Securities

  • December 11, 2024

    CFPB's Chopra Won't Head For Exit Ahead Of Trump's Arrival

    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra signaled Wednesday that he won't leave his post early unless and until the incoming Trump administration fires him next month, indicating that he plans to keep running the agency in the meantime.

  • December 11, 2024

    Justices' Cold Feet On Nvidia, Meta Leaves Attys Guessing

    The U.S. Supreme Court threw out a second securities case on Wednesday by refusing to issue a ruling in a Nvidia Corp. case with no explanation on its change of heart, leaving the defense bar to guess at the court's motivation and its potential implication for the future of high court securities cases.

  • December 10, 2024

    Md. Jury Convicts Ex-Biotech Execs On Some Fraud Counts

    Two former biotech executives were convicted on some counts Monday following a monthlong Maryland federal court trial in a case alleging they juiced CytoDyn Inc.'s share price by lying to investors about the development of a drug to treat HIV and COVID-19.

  • December 10, 2024

    Bristol-Myers Said To Renege On $450M Milestone Promise

    Former security holders of a biotechnology company Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired in 2016 hauled the pharmaceutical giant into Delaware's Court of Chancery on Monday, accusing it of using "patent prosecution sleight of hand" to avoid paying up to $450 million in promised milestone payments related to an autoimmune disorder treatment.

  • December 10, 2024

    Robinhood Seeks Arb. For Remaining Meme Stock MDL Suits

    Stock trading platform Robinhood urged a Florida federal court to send to arbitration the seven remaining individual suits brought against it as part of a multidistrict litigation over the platform's decision to freeze trading in certain so-called meme stocks amid a social-media fueled run on shares of those issuers.

  • December 10, 2024

    SEC Says Ex-Rep Defrauded Investors With Short-Term Bets

    A former registered representative of broker-dealer Western International Securities Inc. has agreed to pay over $2.1 million to end U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations he orchestrated a scheme to defraud retail clients by recommending costly investment strategies, and then covered up their "substantial" losses with phony financial statements.

  • December 10, 2024

    SEC Outlines Municipal Adviser Exam Process

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Examinations has issued a risk alert outlining its process for selecting municipal advisers to examine, how advisers can prepare for exams, and the types of information examiners may request.

  • December 10, 2024

    Chancery Awards Ajamie $13M In Cell Partnership Fight

    Boutique law firm Ajamie LLP has won a Delaware Court of Chancery ruling that clients in a more-than decade-long multi-site battle over dozens of AT&T cellphone partnerships owe Ajamie about $13 million in legal fees despite a court finding that a formal fee-sharing agreement is unenforceable.

  • December 10, 2024

    Pastor Targeted Churchgoers In $6M Crypto Fraud, CFTC Says

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Tuesday that it has sued a Washington state pastor in federal court for allegedly targeting Spanish-speaking individuals, including members of his congregation, with a cryptocurrency multilevel marketing scheme worth at least $5.9 million. 

  • December 10, 2024

    4th Circ. Casts Doubt On Broker's FINRA Challenge

    A Fourth Circuit panel wondered Tuesday whether it was too soon to hear one North Carolina broker's constitutional challenge against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, with the circuit judges pointing out that FINRA's case against the broker was not yet over.

  • December 10, 2024

    SEC Says Xtreme Fighting CEO And GC Defrauded Investors

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Xtreme Fighting Championships and CEO Steven Smith of defrauding investors by selling millions of dollars of stock in the martial arts organization without disclosing the involvement of Smith or its criminally charged general counsel, according to a Florida federal lawsuit.

  • December 10, 2024

    Crypto Groups Rally Against Reappointing SEC's Crenshaw

    Cryptocurrency industry groups are pushing back on a potential second term for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw with an online ad campaign and letters to lawmakers ahead of a Senate Banking Committee vote Wednesday on the Democrat's confirmation.

  • December 10, 2024

    Soft Landing For Pilot As Billionaire's Insider Case Wraps

    A pilot who admitted to dodging taxes on $500,000 in income after he was accused of taking stock tips from Joe Lewis, his billionaire boss, avoided prison on Tuesday at a sentencing that closed a high-profile insider trading prosecution.

  • December 09, 2024

    Trump Media Investors Urge Stay Denial In Del. Suit

    Investors in Donald Trump's social media website urged a Delaware Chancery Court to deny a temporary stay brought by the president-elect in order to let Florida litigation play out first, saying presidential immunity doesn't extend to unofficial acts, and the lawsuit can proceed against Trump's affiliates.

  • December 09, 2024

    Akin Gump 'Totally Messed Up' With Texts, Vaxart Judge Says

    A California federal judge asked by Vaxart investors to impose sanctions over a hedge fund's deleted text messages in a case claiming Vaxart inflated its stock price with deceptive headlines about a COVID-19 vaccine said Monday that the fund's lawyers at Akin Gump "totally, totally messed up."

  • December 09, 2024

    Blockchain Co. IP Fight With Investment Firm Teed Up For Trial

    A California federal judge has said a jury should decide whether the investment firm Franklin Templeton misappropriated trade secrets of Blockchain Innovation LLC and breached its fiduciary duty and contract with the firm when it shut down a digital asset startup that Blockchain later acquired.

  • December 09, 2024

    Morgan Stanley Pays SEC $15M Over Theft By Ex-Reps

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a $15 million penalty against a Morgan Stanley subsidiary Monday, saying the company failed to put in place procedures that may have earlier caught four former employees who spent years stealing from clients.

