Securities

  • September 25, 2024

    Bumble Investor Says Dating App Overhyped Premium Model

    A Bumble Inc. investor has launched a proposed securities class action in Texas federal court accusing the dating app's parent company of misleading investors about its financial outlook and success of a "premium plus" subscription tier, and causing a dramatic decline in Bumble's common stock price.

  • September 25, 2024

    Rent The Runway, Gwyneth Paltrow Can't Escape Investor Suit

    A New York federal judge on Wednesday trimmed a proposed class action suit against actress Gwyneth Paltrow and online clothing rental company Rent the Runway Inc., claiming the company failed to inform investors about major challenges it was facing in the run-up to its 2021 initial public offering.

  • September 25, 2024

    Texas Man, 6 Companies To Pay $10.5M Over Forex Scheme

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Wednesday that it had secured a default judgment and $10.5 million in monetary relief against Rudy Avila and his six companies for defrauding more than 200 investors out of $6 million.

  • September 25, 2024

    Terrorism Victims Sue For Share Of $4.3B Binance Plea

    The U.S. government must put the $4.3 billion it obtained in its money laundering and sanctions violations case against Binance toward a federal fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism, a new lawsuit in D.C. federal court alleges.

  • September 25, 2024

    Meta Wants 'License' To Cover Up Past Events, Justices Told

    Meta Platforms Inc. shareholders say the U.S. Supreme Court should not be swayed by the social media company's attempt to shake off a proposed class action tied to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, warning a high court ruling in favor of Facebook's parent company could give publicly traded companies "license to intentionally mislead investors."

  • September 25, 2024

    Feds Say 'Wall Of Evidence' Supports Petrobras Bribery Case

    A Connecticut oil trader violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by sending millions in bribes to officials at Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras through a shady intermediary, federal prosecutors told a jury during closing arguments Wednesday, arguing that a "wall of evidence" points to the defendant's intent.

  • September 25, 2024

    E-Bike Maker Argues In Del. Supreme Court To Salvage Sale

    An attorney for a private equity affiliate that beat a Barcelona-based electric scooter rental chain's attempt to force a closing on the scooter company's $100 million sale in Chancery Court told Delaware's Supreme Court Wednesday that the seller's current appeal ignores its own fatal contract breaches.

  • September 25, 2024

    Merrill, Harvest To Pay SEC $9.3M For Ignoring Clients' Limits

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced that investment advisory firms Harvest Volatility Management LLC and Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. will pay a combined $9.3 million to settle claims that they exceeded clients' designated investment limits over a two-year period, causing those clients to incur higher fees and losses.

  • September 25, 2024

    7th Circ. Doubts London Depo Should Trigger New Fraud Trial

    Seventh Circuit judges appeared skeptical Wednesday of a former investment manager's bid for a new trial after he was convicted of bilking investors of roughly $10 million because he could not physically confront a key witness who testified via deposition in London, saying he failed to adequately object to the circumstance.

  • September 25, 2024

    Penalized Apple Atty Says He Was 'Demoralized' By Co. Culture

    Apple Inc.'s former senior director of corporate law, who pled guilty to insider trading in 2022 and was later penalized $1.1 million in a civil case, had mental health disorders and was "demoralized" by the company's culture and executives' misconduct, he said in temporarily unsealed records in New Jersey federal court.

  • September 25, 2024

    Shipman & Goodwin Atty Needed As Witness, DQ Bid Claims

    A Connecticut company wants a Shipman & Goodwin LLP partner disqualified from representing a rival in a bond dispute surrounding a garbage sorting facility permit, saying the attorney was personally involved in some of the conduct in question.

  • September 25, 2024

    NYSE Cancels Proposal To Extend SPAC Merger Deadlines

    The New York Stock Exchange has pulled a proposal that would have provided special purpose acquisition companies with more time to complete mergers while remaining listed, several months after it sought regulatory approval for the extension.

  • September 25, 2024

    Bar Works Crook Gets 7 Years For Role In $57M Global Fraud

    A Manhattan federal judge hit an English real estate marketer with a seven-year prison sentence on Wednesday for joining what prosecutors call a global Ponzi scheme that tricked investors into pouring $57 million into the bogus workspace share venture Bar Works.

  • September 24, 2024

    Bank Regulators, SEC Face GOP Inquiry Over Crypto Bulletin

    House Republicans have called for the Federal Reserve and other agencies to turn over a host of documents for what the lawmakers say is an inquiry into the origins and behind-the-scenes policymaking impact of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's cryptocurrency accounting guidance.

  • September 24, 2024

    'Be Careful What You Wish For' Post-Jarkesy, SEC Atty Says

    A trial lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told the defense bar Tuesday to "be careful what you wish for" after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the agency's in-house court system, saying cases against gatekeepers "are not going away."

  • September 24, 2024

    Biotech RenovaCare Investors Seek OK Of $2M Deal

    Biotechnology company RenovaCare Inc. has reached a $2 million deal to end a consolidated proposed class action alleging it pumped its stock prices by using a secret paid promotional campaign, the company's investors have told a New Jersey federal judge.

  • September 24, 2024

    Feds Charge AI Co. Founder With $40M Fraud

    The founder and former CEO of a company that purported to sell artificial intelligence-based business automation software faces federal criminal charges and a civil lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, authorities announced Tuesday, alleging he lied about the firm's revenues and customer relationships to entice investors.

  • September 24, 2024

    Athlete Investment Co. Gets Claims Nipped In $1M Fraud Suit

    A New York federal judge has trimmed a suit alleging that an athlete investment company that aimed to "tokenize" and sell shares of professional athletes was involved in a $1 million fraud and lied about its business plan, saying the plaintiff is conflicted from bringing certain derivative claims.

