'Mind Entirely Blown' By Fake Ozy Media Call

    A former Goldman Sachs executive who was looking into taking a stake in Carlos Watson's Ozy Media testified on Thursday that she was floored during a due diligence call when it became clear that someone was impersonating a YouTube executive in an apparent effort to persuade the bank to invest in Watson's startup.

  • June 13, 2024

    Judge Orders $2.9M Chinese Dissident's Fund Share Sale

    A Connecticut bankruptcy judge approved a request by the Chapter 11 trustee overseeing exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo's case to liquidate $2.9 million in investment fund shares held by Lamp Capital LLC, a shell company whose assets the judge already determined belonged to Guo's estate.

  • June 13, 2024

    Zoom's $150M Investor Deal Nears OK, But $50K Award Iffy

    A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he'll preliminarily approve Zoom's $150 million deal to end claims it misled investors by stating that it offered end-to-end encryption on its videoconferencing software, but told the plaintiffs' lawyers, "You're going to have to persuade me" to award the lead plaintiff $50,000.

  • June 13, 2024

    Tesla Investors Sue Over Musk's Extracurricular xAI Diversion

    A union pension fund and two individual investors hit Elon Musk and Tesla's board of directors with a derivative suit Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court over the CEO's breakaway effort to develop a new artificial intelligence venture, xAI, by diverting talent and resources from Tesla's own AI initiative.

Expert Analysis

  • What 3rd Circ. Trust Ruling Means For Securitization Market

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    Mercedes Tunstall and Michael Gambro at Cadwalader break down the Third Circuit's March decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust, as well as predict next steps in the litigation and the implications of the decision for servicers and the securitization industry as a whole.

  • Tips For Balanced Board Oversight After A Cyberincident

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's cybersecurity disclosure rules, as well as recent regulatory enforcement actions bringing board governance under scrutiny, continue to push boards toward active engagement in relation to their cyber-oversight role, despite it being unclear what a board's level of involvement should be, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Breaking Down DOJ's Individual Self-Disclosure Pilot Program

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently announced pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to voluntarily self-disclose corporate misconduct they were personally involved in, complementing a new whistleblower pilot program for individuals not involved in misconduct as well as the government's broader corporate enforcement approach, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Reverse Veil-Piercing Ruling Will Help Judgment Creditors

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    A New York federal court’s recent decision in Citibank v. Aralpa Holdings, finding two corporate entities liable for a judgment issued against a Mexican businessman, shows the value of reverse veil piercing as a remedy for judgment creditors to go after sophisticated debtors who squirrel away assets, says Gabe Bluestone at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Address Complainants Before They Become Whistleblowers

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    A New York federal court's dismissal of a whistleblower retaliation claim against HSBC Securities last month indicates that ignored complaints to management combined with financial incentives from regulators create the perfect conditions for a concerned and disgruntled employee to make the jump to federal whistleblower, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Ensuring Nonpublic Info Stays Private Amid SEC Crackdown

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    Companies and individuals must take steps to ensure material nonpublic information remains confidential while working outside the office, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to take enforcement actions against those who trade on MNPI and don't comply with new off-channel communications rules in the remote work era, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • What Cos. Are Reporting Under New SEC Cybersecurity Rule

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    Four months after its effective date, 14 companies have made disclosures under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's mandatory cybersecurity incident reporting rule, and some early trends are emerging, including a possible rush to file, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 10 Tips For ESG Disclosure Compliance In Private Funds

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    As regulators increase scrutiny of misleading claims about environmental, social and governance investments, private fund sponsors should consider several practical tips for communicating accurately with potential investors, drafting comprehensive disclosures and establishing internal policies that can keep pace with evolving compliance requirements, says Jonathan Rash at Ropes & Gray.

  • Binance Ruling Spotlights Muddled Post-Morrison Landscape

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Williams v. Binance highlights the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank ruling to digital assets, and illustrates how Morrison's territorial limits on the federal securities laws have become convoluted, say Andrew Rhys Davies and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.

  • What FERC's Disclosure Demands Mean For Cos., Investors

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    Two recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders reflect the commission's increasingly meticulous approach to reviewing corporate structures in applications for approval of proposed consolidations, acquisitions or changes in control — putting the onus on the regulated community to track and comply with ever-more-burdensome disclosure requirements, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways

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    If the Eleventh Circuit upholds an Alabama federal court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, the anti-money laundering law could persist as a narrower version that could moot some constitutional challenges, but these remedies would likely generate additional regulatory or statutory ambiguities that would result in further litigation, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Del. Match.com Ruling Maintains Precedent In Time Of Change

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    Despite speculation that the Delaware Supreme Court could drive away corporations if it lowered the bar for business judgment review in its Match.com stockholder ruling, the court broke its recent run of controversial precedent-busting decisions by upholding, and arguably strengthening, minority stockholder protections against controller coercion, say Renee Zaytsev and Marc Ayala at Boies Schiller.

  • Macquarie Ruling Raises The Bar For Securities Fraud Claims

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in Macquarie Infrastructure v. Moab Partners — holding that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule does not forbid omissions in company disclosures unless they render other statements false — is a major setback for plaintiffs pursuing securities fraud claims against corporations, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • First 10b5-1 Insider Trading Case Raises Compliance Issues

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    The ongoing case against former Ontrak CEO Terren Peizer is the U.S. Department of Justice's first insider trading prosecution based primarily on the filing of 10b5-1 plans, and has important takeaways for attorneys reviewing corporate policies on the possession of material nonpublic information, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

  • Series

    Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.

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