  • December 09, 2024

    Satellite Co. Sued In Del. For Docs After $450M Merger

    Two stockholders of satellite venture Terran Orbital Corp. sued the business in Delaware's Court of Chancery Friday for access to company records, linking the demand to their investigation of events leading up to the company's $450 million, 25-cents-per-share sale to Lockheed Martin in October.

  • December 09, 2024

    Feds Says Colo. Man's Investing Scheme Fleeced Pro Athletes

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a civil lawsuit accusing a Colorado man of swindling investors, including unidentified professional athletes, out of more than a million dollars.

  • December 09, 2024

    MIT Grads Say $25M Crypto Fraud Charges Not Rooted In Law

    The two Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated brothers accused of a $25 million crypto heist have told a New York federal judge that the indictment against them is "far removed from the heartland of wire fraud" since their novel trades can't be considered misrepresentations and that they had no notice their activity would be considered unlawful.

  • December 09, 2024

    SocGen Unit To Pay FINRA $950K Over Fingerprinting Lapses

    A U.S.-based unit of French financial services company Societe Generale will pay a $950,000 fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to settle the self-regulatory organization's claims that the firm failed to fingerprint roughly 2,000 current and former employees at certain affiliates as required by law.

  • December 09, 2024

    Facebook Execs Deny Email Breach Harm In Del. Hearing

    Two former Facebook directors turned to "chutzpah" in answering a stockholder class call for sanctions against them for deleting uncounted emails regarding privacy violations and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a stockholder attorney told a Delaware vice chancellor on Monday.

  • December 09, 2024

    EV Carmaker Lucid Wants To Shed More Of Inflated Biz Suit

    Electric carmaker Lucid Group has asked a California federal judge to toss most of the latest version of a proposed investor class action alleging its production forecasts were misleading, arguing that parts of the suit that remained intact after a recent dismissal order involved statements taken out of context.

  • December 09, 2024

    SEC's Trading And Markets Director Zhu To Leave Agency

    Haoxiang Zhu is stepping down as head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, the agency announced Monday, leaving the group that oversees orderliness of U.S. markets as leadership continues to change at regulatory bodies following President-elect Donald Trump's election victory.

  • December 09, 2024

    Feds Seek 2-Year Sentence In Landmark Crypto Tax Case

    The first person ever criminally charged for failing to report gains from the sale of cryptocurrency by filing false returns should be sentenced to more than two years in prison after he admitted underreporting $4 million in bitcoin proceeds, prosecutors told a Texas federal court.

Expert Analysis

  • Why K-Cup Claims Landed Keurig In Hot Water With SEC

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement with Keurig Dr. Pepper for making incomplete statements regarding the recyclability of K-cup pods highlights the importance of comprehensive corporate disclosures, particularly with respect to ESG matters, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Legislation Most Likely To Pass In Lame Duck Session

    Author Photo

    As Congress begins its five-week post-election lame duck session, attorneys at Greenberg Traurig break down the legislative priorities and which proposals can be expected to pass.

  • Predicting Shareholder Activism Trends In New Trump Admin

    Author Photo

    While President-elect Donald Trump has promised tax policies, deregulation and lax antitrust enforcement — which all fuel shareholder activism — a closer look at his first administration's track record suggests that his second presidency might be a mixed bag for activist investors and companies alike, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • What Trump's 2nd Presidency Could Mean For Crypto Sector

    Author Photo

    Trump's second term will bring a fundamental shift from the Biden administration's approach to crypto-asset regulation and banking supervision, with the most significant changes likely taking effect in the first two quarters of 2025 and broader policy shifts emerging over the next year, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Putting NYDFS AI Cybersecurity Guidance Into Practice

    Author Photo

    New guidance from the New York Department of Financial Services explains how financial institutions should assess and mitigate cybersecurity risks associated with artificial intelligence, focusing on four main threats and highlighting how varying environments require specific mitigation measures, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
    Author Photo

    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

    Author Photo

    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • Dissecting New Circuit Split Over SEC's Proxy Adviser Rule

    Author Photo

    The Sixth Circuit recently upheld the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's partial rescission of enhanced conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements for proxy voting advice businesses, creating a circuit split over broader questions concerning the standard for assessing the legality of agency actions in general, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

    Author Photo

    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Parsing SEC's Emerging Trend Of Section 204A Enforcement

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently settled with Sound Point Capital Management for violating Section 204A of the Investment Advisers Act, adding to a slew of charges against investment advisers that allegedly failed to safeguard material nonpublic information, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • SEC Rulemaking Radar: The View From Election Day

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seems poised to tackle many of the remaining items on its most recent Regulatory Flexibility Agenda by early 2025, despite the presidential election and the potential for a new chair to be nominated soon, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Why Secured Lenders Must Mind The Gap In UCC Searches

    Author Photo

    If not adequately addressed, the Uniform Commercial Code filing indexing gap can interfere with a lender's expected lien priority, but taking appropriate preclosing actions and properly timing searches can eliminate this risk, says Robert Wonneberger at Barclay Damon.

  • Recent Developments In Insurance Coverage For FCA Claims

    Author Photo

    As the U.S. Department of Justice continues its vigorous False Claims Act enforcement, companies looking to their insurers to help defray the costs of an investigation or settlement should note recent decisions on which types of policies cover FCA claims, which policy periods apply and which portions of FCA-related losses are covered, say attorneys at Covington.

  • A Look At Grewal's Record-Breaking Legacy After SEC Exit

    Author Photo

    Gurbir Grewal resigned as director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement last month after more than three years on the job, leaving behind a legacy marked by record numbers of penalties and enforcement actions, as well as mixed results in aggressive lawsuits against major crypto players, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

    Author Photo

    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Securities archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!