Securities

  • September 05, 2024

    Ga. Investment Adviser To Pay $335K To End SEC Suit

    Atlanta-based West Mountain LLC and its director, Paul Alar, will pay $335,000 and take other steps to resolve a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint alleging they fraudulently overvalued assets and collected inflated fees.

  • September 05, 2024

    CrowdStrike Brass Face Investor Suit Over Global Outage

    Executives and directors of global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit alleging that they overstated the capabilities of the company's technology that eventually caused a massive disruption over the summer when its system crashed.

  • September 05, 2024

    7th Circ. Doubts JPMorgan Traders' Spoofing Appeal

    The Seventh Circuit seemed skeptical Thursday about three former JPMorgan traders' assertion that evidentiary issues surrounding their underlying spoofing trials warrant unwinding their convictions for manipulating the market with fake orders for precious metals.

  • September 05, 2024

    2nd Circ. Chilly To Mortgage-Backed Securities ERISA Suit

    The Second Circuit appeared unlikely Thursday to revive a union pension fund's suit looking to hold Wells Fargo and Ocwen Financial Corp. liable for losses on mortgage-backed securities, with two judges signaling the risky loans the fund sued over might not be covered by federal benefits law.

  • September 05, 2024

    Chancery Presses Pause On $450M Bolt Financial Financing

    Affiliates of multinational investors Hedosophia and BlackRock have won a Delaware Court of Chancery pause of a purported Bolt Financial Inc. $450 million equity financing that would eliminate and replace all the company's preferred stock while returning founder Ryan Breslow to his CEO seat.

  • September 05, 2024

    Cooley Hires Corporate Governance Pro As Strategic Adviser

    Cooley LLP has hired a thought leader with expertise in securities regulation as a strategic adviser to provide content for clients, including a new blog to give guidance on all types of governance issues, the firm announced Thursday.

  • September 04, 2024

    Robinhood Inks $3.9M Deal In Calif.'s Crypto Withdrawal Probe

    Robinhood's cryptocurrency trading platform will pay a $3.9 million penalty to resolve the state of California's claims that the Menlo Park-based company didn't allow customers to make withdrawals from their accounts from 2018 to 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Wednesday.

  • September 04, 2024

    SEC Lets Deadline Pass For 5th Circ. Private Funds Appeal

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission won't challenge a Fifth Circuit decision that vacated its recently passed disclosure rules for private fund advisers, taking no action as its deadline to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court passed.

  • September 04, 2024

    FINRA Beats Post-Jarkesy Challenge To Enforcement Powers

    The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has beaten back a broker's bid to use the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Jarkesy decision to challenge its enforcement regime, after a Pennsylvania federal judge found other high court precedent barred him from hearing the broker's constitutional challenge to the regulator's proceedings.

  • September 04, 2024

    UBS Financial Gets Wrapped Up In Cash Sweep Class Action

    UBS Financial Services has been hit with a proposed class action suit alleging it prioritized its own financial interests and those of its affiliated banks over customers by using its cash sweep program to direct customers' uninvested cash balances into accounts that disproportionately benefited the investment bank.

  • September 04, 2024

    PE Advisers Flouted Registration Requirements, SEC Says

    A pair of Florida-based private equity advisers and their CEO have agreed to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that they broke federal securities laws by improperly declaring themselves exempt from registering as advisers to private funds, according to the agency.

  • September 04, 2024

    Icahn Enterprises Investor Sues Alleging 'Ponzi-Like' Scam

    An Icahn Enterprises LP investor hit the partnership's billionaire founder Carl Icahn and its board with a derivative suit in Florida federal court Tuesday, accusing them of hiding "highly significant" risks, including the partnership's alleged "Ponzi-like" structure, which purportedly inflated its price and exposed it to regulatory probes and litigation.

  • September 04, 2024

    Ripple Gets OK To Pause SEC Penalty As It Mulls Appeal

    A New York federal judge on Wednesday signed off on Ripple Labs' request to hold off on paying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the $125 million penalty it owes to allow time for either side to appeal the landmark ruling in the agency's registration case.

  • September 04, 2024

    SEC Fines NJ Financial Cos. For Whistleblowing Violations

    New Jersey-based brokerage Nationwide Planning Associates Inc. and two affiliated investment advisers have agreed to collectively pay $240,000 to settle allegations that they prevented their clients from acting as whistleblowers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday.

  • September 04, 2024

    Atty Tied To Ponzi Scheme Can't Discharge CFTC Debt

    A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday denied an attorney's request to have his debt to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission discharged after he and others were found liable for $10 million for their roles in a Ponzi scheme.

