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Securities
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December 04, 2024
'Side Deal' Unlikely To Ax Fees In $10M Morgan Stanley Deal
A California federal judge said Wednesday he isn't inclined to strip counsel who negotiated Morgan Stanley's $10 million deal with its financial advisers of their fees over an abandoned "side deal" between the company and the lead plaintiff, saying it should have been disclosed but didn't impact the deal's fairness.
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December 04, 2024
SEC Scores $13M Default Judgment In Data Co. Insider Action
China-based cloud analytics company Gridsum Inc. and its CEO have been ordered to give the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly $13 million after failing to respond to the regulator's claims that they funneled investor money out of the company to the relatives of executives.
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December 04, 2024
GAO Finds Limited Oversight, Data On Crypto In 401(k)s
Though crypto assets make up a small part of the 401(k) market, their limited federal oversight might leave workers responsible for monitoring the volatile investment options, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
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December 04, 2024
Mich. Justices Doubt Shareholder Agreement Bars Debt
A chorus of Michigan Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared skeptical that a sister could claim her brother's ski resort company breached an agreement for shareholder redemption by taking out debt that altered her share redemption price, pressing her attorney as to how the contract prevented the company from doing so.
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December 04, 2024
PCAOB Boots Audit Firm, Partners Over Altered Documents
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has imposed $465,000 in total fines against Raines & Fischer LLP and three of its partners, permanently revoking the firm's registration and barring the partners after they allegedly altered audit documents prior to an inspection of the firm.
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December 04, 2024
CFTC Hits $17.1B Enforcement Record With FTX-Linked Deals
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission secured a record annual enforcement haul of more than $17.1 billion in fiscal year 2024, including a historic $12.7 billion judgment against failed crypto exchange FTX and its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research, the agency announced Wednesday.
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December 04, 2024
5th Circ. Probes $8M Payout For Allegedly Undelivered Services
An investment company on Wednesday found itself before the Fifth Circuit having to justify paying $7.7 million for allegedly undelivered services from an affiliate, as it appeals a $2.6 million bill it got hit with for prematurely ending a contract.
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December 04, 2024
Starbucks Brass Face Derivative Suit Over 'Reinvention' Flop
Officers and directors of coffee chain Starbucks are facing shareholder derivative claims over the company's so-called Triple Shot Reinvention strategy after the company disappointed the markets in April with updates about the plan.
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December 04, 2024
Developer, Michigan Differ On State, Federal Securities Tests
A Michigan Supreme Court justice on Wednesday pressed the state's securities administrator and a developer over how Michigan businesses and residents could be affected if the high court were to decide that a state law test rather than a federal one should be used to determine if a promissory note is a security.
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December 04, 2024
Uber Investors' Attys Awarded $58M In $200M IPO Suit Deal
A California federal judge granted final approval Wednesday to Uber's $200 million deal settling class claims from investors accusing it of making false and misleading statements ahead of its initial public offering, and also awarded $58 million for attorney fees that he called quite "substantial" but "warranted."
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December 04, 2024
SEC Taps New Co-Leaders For Crypto Enforcement Unit
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has promoted the assistant director of its crypto and cyber enforcement unit and a counsel to an outgoing Democratic commissioner to co-lead the regulator's crypto enforcement efforts ahead of a coming administration shake-up that could change the agency's approach to the digital asset industry.
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December 04, 2024
Wells Fargo Wants Suits Over $300M Scheme Tossed
Wells Fargo Bank NA urged a Florida federal judge on Wednesday to toss both a proposed class action and a receiver's lawsuit claiming the bank aided and abetted a $300 million Ponzi scheme that duped more than 1,000 investors, arguing that neither pleading sufficiently shows that Wells Fargo knew about the fraud.
