Securities

  • February 19, 2025

    Constitutional Claims Fail To Stop SEC Insider Trading Suit

    A Texas man must face U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that he profited off of inside information about a Boston Scientific acquisition that he learned about from his domestic partner after a federal judge rejected his arguments that the regulator sued him unconstitutionally.

  • February 19, 2025

    Chancery Releases Cannabis Firm Founders From $13M Fee

    The Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that a cannabis investment firm's $39.9 million settlement in a shareholder derivative lawsuit frees it from having to pay a nearly $13 million licensing agreement for the use of Bob Marley's name.

  • February 19, 2025

    Constellation Brands Faces Investor Suit Over Profit Slump

    Alcoholic beverage company Constellation Brands Inc. has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging it misled investors about attempts to revive its wine and spirits business, which were reportedly shown to be ineffective when the company announced quarterly earnings last month.

  • February 19, 2025

    'Death Knell' For SEC Dealer Rule As Regulator Drops Appeal

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday dropped its bid to revive its expansion of the dealer definition at the Fifth Circuit after industry groups representing private funds and crypto firms successfully challenged the rule in Texas federal court last year.

  • February 19, 2025

    Casino SPAC Shareholders Sue Execs Over Failed Merger

    A public shareholder of a blank check company that failed to merge with a Philippines-based casino has accused the special purpose acquisition company's directors of orchestrating a deal process with "recklessness, deceit, and bad faith," is and seeking damages beyond the $11 million settlement the company struck in another related suit.

  • February 19, 2025

    Del.'s High-Speed Corporate Law Rework May Blunt Plaintiffs

    A fast-moving amendment of Delaware's mainstay corporation law, aimed in part at curbing big fees, limiting some breach of fiduciary claims and stemming a perceived corporate exodus, has left plaintiffs attorneys playing catch-up as the recently revealed measure heads toward a first hearing next month.

  • February 19, 2025

    Robinhood Says It Faces New Scrutiny From States, FDIC

    Online brokerage Robinhood is facing investigations from Massachusetts' state securities regulator and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alongside an ongoing probe from the New York attorney general, the firm disclosed in its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • February 19, 2025

    SEC Says Duo Ran $1.5M Scam To Fund Deal With Red Flags

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused two California insurance brokers and their firm of fraudulently raising $1.5 million from an investor and then losing the money to an overseas investment scheme that the agency said presented many red flags. 

  • February 19, 2025

    Judge Won't Halt PBM Case Over Attack On FTC Independence

    A Missouri federal judge refused to temporarily block the Federal Trade Commission's in-house case accusing pharmacy benefits managers of artificially inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes, rejecting the PBMs' claims that the Trump administration's attempt to eliminate safeguards protecting FTC members from at-will presidential removal favors their attempt to stop the case.

  • February 19, 2025

    Silver Point Knocks SEC Suit Over Attorney Info Access Rules

    Investment adviser Silver Point Capital LP said it did not need to write special rules banning a now-deceased former BigLaw bankruptcy attorney from sharing information between its business units, accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of filing a "farfetched theory of noncompliance" in a Connecticut enforcement action.

  • February 19, 2025

    3D Printing Co. Escapes Chancery Suit Over $575M Merger

    An ExOne Co. investor failed to show why the 3D printer manufacturer should have postponed a shareholder vote over its rival's purchase of the company, a Delaware vice chancellor has ruled, tossing the investor's proposed class action that alleged the company's board of directors breached its fiduciary duties.

  • February 19, 2025

    Crypto Group Urges Rollback Of IRS Broker Rule

    A coalition of members of the cryptocurrency trade group Blockchain Association urged congressional leaders Wednesday to repeal a final U.S. Treasury Department rule implementing additional reporting requirements for decentralized finance brokers.

  • February 19, 2025

    Equinix Shareholder Claims Its Board Manipulated Financials

    An Equinix Inc. shareholder lodged a derivative shareholder suit accusing the data center-focused real estate investment trust's executives of manipulating financials to dupe investors, marking the latest legal challenge to arise since an investment research firm first made the claim last year.

  • February 19, 2025

    Cintas 401(k) Class Counsel Get OK For $1.3M Fee

    Counsel for a class of 50,000 people who sued uniform supplier Cintas for mismanaging retirement benefits have been awarded $1.3 million in fees after striking a $4 million settlement with the company.

  • February 19, 2025

    Securities Group Of The Year: Winston & Strawn

    Winston & Strawn LLP secured a unanimous victory on behalf of client Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. before the U.S. Supreme Court last year, winning the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Securities Groups of the Year.

  • February 19, 2025

    Wu-Tang Album Owner Wants Shkreli To Pay Fees

    The crypto project that holds the only physical copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album that once belonged to Martin Shkreli has asked a Brooklyn federal court to make him pay for months of noncompliance with a preliminary injunction requiring him to account for all copies of the album he may have made.

  • February 18, 2025

    Pandemic No Excuse To Alter $150M Notes, Alter Domus Says

    An auto parts magnate and his manufacturing company should not get away with using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for changing promissory notes worth $150 million in ways that deflated their value, lending agent Alter Domus LLC asserted in Michigan federal court Tuesday.

  • February 18, 2025

    Trump Exec Order Expands Control Over Independent Agencies

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to limit the autonomy of independent agencies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Communications Commission by requiring them to submit draft regulations for presidential review.

  • February 18, 2025

    Coinbase Brass Face Investor Suit Over Firm's Legal Liabilities

    A Coinbase shareholder has sued the crypto exchange's executive officers and board members in New Jersey federal court on allegations they breached their fiduciary duties with disclosure failures and securities law violations that left the firm open to lawsuits and other events that jeopardized its financial condition to the detriment of shareholders.