  • September 04, 2024

    SEC Says $5M Fraud Scheme Targeted Venezuelan-Americans

    A pair of Miami area residents and a company they control have agreed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over $3.25 million to settle affinity fraud allegations involving a purported proprietary automated trading platform they were developing.

  • September 04, 2024

    Judge Says EB-5 Investors, Fund Must Disclose More Info

    An Illinois federal judge told a group of Chinese investors and a development fund on Wednesday they both must provide additional information in a suit accusing the fund of making off with $13.2 million intended for the development of a Hawaii resort.

  • September 04, 2024

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Blackbeard IP Fight, Firm Data Breach

    As summer winds down, the North Carolina Business Court tackled usage rights pertaining to footage and artifacts from Blackbeard's shipwreck while grappling with uncovering the details of a cyberattack that exposed the data of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP. In case you missed those and others, here are the highlights.

  • September 04, 2024

    Ex-Lender Says FDIC Can't 'Trap' Him In Dispute Without Trial

    A former small-business financier has doubled down on his push to immediately halt an enforcement proceeding against him filed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., arguing it would be unjust to block his claims after a "sea change" in relevant case law.

  • September 04, 2024

    Fintech Investor Tries To Undo 'Formulistic' Nix Of NCino Suit

    A pension fund invested in financial technology company nCino Inc. urged Delaware's Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive its suit against company directors and investment firm Insight Venture Partners over a $1.2 billion acquisition, arguing the Chancery Court "missed the mosaic for the tiles" by dismissing the case.

  • September 04, 2024

    Solana Labs Denied Arbitration In Token Crypto Fraud Suit

    A California federal judge has denied a motion to compel arbitration in a suit alleging Solana Labs Inc. and its key investors promoted and sold Solana cryptocurrency tokens as unregistered securities, saying that Solana failed to prove that the lead plaintiff agreed to the terms of service that included an arbitration clause, among other things.

  • September 04, 2024

    SEC Fines Investor Over $7.5M In Undisclosed Affiliate Fees

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Florida-based investor Digital Bridge for failing to properly disclose about $7.5 million worth of payments to affiliates for services provided to a group of funds the firm manages.

  • September 04, 2024

    FINRA Fines Broker-Dealer $900K Over Lax AML Compliance

    Broker-dealer Brex Treasury has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's claims that it overrelied on automated anti-money laundering compliance software not reasonably designed to meet its needs.

  • September 04, 2024

    Feds Say Litigation Funding Co. Was A $10M Ponzi Scheme

    A purported investment company's owner faces criminal charges and a suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after she allegedly made false claims to investors that she would lend their money to personal injury attorneys but instead used the money for a Ponzi-like scheme and personal expenses.

  • September 04, 2024

    Brazilian Oil Bribery Case Jury Warned Of 'Liar' Witness

    Attorneys for a Connecticut trader accused of bribing Brazilian oil officials urged a jury on Wednesday not to trust an alleged co-conspirator scheduled to testify for the government, calling that man a "skilled and adept liar" who would "substantially assist" prosecutors in possible return for a favorable family immigration decision.

Expert Analysis

  • First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants

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    The Delaware Chancery Court's first full dismissal of claims challenging a special purpose acquisition company transaction under the entire fairness doctrine in the recent Hennessy Capital Acquisition Stockholder Litigation establishes useful precedent to abate the flood of SPAC litigation, say Lisa Bugni and Benjamin Lee at King & Spalding.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

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    In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

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    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Roundup

    After Chevron

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    In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 26 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Proposed Customer ID Rule Could Cost Investment Advisers

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    A rule recently proposed by FinCEN and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make financial advisers collect more customer information parallels an anti-money laundering and counterterrorism rule proposed this spring, but firms may face new compliance costs when implementing these screening programs, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • What Passage Of House Crypto Bill Could Mean For Industry

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    While the prospects of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which recently passed the House in a bipartisan fashion, becoming law remain murky, the manner of its passage may give crypto markets a real cause for hope, say Neel Maitra and Dale Beggs at Dechert.

  • What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation

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    Recent federal court decisions in the Fearless Fund and Hello Alice cases shed new light on the ongoing wave of challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with opposite conclusions on whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.

  • Advisers Can Avoid Gaps In SEC Marketing Rule Compliance

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    A recent risk alert from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the enforcement history of the marketing rule indicate that advisers have encountered persistent difficulties in achieving compliance — but there are steps advisers can take to mitigate risks of violations, say Scott Moss and Jimmy Kang at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: June Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers two recent decisions from the Third and Tenth Circuits, and identifies practice tips around class action settlements and standing in securities litigation.

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