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Capital Markets
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April 10, 2024
Texas Panel Seeks Evidence In $1M Real Estate Quagmire
A Texas appellate panel suggested Wednesday that both sides fighting about a soured real estate financing deal need to do more to make their cases, asking attorneys during oral arguments to point to evidence that either confirms or refutes the existence of a contract.
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April 10, 2024
SEC Says Crypto Firm Kraken Can't 'Subvert' Securities Test
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has told a California federal judge that crypto exchange Kraken is asking the court to adopt a "perversion" of the long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedent for what constitutes an investment contract.
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April 10, 2024
BDO Fights SEC's 'Misdirected' Call For 2nd Circ. Rehearing
BDO USA LLP is urging the Second Circuit not to reconsider a decision that freed the firm from private litigation over AmTrust Financial Services Inc.'s financial restatements, saying the court should not heed "misdirected concerns" from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about the ruling's supposed impact on shareholders' ability to sue public company auditors.
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April 10, 2024
Former SEC Small Business Office Chief Joins Mayer Brown
The former chief of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Small Business Policy has joined Mayer Brown LLP as a partner in the firm's public companies and corporate governance practice, where she will counsel startups and established public companies on their obligations under federal securities laws and related corporate governance requirements.
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April 10, 2024
United Airlines Hit With Chancery Suit Over Poison Pill
A United Airlines Holdings Inc. stockholder sued the carrier and its directors in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday, accusing the airline of lining up a vote to preserve a prohibited, board-entrenching poison pill while publicly linking the measure to allowable protection of tax-advantaged net operating loss claims.
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April 10, 2024
FTX Strikes Deal With Voyager Over $445M Claim
FTX Trading Ltd. has asked a Delaware bankruptcy court to approve a deal between it and crypto brokerage Voyager Digital Holdings to resolve its $445 million claim against Voyager and Voyager's $130 million claim against FTX.
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April 10, 2024
CFTC Names New Watchdog After Whistleblower Allegations
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Wednesday that it has appointed the Federal Election Commission's inspector general to head its own independent watchdog office, following allegations his CFTC predecessor failed to protect whistleblowers within the agency.
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April 10, 2024
FDIC Details Prep For Winding Down Failing Financial Giants
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Wednesday laid out its most comprehensive overview to date of how it would seek to resolve a failing U.S. banking giant, a scenario that would make use of as-yet untested authorities put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.
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April 10, 2024
DeFi Platform Uniswap Discloses SEC Enforcement Notice
The firm behind decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap said on Wednesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had notified the firm that it may soon face an enforcement case.
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April 10, 2024
NYSE Seeks To Provide SPACs More Time To Close Mergers
A New York Stock Exchange proposal would provide special-purpose acquisition companies with six more months to complete mergers while remaining listed — assuming relevant parties have signed a definitive agreement before a three-year deadline — potentially providing market participants more flexibility to close deals.
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April 10, 2024
'Smart' Glass Maker View Escapes SPAC Merger Suit For Good
"Smart" glass manufacturer View Inc. has permanently beaten a proposed investor class action over an internal probe it announced following its go-public merger with a special purpose acquisition company, with a California federal judge ruling that the lead plaintiff did not own View stock when the identified corrective disclosures occurred.
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April 10, 2024
Ex-BigLaw Atty In OneCoin Scam A Flight Risk, Feds Say
A former Locke Lord LLP partner who was convicted of laundering proceeds from the OneCoin cryptocurrency scam has "every incentive" to flee the country, prosecutors told a New York federal judge, arguing he shouldn't be allowed to stay out on bail while his appeal is pending.
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April 10, 2024
Blackwells Unveils Takeover Plans For Hospitality REIT
Blackwells Capital told Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. investors on Wednesday that its intention to take the reins of the real estate investment trust's board of directors is necessary to stop a manager from "milking" the company for all it's worth.
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April 10, 2024
PCAOB Fines KPMG, Deloitte Units $27M For Cheating Claims
KPMG Netherlands and two Deloitte units will pay a combined $27 million to settle allegations from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of widespread answer sharing in their internal training programs, with KPMG's $25 million penalty marking the largest fine PCAOB has ever imposed.
