Securities

  • January 10, 2025

    Liquidnet To Pay SEC $5M Over Market Access Rule Issues

    Liquidnet Inc. agreed Friday to pay $5 million to resolve claims from the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission that the broker-dealer failed to have the proper controls and procedures related to market access in place and failed to protect confidential subscriber trading information, among other things.

  • January 10, 2025

    Ex-CEO's Sentencing In COVID Test Securities Fraud Delayed

    A New Jersey federal judge delayed a former healthcare CEO's sentencing for securities fraud arising from his touting a $670 million COVID-19 test kit contract that later fell through, granting the ex-executive's request Friday for a one-month delay while he helps care for ailing family members.

  • January 10, 2025

    Semiconductor Co. Hit With Investor Suit Over Demand Slump

    Semiconductor manufacturing company Micron Technology Inc. has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging Micron began overstating demand for its products after two years of disappointing sales in order to keep share prices artificially inflated.

  • January 10, 2025

    Crypto Buyers Say They Were Duped Out Of Millions

    Investors in two crypto projects — Phoenix Community Capital and its offshoot, Xeta Capital — alleged in Tennessee federal court that the projects' leaders duped them out of tens of millions of dollars with false promises of "returns, transparency, and the legitimacy of the enterprises."

  • January 10, 2025

    BCLP's Global Healthcare Chair Jumps To Dechert

    Dechert LLP has brought on the former global chair of healthcare and life sciences at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as a corporate and securities partner and leader of its healthcare regulatory practice.

  • January 10, 2025

    Vince McMahon Resolves SEC Probe Over Secret Settlements

    Embattled World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Vince McMahon signed two multimillion-dollar deals to buy silence from a former employee and a contractor without making the required disclosures to organization officials and staffers, according to a settlement announced Friday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • January 09, 2025

    CFPB Bars Ex-Agency Attys From Revived Innovation Policies

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said it will not consider applications for its rebooted no-action letter and compliance sandbox policies when those applications are submitted by financial service companies represented by former bureau attorneys as outside counsel.

  • January 09, 2025

    SEC Sues To Enforce $3M Cannabis Investment Fraud Deal

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a Utah federal court to enforce an administrative cease-and-desist order requiring a wealth management company and its owner to give the regulator over $3 million they previously agreed to pay to end claims they defrauded investors in a $19.5 million cannabis-linked fund raise.

  • January 09, 2025

    Target Brass Face Derivative Suit Over DEI Fallout

    Target Corp.'s executives and directors have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in Florida federal court alleging that the company's diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and its offerings of LGBTQ+ merchandise harmed investors.

  • January 09, 2025

    Activision Brands $75B Del. Merger Suit 'Scattershot'

    An attorney for former Activision-Blizzard directors and top officers told Delaware's chancellor on Thursday that stockholder attorneys are pursuing a massive but "scattershot" suit challenging the company's $75.4 billion merger with Microsoft Corp., a deal that produced both a disputed $31 billion premium and a 329-page third amended lawsuit.

  • January 09, 2025

    Zillow Brings 'Goldman' Debate Over Class Cert. To 9th Circ.

    Zillow Group Inc. is asking the Ninth Circuit to issue its first ruling on the correct application of a U.S. Supreme Court's Goldman decision to investor class certification bids, saying a lower court was wrong to certify a class of shareholders who alleged that the company misled them about the robustness of its now defunct home-flipping business.

  • January 09, 2025

    FINRA Fines Fidelity Unit $600K Over Ex-Employee's Theft

    Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC has agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's claims that the firm had an inadequate supervisors system in place from 2012 through 2020 that failed to detect an associated person's theft of $750,000 from customer accounts.

  • January 09, 2025

    Lutnick, Cantor Seek Toss Of BGC Reorganization Suit In Del.

    An attorney for billionaire Howard Lutnick and Cantor Fitzgerald told a Delaware vice chancellor on Thursday that former BGC Partners LP stockholders who sued over allegedly unfair terms in its conversion into a public company raised derivative claims that instead belong to the converted company.

  • January 09, 2025

    Sentara Health Workers Say Retirement Fund Is Mismanaged

    Two Sentara Health employees have filed proposed class action in Virginia federal court accusing the company's retirement fund managers of failing to properly manage a $136 million plan, arguing it lost millions due to the committee's retention of an underperforming stable value fund in the face of better options.

  • January 09, 2025

    Susman Godfrey Vies To Help Lead Crypto DAO Suit

    Susman Godfrey LLP has asked a federal judge in California to allow it to serve as co-lead counsel in an investor lawsuit against decentralized autonomous organization Lido DAO and its large institutional investors over allegedly unregistered securities sold in the form of crypto tokens.

  • January 09, 2025

    Judge Nixes Bid To Depose SEC Counsel In $73M Fraud Case

    A New Jersey federal magistrate judge has denied a credit reporting agency's bid to depose four U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys and to compel the production of their witness interview notes in a civil enforcement action over an alleged $73 million fraud, ruling the information sought is protected by the work-product doctrine.

  • January 09, 2025

    Trump's Return Brings 'Deeper Anxiety' To DOJ Fraud Attys

    White collar practitioners say they've heard from U.S. Department of Justice attorneys who are anxiously bracing for the possibility of working with fewer resources while confined to narrower enforcement priorities after Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office.