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December 04, 2024
Viks' Bid To Duck Bank May Hinge On Norway Orders
A Connecticut state court judge noted repeatedly on Wednesday that Deutsche Bank AG has not provided her with copies of Norwegian judgments to undergird its argument that billionaire Alexander Vik and his daughter tortiously harmed the value of an asset sale, but the bank said the material is not necessary to let its lawsuit escape summary judgment.
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December 04, 2024
Del. Justices Skeptical $2.4B SPAC Deal Misled Investors
Delaware Supreme Court justices pressed a stockholder attorney on Wednesday to explain how the blank-check company that took electric vehicle venture Canoo Holdings Ltd. public in a $2.4 billion deal breached its duties by failing to reveal information it purportedly had yet to receive.
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December 04, 2024
Legal Clouds Part For 2 Who Assisted In Cannabis Fraud Case
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday allowed a pair of New Jersey business partners to avoid prison for aiding in a scheme to siphon portions of $14 million raised for a cannabis-infused consumer products company, crediting their cooperation with prosecutors.
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December 04, 2024
Pot Co. Investors Get Another Shot At Securities Suit
A New York federal judge has given a group of investors another chance to pursue claims that Cronos Group Inc. misled backers about its financial benchmarks, saying allegations stemming from a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission settlement could be enough for the claims to survive.
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December 04, 2024
Crypto Groups Hail Trump's SEC Pick Paul Atkins
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Paul Atkins to lead the agency next year, a decision that cryptocurrency advocates praised as opening a path for greater acceptance of an industry that has faced a slew of lawsuits under the current SEC.
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December 04, 2024
Steptoe Vet Will Lead Troutman Pepper's Sanctions, Trade Group
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP has hired a longtime Steptoe LLP lawyer to lead its sanctions and trade controls team in Washington, D.C., as the local lateral market continues responding to the coming change in political control in the nation's capital.
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December 04, 2024
Calif. Trading Instructor Gets Prison For $2M Investment Fraud
A North Carolina federal judge sentenced a California man extradited from Australia to face charges over a $2 million investment fraud scheme he orchestrated to 70 months in prison and ordered him to pay $1.9 million in restitution, federal prosecutors in the Tar Heel State announced.
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December 03, 2024
Top Ex-SEC Officials Warn Of Enforcement Upheaval
Former top U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials on Tuesday predicted a sea change in the agency's enforcement approach in the coming second administration of President-elect Donald Trump, with a lighter touch for corporate wrongdoers and a whole new ballgame with respect to cryptocurrency.
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December 03, 2024
Investor Attys Seek $6.6M Cut Of $20M Metal Price-Fixing Deal
Attorneys for investors settling platinum and palladium price-fixing claims against Goldman Sachs and others for $20 million have asked a New York federal judge to award them fees equivalent to a third of the settlement amount, or more than $6.6 million, a below-lodestar request that they said is, "clearly, not a windfall situation."
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December 03, 2024
Crypto Co. Hut 8 Wants Out Of Merger Disclosure Investor Suit
Crypto mining company Hut 8 moved to dismiss a proposed shareholder class action that is based on the claims of a short-seller's report that Hut 8 overpaid for a company with severe operational issues, saying the suit does not show the alleged misrepresentations were false or misleading when made or that investors were actually harmed.
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December 03, 2024
Customers Bancorp Hid AML Shortcomings, Investor Suit Says
Bank holding company Customers Bancorp Inc. faces a shareholder suit in Pennsylvania federal court alleging it failed to disclose shortcomings in its anti-money laundering compliance, causing shares to decline when the Federal Reserve and state banking authorities brought enforcement actions tied to the lender's work with crypto firms.
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December 03, 2024
Coinbase Says It Won't Use Firms That Hire Crypto Enforcers
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made clear that it won't work with law firms that employ former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys who led the charge on crypto enforcement suits, singling out Milbank LLP for its hiring of ex-SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal.