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April 10, 2024
Macy's, Activist Firm End Board Fight, Takeover Talks Proceed
Macy's and activist investment firm Arkhouse Management Co. said Wednesday they have settled their proxy dispute by appointing two independent directors to the retailer's board, paving the way for further negotiations regarding a prior $6.6 billion acquisition proposal submitted by Arkhouse and Brigade Capital Management LP.
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April 09, 2024
Six Firms Vie To Lead NY Community Bank Losses Suit
Six firms seek to represent a proposed class of investors in a consolidated proposed class action alleging New York Community Bank misled investors about its struggles following its 2022 acquisition of Flagstar Bank and its 2023 acquisition of certain Signature Bank assets.
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April 09, 2024
Crypto Booster Says $1B SEC Fraud Suit Offends Free Speech
The crypto founder known as Richard Heart told a federal judge in Brooklyn on Tuesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission violated his and others' free speech rights when it brought a case accusing him of selling $1 billion worth of unregistered digital asset securities across his projects and misappropriating customer assets.
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April 09, 2024
Crypto Trader Says $110M Mango Markets Trades Were Legit
An attorney for a crypto trader accused of stealing $110 million from investors on the Mango Markets exchange through a market manipulation scheme told a Manhattan federal jury on Tuesday that his client was executing a legitimate trading strategy and had no intent to defraud anyone.
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April 09, 2024
Nikola Investors' SPAC Fraud Suit Moves Ahead
Board directors of electric truck maker Nikola Corp. and the blank-check company that took it public for $3.3 billion in 2020 must face shareholders' derivative claims of insider trading, securities fraud and merger-related breaches after Delaware's Court of Chancery on Tuesday denied more than half of the defense's motions to dismiss.
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April 09, 2024
Trump Media Co-Founders OK'd To Revise Share-Lockup Suit
Two co-founders of Donald Trump's social media company won the go-ahead Tuesday to file a second amended, expanded complaint in the Delaware Chancery Court targeting the former president, Trump Media & Technology Group and its insiders for post-deal maneuvering to dilute and claw back their shares, among other claims.
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April 09, 2024
Treasury Proposes Long-Awaited Stock Buyback Tax Rules
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed a pair of long-awaited rules Tuesday that detail the calculation and reporting of a new excise tax assessed to publicly traded corporations that recently bought back their own shares of stock on the open market.
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April 09, 2024
Fintech Investment Biz To Go Public Via $700M SPAC Merger
Financial technology investment platform Linqto Inc., advised by Lowenstein Sandler LLP, on Tuesday unveiled plans to go public through a merger with blank-check company Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition Corp. I, advised by Seward & Kissel LLP, in a deal valued at $700 million.
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April 09, 2024
Crypto Mining CEO's Asset Freeze Fight Axed At 11th Circ.
An Eleventh Circuit panel has rejected a bid to lift an asset freeze by a man accused of running a crypto mining scheme, ruling U.S. financial industry regulators did not have to formally serve him before asking a court to block activity in his financial accounts.
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April 09, 2024
House GOP To Air Measure Rejecting SEC Climate Rule
The U.S. House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday morning addressing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rules, where a leading Republican member of the committee is expected to put forth a resolution that would nullify the rules.
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April 09, 2024
TD Bank Wants 'Absurd' First Horizon Merger Suit Tossed
TD Bank has urged a New Jersey federal judge to dismiss a proposed class action from investors over the bank's failed merger with First Horizon, saying the investors can't sue because the deal never closed and the suit's asserted scienter claim "defies commonsense."
Expert Analysis
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The Questions Around Prometheum's SEC-Compliant Strategy
While the rest of the crypto industry has been engaged in a long-running battle to escape the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's jurisdiction, a once-obscure startup called Prometheum has instead embraced the SEC's view to become the first crypto special-purpose broker-dealer, but it's unclear whether it can turn its favored status into a workable business, says Keith Blackman at Bracewell.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Djerassi On Super Bowl 52
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy Djerassi discusses how Super Bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles prevailed over the New England Patriots, provides an apt metaphor for alternative dispute resolution processes in commercial business cases.