  • January 08, 2025

    Group Alleges $10M 'Sham' In Fla. Plant-Based Co. Stock Deal

    A Canadian investment group has sued two Delaware corporations in Florida federal court over a "sham" stock deal, alleging it was fraudulently induced to sell its plant-based food technology company and later cheated out of $10 million worth of cash and common stock it was promised.

  • January 08, 2025

    Convicted Ex-Nomura Trader To Settle SEC's RMBS Action

    Ex-Nomura Securities International Inc. trader Michael Gramins, who was convicted in 2017 of scheming to trick mortgage bond buyers, has reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle follow-on civil claims, according to an agency filing on Wednesday.

  • January 08, 2025

    Quantitative Trader Accused Of Stealing Firm's Source Code

    New York federal prosecutors have accused a quantitative trader of stealing the secrets of a billion-dollar company's source code from his former employer to use at his own trading firm, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court.

  • January 08, 2025

    Edward Jones Fined $17M Over Customer Transition Fees

    Edward Jones has agreed to pay $17 million to end an investigation into alleged supervisory failures that may have led it to overcharge customers who transitioned from its brokerage division to its advisory division, state regulators announced Wednesday.

  • January 08, 2025

    Oppenheimer Fights Claims Over Ex-Worker's Ponzi Scheme

    Financial services giant Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. is seeking to avoid an arbitration fight brought by three North Carolina residents over a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by a former Oppenheimer employee, arguing in a new suit the individuals have never been customers of Oppenheimer and, therefore, have no standing to bring claims or arbitrate.

  • January 08, 2025

    Colo. Judge Certifies National Class Of Senior Care Investors

    A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday certified a nationwide class of stockholders in a securities suit alleging a senior health care company made misleading statements in an initial public offering that later caused stock prices to tank after a government audit exposed the falsehoods.

  • January 08, 2025

    Biotech Co.'s Facility Failures Lost Investors Money, Suit Says

    The executives and directors of biotechnology company Humacyte Inc. have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in North Carolina federal court alleging the company concealed that its manufacturing facility failed to comply with certain quality assurance practices, leading to delayed regulatory review for its product candidate.

  • January 08, 2025

    Musk Appeals $56B Pay Package Rejection To Del. High Court

    Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk and other top Tesla executives officially appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday a series of chancellor rulings that scuttled Musk's $56 billion, 10-year pay package and awarded a shareholder's counsel $345 million in fees in the yearslong derivative dispute.

Expert Analysis

  • Nvidia Case's Potential Impact On Securities Class Actions

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    In Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder, the U.S. Supreme Court could strip lower courts of their long-standing ability and obligation to holistically weigh all relevant facts supporting plaintiffs' allegations of securities fraud, which would have a wide-ranging impact on securities fraud class actions in the U.S., say attorneys at Labaton Keller.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • UCC Article 12 Offers Banks A Chance To Dive Into 'DePINs'

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    The 2022 update to Article 12 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which provides a legal framework for decentralized physical infrastructure networks, could offer trade and commodity finance banks attractive opportunities, like the energy-related DePIN projects that have recently made headlines, says Chris McDermott at Cadwalader.

  • Short-Seller Implications Of 10th Circ.'s Overstock Decision

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    The Tenth Circuit's Oct. 15 decision in Overstock Securities Litigation provides clarity on the pleading standard for a market manipulation claim under the Exchange Act, and suggests that short sellers might not be able to rely on the fraud-on-the-market presumption typically invoked by securities plaintiffs, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Crypto.com's Suit Against SEC Could Hold Major Implications

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    Crypto.com's recent lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could affect the operation and regulation of crypto markets in the U.S., potentially raising more questions about the SEC's authority to regulate the industry when it's unclear whether another agency is ready to assume it, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Don't Phone A Friend: Disclosing Friendships With Executives

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement against a former Church & Dwight chairman for violating proxy disclosure rules by neglecting to disclose his friendship with an executive officer amid a CEO search illustrates the perils of relying solely on responses to questionnaires circulated to boards, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Why Diversity Jurisdiction Poses Investment Fund Hurdles

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    Federal courts' continued application of the exacting rules of diversity jurisdiction presents particular challenges for investment funds, and in the absence of any near-term reform, those who manage such funds should take action to avoid diversity jurisdiction pitfalls, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • The Ups And Downs Of SEC's Now-Dissolved ESG Task Force

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Climate and ESG Enforcement Task Force, which was quietly disbanded sometime over the summer, was marked by three years of resistance from some stakeholders to ESG regulation, a mixed record in the courts and several successful enforcement actions, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Opinion

    It's Time To Sound The Alarm About Lost Labor Rights

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    In the Fifth Circuit, recent rulings from judges appointed by former President Donald Trump have dismantled workers’ core labor rights, a troubling trend that we cannot risk extending under another Trump administration, say Sharon Block and Raj Nayak at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.

  • SEC Fine Shows Risks Of Nonpublic Info In X, LinkedIn Posts

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a settlement with DraftKings over charges arising from posting material nonpublic information on the CEO's social media accounts, highlighting that information posted to company websites and social media sites does not automatically qualify as "publicly disclosed" for purposes of Regulation FD, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Anticipating Jarkesy's Effect On Bank Agency Enforcement

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, federal courts may eventually issue decisions on banking law principles and processes that could fundamentally alter the agencies' enforcement action framework, and the relationship between banks and examiners, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.

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