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December 03, 2024
Del. Justices Mostly Uphold Mindbody Merger Suit Ruling
Delaware's Supreme Court has upheld a Court of Chancery ruling that the former CEO of Mindbody Inc. is liable for an extra $1 per share plus interest to stockholders of the fitness software company but reversed the lower court's finding that Vista Equity Partners Management LLC, which acquired Mindbody in 2019, aided and abetted the executive.
Expert Analysis
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How To Safely Leverage AI In The Digital Assets Industry
Digital asset businesses that use or plan to implement artificial intelligence should assess their risk management frameworks to ensure that AI-related business areas, including customer support and fraud detection, are in compliance with applicable laws and regulatory guidance from the last year, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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$3B TD Bank AML Settlement Is A Wake-Up Call For All Banks
TD Bank’s historic settlement over anti-money laundering violations, resulting in over $3 billion in penalties, reminds banks of all shapes and sizes why they need to take financial crime compliance seriously, and highlights three areas that may be especially vulnerable to enforcement, says Jack Harrington at Bradley Arant.
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What Trump Presidency May Mean For Climate Reporting
While the Trump administration will likely take a hands-off approach to climate-related disclosures and rescind regulations promulgated under the Biden administration, state and international ESG laws mean the private sector may not reverse course on such disclosures, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
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SEC Action Indicates Continued Focus On ESG Disclosures
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently settled enforcement action against Invesco Advisers provides a road map for how regulatory agencies will continue to focus on ESG-related disclosures going forward, and underscores a focus on greenwashing, say attorneys at V&E.
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The Bar Needs More Clarity On The Discovery Objection Rule
Almost 10 years after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 was amended, attorneys still seem confused about what they should include in objections to discovery requests, and until the rules committee provides additional clarity, practitioners must beware the steep costs of noncompliance, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law Office.
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The AI Consumer Class Action Threat Is Not A Hallucination
As regulators scrutinize whether businesses can deliver on claims about their artificial intelligence products and services, the industry faces a wave of consumer fraud class actions — but AI companies can protect themselves by prioritizing fundamental best practices that are often overlooked, say Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein and Richard Torrenzano at the Torrenzano Group.
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What's Next For The CFTC After The Election
While much of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's enforcement actions in line with its traditional priorities will continue as usual in the near term, postelection leadership changes at the CFTC and new congressional priorities may alter the commission's regulatory framework in 2025 and beyond — particularly its oversight of crypto, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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Del. Dispatch: Clarifying Charter Amendment Vote Obligations
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently held in Gunderson v. The Trade Desk that only a majority stockholder vote is needed to approve a company's proposed reincorporation from Delaware to Nevada through a corporate conversion, which bodes well for other companies also considering leaving the First State, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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What's Still Up In The Air After Ruling On Calif. Climate Laws
A California federal court's recent ruling on challenges to California's sweeping climate disclosure laws resolved some issues, but allows litigation over the constitutionality of the laws to continue, and leaves many important questions on what entities will need to do to comply with the laws unanswered, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.
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Series
Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.
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Navigating DOJ's Patchwork Whistleblower Regime
In the past few months, the U.S. Department of Justice and several individual U.S. attorney’s offices have issued different pilot programs aimed at incentivizing individuals to blow the whistle on misconduct, but this piecemeal approach may create confusion and suboptimal outcomes, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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A Look At Similarities Between SOX And SEC's Cyber Rule
Just as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act paved the way for greater transparency and accountability in financial reporting, the SEC's cybersecurity rule is doing much the same for cybersecurity, ensuring that companies are resilient in the face of growing cyber threats, says Padraic O'Reilly at CyberSaint.
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Trump Rollback Of Biden Enviro Policies: What To Expect
Donald Trump's upcoming second presidential term will usher significant shifts in U.S. environmental and natural resource law and policy — and while the Biden administration is racing to secure its legacy, the incoming Trump administration is making plans to dramatically roll back most, if not all, of Biden's environmental initiatives, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six federal court decisions that touch on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and when individual inquiries are needed to prove economic loss.