  • February 18, 2025

    Wells Fargo Fights Class Cert. Bid In 'Sham' Hiring Case

    Wells Fargo & Co. is seeking to avoid class claims in a lawsuit accusing it of deceiving investors about its hiring practices, arguing that suing shareholders have not shown how a downturn in the bank's stock price was caused by the supposedly "sham" job interviews rather than a challenging interest rate environment.

  • February 18, 2025

    Data Science Co. Director Admits $7M Skim In Del. Hearing

    An officer and co-founder of a Hong Kong-headquartered data science company who acknowledged skimming nearly $7 million from the business during a Delaware Court of Chancery hearing was found Tuesday to have breached his fiduciary duty to the company and was ordered to return the cash.

  • February 18, 2025

    Web Data Co. Hid Customer Usage Slowdown, Suit Says

    Web data collection solutions company Alarum has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action in New Jersey federal court alleging the company failed to disclose its struggles in keeping and expanding customer engagements, which led to reduced customer spending.

  • February 18, 2025

    Gas Co. Venture Global Faces Suit Over IPO Disclosures

    Liquefied natural gas company Venture Global was hit with a proposed class action alleging the company raised $1.75 billion in its initial public offering last month without disclosing legal issues it is facing from oil companies Shell and BP.

  • February 18, 2025

    Acccounting Firm Blames Broker For Losing $1M In Coverage

    A Texas accounting firm accused its insurance broker of causing it to lose $1 million coverage by failing to inform an excess insurer that the firm was subpoenaed in connection with the investigation of a $12 million seismic data collection company embezzlement scheme, the broker told a Texas federal court.

  • February 18, 2025

    Stablecoin Firm Gets Securities Claim Cut From Class Action

    A New York federal judge has trimmed the securities claim from a putative class action brought by buyers of GMO-Z.com Trust's GYEN stablecoin who argued they suffered losses when the value of the digital asset temporarily fluctuated, but allowed the bulk of the consumer protection claims to move forward.

Expert Analysis

  • Implications Of NY Climate Case For Generating Facilities

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    Regardless of how Greenidge Generation LLC v. New York Department of Environmental Conservation develops on remand, this decision has immediate repercussions for generating facilities seeking permit applications and renewals in New York, likely involving Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act considerations, say attorneys at Hodgson Russ.

  • Using Data To Inform Corporate Disclosure Decisions

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    With today’s market volatility and regulatory factors requiring public companies to confront competing transparency and protection demands, incorporating stock price reaction analysis of company-specific news into the controller's role could be beneficial for disclosure determinations, say Liz Dunshee at Fredrikson & Byron and Nessim Mezrahi at SAR.

  • How White Collar Attys Can Use Mythic Archetypes At Trial

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    A careful reading of a classic screenwriting guide shows that fairy tales and white collar trials actually have a lot in common, and defense attorneys would do well to tell a hero’s journey at trial, relying on universal character archetypes to connect with the jury, says Jack Sharman at Lightfoot Franklin.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • 5th Circ. Crypto Ruling Shows Limits On OFAC Authority

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent decision that immutable smart contracts on the Tornado Cash crypto-transaction software protocol are not "property" subject to Office of Foreign Assets Control jurisdiction may signal that courts can construe OFAC's authority more restrictively after Loper Bright, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Risk Disclosure Issue Remains After Justices Nix Meta Case

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    After full briefing and argument, the U.S. Supreme Court recently dismissed Facebook v. Amalgamated Bank as improvidently granted, leaving courts with the tricky endeavor of determining when the failure to disclose a past event in an Item 105 risk disclosure is materially misleading, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • FTX Exec's Sentencing Shows Pros And Cons Of Cooperation

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    The sentencing of former FTX tech deputy Gary Wang, whose cooperation netted him a rare outcome of no prison time, offers critical takeaways for attorneys and clients navigating the burgeoning world of crypto-related prosecutions, says Andrew Meck at Whiteford.

  • SEC Custody Rule Creates Crypto Compliance Conundrum

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's application of the custody rule may be a good faith attempt to enhance consumer protections for client assets, it doesn't appreciate the unique characteristics of crypto-assets, forcing advisers to choose between pursuing their clients' objectives and complying with the rule, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • What Insurers Need To Know About OFAC's Expanded FAQs

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    The Office of Foreign Assets Control's recently expanded insurance FAQs clarify how OFAC views insurance policies in a number of specific circumstances involving sanctioned parties, and make plain that sanctions compliance is the responsibility of all participants in the insurance ecosystem, including underwriters, brokers and agents, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Rethinking Clawback Policies For 2025 Compensation Season

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    The start of a new year presents an opportunity for companies to reassess their executive compensation clawback policies, and while mandatory Dodd-Frank clawbacks are necessary, discretionary policies can offer companies greater flexibility to address misconduct, protect their reputations and align with shareholder priorities, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • Federal Embrace Of Crypto Regs Won't Lower State Hurdles

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    Even if the incoming presidential administration and next Congress focus on creating clearer federal regulatory frameworks for the cryptocurrency sector, companies bringing digital asset products and services to the market will still face significant state-level barriers, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • SEC Prioritized Enforcement Sweeps As Cases Slowed In '24

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    Following three consecutive years of increasing activity, fiscal year 2024 marked the lowest number of cases the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has brought since Gary Gensler assumed office in April 2021, buttressed by some familiar enforcement sweeps, say attorneys at Covington.

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