  • September 24, 2024

    SEC Orders Crypto Cos. To Pay $700K Over Stablecoin Offers

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday unveiled a $700,000 settlement with stablecoin issuer TrueCoin and affiliated lending business TrustToken over alleged misrepresentations about the stability of the token and failures to register its use in "profit-making opportunities."

  • September 24, 2024

    3 Takeaways From Gensler's Big Day Before The House

    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler appeared before the U.S. House of Representative for potentially the last time on Tuesday, where he stuck up for his agency's actions in the crypto space and hinted at the possible revival of share buyback rules.

  • September 24, 2024

    SEC Fines Weedmaps' Parent Co. $1.5M Over User Metrics

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday fined the parent company of cannabis tech company Weedmaps $1.5 million for allegedly making misleading statements about its monthly active users.

  • September 24, 2024

    Google Investors' Atty Defends Fees For $350M Privacy Deal

    Counsel for Google LLC shareholders who reached a $350 million settlement with Alphabet Inc. over claims they were deceived about a 2018 data breach urged a California federal judge Tuesday to approve the deal, including about $66.5 million for attorneys, calling the fees more than reasonable.

  • September 24, 2024

    'Joker' Producer's Broker To Pay $60M In Ponzi Scheme Suit

    An investor asked an Illinois state judge Tuesday for his early approval of a $60 million settlement with an investment adviser who convinced her and others to put money toward an international Ponzi scheme she says movie producer Jason Cloth carried out by raising new funds to pay off older investors.

  • September 24, 2024

    Philips Must Face Investor Suit Over FDA Compliance Issues

    Health technology company Koninklijke Philips and its former CEO cannot escape a suit accusing them of misleading investors about the safety and compliance of its subsidiary's sleep and respiratory care products, which were recalled in 2021, but its chief financial officer and a former CEO of a Philips subsidiary were allowed to exit the case for good.

  • September 24, 2024

    Feds Say BitMEX Should Owe $428M For Flouting AML Rules

    Federal prosecutors urged a Manhattan federal judge to impose a $428 million penalty for offshore crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX after the firm admitted to lax anti-money laundering procedures, arguing the more than $100 million the firm and founders have already paid to regulators is not enough to deter other crypto firms from Bank Secrecy Act violations.

Expert Analysis

  • Why DOJ's Whistleblower Program May Have Limited Impact

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to report corporate misconduct, but the program's effectiveness may be undercut by its differences from other federal agencies’ whistleblower programs and its interplay with other DOJ policies, say attorneys at Milbank.

  • How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act

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    In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.

  • How Corner Post Affects Enviro Laws' Statutes Of Limitations

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board has helped to alter the fundamental underpinnings of administrative law — and its plaintiff-centric approach may have implications for some specific environmental laws' statutes of limitations, say Chris Leason and Liam Martin at Gallagher and Kennedy.

  • FTC Drives Crackdown On Connected Cars' Data Privacy Risk

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    After the Federal Trade Commission's warning to automakers about data privacy, which continues to emerge as a national concern, automakers must carefully examine their data collection, use and retention practices, say Catherine Castaldo and Michael Rubayo at Reed Smith.

  • Jarkesy May Thwart Consumer Agencies' Civil Penalty Power

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy not only implicates future SEC administrative adjudications, but those of other agencies that operate similarly — and may stymie regulators' efforts to levy civil monetary penalties in a range of consumer protection enforcement actions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Lessons From Recent SEC Cyber Enforcement Actions

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    The recent guidance by the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance is helpful to any company facing a cybersecurity threat, but just as instructive are the warnings raised by the SEC's recent enforcement actions against SolarWinds, R.R. Donnelley and Intercontinental Exchange, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Opinion

    Texas Judges Ignored ERISA's Core To Stall Fiduciary Rule

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    Two recent rulings from Texas federal courts, which rely on a plainly wrong reading of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to effectively strike a forthcoming rule that would impose functional fiduciary duties onto sellers of investment services, may expose financially unsophisticated 401(k) participants to peddlers of misleading advice, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • 2nd Circ. Ruling Reaffirms Short-Swing Claims Have Standing

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in Packer v. Raging Capital reversing the dismissal of a shareholder's Section 16(b) derivative suit seeking to recover short-swing profits for lack of constitutional standing settles the uncertainty of the district court's decision, which could have undercut Congress' intent in crafting Section 16(b) in the first place, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Inside OCC's Retail Nondeposit Investment Products Refresh

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    In addition to clarifying safe and sound risk management practices generally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's revised booklet on retail nondeposit investment products updates its guidance around certain sales practices in light of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption of Regulation Best Interest, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Why The SEC Is Targeting Short-And-Distort Schemes

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent crackdown on the illegal practice of short-and-distort trades highlights the urgent need for public companies to adopt proactive measures, including pursuing private rights of action, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • A Look At The Regulatory Scrutiny Facing Liquid Restaking

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    Recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions highlight the regulatory challenges facing emerging financial instruments like liquid restaking tokens and services, say Daniel Davis and Alexander Kim at Katten.

  • Del. Dispatch: Director Caremark Claims Need Extreme Facts

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    The Delaware Court of Chancery recently dismissed Caremark claims against the directors of Centene in Bricklayers Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania v. Brinkley, indicating a high bar for a finding of the required element of bad faith for Caremark liability, and stressing the need to resist hindsight bias, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • 5 Insights Into FDIC's Final Rule On Big-Bank Resolution Plans

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    Although the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s recently finalized rule expanding resolution planning requirements for large banks was generally adopted as proposed, it includes key changes related to filing deadlines, review and feedback, and incorporates lessons learned — particularly from last year's bank failures, say attorneys at Cleary.

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