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Reverse Merger Tips For Biotechs After SEC's Recent Actions
Several recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission developments could limit the viability of reverse mergers for biotech companies, and will require additional creativity and analysis for private companies looking to go public, say attorneys at Orrick.
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Black-Led VC Fund Case Could Hinge On Nature Of Grants
Organizations whose missions involve any manner of race-conscious funding should closely monitor arguments this week in American Alliance v. Fearless Fund, a case filed against a grant program that seeks to address the gap in venture capital funding for Black women-led businesses, which will examine whether grants are charitable under Civil Rights Act Section 1981 liability, say Kali Schellenberg and John Stapleton at LeVan Stapleton, and Kenneth Trujillo at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.
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Ex-OpenSea Staffer Case May Clarify When Info Is Property
In considering the appeal of a former OpenSea manager’s wire fraud conviction in U.S. v. Chastain, the Second Circuit may soon provide guidance about whether economic information is traditional property in certain insider trading prosecutions — a theory of fraud that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly narrowed, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Takeaways From SEC's Aggressive Cybersecurity Moves
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's intensifying policy on cybersecurity and securities violations in the wake of a data breach — like its enforcement action against SolarWinds and its security officer — has emboldened shareholders to file related suits, creating a heightened threat to public companies, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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Considerations For Lawyer Witnesses After FTX Trial
Sam Bankman-Fried's recent trial testimony about his lawyers' involvement in FTX's business highlights the need for attorney-witnesses to understand privilege issues in order to avoid costly discovery disputes and, potentially, uncover critical evidence an adversary might seek to conceal, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns.
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How Merck Settlement Can Inform Cyberinsurance Approach
This month's settlement in Merck v. ACE spotlights how cyber exclusions have evolved since the significant decision in the case — allowing for insurance coverage despite the presence of a policy war exclusion — and where else corporate risk managers may look for coverage in case of a cyberattack, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.
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Employee Experience Strategy Can Boost Law Firm Success
Amid continuing business uncertainty, law firms should consider adopting a holistic employee experience strategy — prioritizing consistency, targeting signature moments and leveraging measurement tools — to maximize productivity and profitability, says Haley Revel at Calibrate Consulting.
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Series
Competing In Triathlons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While practicing law and competing in long-distance triathlons can make work and life feel unbalanced at times, participating in the sport has revealed important lessons about versatility, self-care and perseverance that apply to the office as much as they do the racecourse, says Laura Heusel at Butler Snow.
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Where Justices Stand On Chevron Doctrine Post-Argument
Following recent oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court, at least four justices appear to be in favor of overturning the long-standing Chevron deference, and three justices seem ready to uphold it, which means the ultimate decision may rest on Chief Justice John Roberts' vote, say Wayne D'Angelo and Zachary Lee at Kelley Drye.
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Perspectives
6 Practice Pointers For Pro Bono Immigration Practice
An attorney taking on their first pro bono immigration matter may find the law and procedures beguiling, but understanding key deadlines, the significance of individual immigration judges' rules and specialized aspects of the practice can help avoid common missteps, says Steven Malm at Haynes Boone.
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Lessons From Country Singer's Personal Service Saga
Recent reports that country singer Luke Combs won a judgment against a Florida woman who didn’t receive notice of the counterfeit suit against her should serve as a reminder for attorneys on best practices for effectuating service by electronic means, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Unpacking PCAOB's Sanctions Against China-Based Auditors
Following the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's first major enforcement actions against audit firms located in China and Hong Kong for violating quality control standards, China-based U.S. issuers should be prepared for more rigorous audits in the upcoming cycle, and for continuing strict scrutiny from the regulator, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Series
Baking Bread Makes Me A Better Lawyer
After many years practicing law, and a few years baking bread, I have learned that there are a few keys to success in both endeavors, including the assembly of a nourishing and resilient culture, and the ability to learn from failure and exercise patience, says Rick Robinson at Reed Smith.