Dems Target Ethics, Illicit Finance In Crypto Bill Amendments

By Aislinn Keely

Lawmakers have offered over 100 amendments ahead of the Senate banking committee's Thursday markup of its latest proposal to regulate crypto markets, with Democrats proposing the lion's share of changes in an effort to add ethics language and beef up provisions addressing crypto's use in illicit finance.

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2nd Circ. Backs Fed Reserve's Power To Cut Master Accounts

By Lauren Berg

The Federal Reserve has broad discretion to cut financial institutions off from master accounts, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday, rejecting a Puerto Rico bank's argument that it has a statutory right to what is commonly referred to as "bank accounts for banks."

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FTX Trust Says Crypto Hedge Fund Owes $84M

By Ben Zigterman

The recovery trust of defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX has called a crypto hedge fund's $200 million claim "frivolous," countering that it is the hedge fund that owes the estate $84 million for a line of credit FTX had extended.

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DOJ Fraud Division Set To Shake Up White-Collar Enforcement

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump's administration created the U.S. Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division with a narrow focus on combating government program fraud, but a move to retain federal prosecutors focused on other types of fraud could signal a wider scope with potential ripple effects across white-collar enforcement.

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Warsh Confirmed As Trump's Next Federal Reserve Chair

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Senate signed off Wednesday on the White House's choice of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve, capping off a monthslong process that became entangled in the Trump administration's push to criminally investigate outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

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Pa. Crypto Scam Convict In Custody Over Fake Girlfriend, $60

By Matthew Santoni

A convicted cryptocurrency scammer used a fake girlfriend to convince an old acquaintance to give him money and set up accounts for new crypto investments, which a federal judge said Wednesday was grounds for revoking his release while he awaited sentencing.

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Fintech Inks $8M Mass. Settlement Over 'Lease-To-Own' Biz

By Emilie Ruscoe

A Texas-based financial technology company told a state court Wednesday it has agreed to a $7.8 million resolution of the Massachusetts attorney general's claims that it misled consumers about its "lease-to-own" contracts for consumer merchandise, causing customers to pay "far more than the retail price for their merchandise."

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NHL's Blackhawks Challenge Fintech's Sponsor Deal In Ch. 11

By Clara Geoghegan

The Chicago Blackhawks have told the Delaware bankruptcy court the hockey team needs more information about a potential buyer if troubled crypto financial technology firm Blockfills assigns a sponsorship deal with the hockey team in its Chapter 11 case.

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How Treasury's Stablecoin Test Will Shape State Oversight

The Treasury Department's recently proposed principles for judging whether state stablecoin regimes are "substantially similar" to the federal framework signal that issuers should expect stricter benchmarking against the bank agencies' standards, limited state flexibility and heightened pressure to reassess compliance as rules take shape, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

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Murdaugh Murder Conviction Overturned By SC High Court

By Parker Quinlan

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a double murder conviction and ordered a new trial for disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh, finding the jury in his first trial was biased by a clerk of court who allegedly sought a guilty verdict in a ploy to juice sales of her book about the trial.

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Texas Atty Must Pay $5M For Groping Opposing Counsel

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas state appellate court on Wednesday refused to disturb a $5 million jury verdict against a San Antonio lawyer for grabbing the buttocks of opposing counsel at the courthouse where they were arguing a family law proceeding in 2019.

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DOJ Goes After DC Bar, Courts For Discipline Of Ex-DOJ Atty

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sued the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, D.C. Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia, claiming that they were "punishing" a former Trump administration DOJ official and trying to "control the executive branch."

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Arbitrators See Global Stakes In Trump BigLaw EO Fight

By Caroline Simson

Ahead of a D.C. Circuit hearing on Thursday in the Trump administration's effort to revive executive orders imposed against four BigLaw firms, an official at the College of Commercial Arbitrators told Law360 this week there are several things arbitrators are going to be watching for.

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Apple Targets Hagens Berman 'Gamesmanship' In ICloud Suit

By Bryan Koenig

Apple has lashed out at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to withdraw a named plaintiff from an iCloud antitrust case in California federal court without discovery into any directions she received to preserve now-deleted emails, raising concerns that the withdrawal is meant to "paper over lost evidence."

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Michigan Federal Judge Gets Probation For Drunken Driving

By Susan Smiley

Michigan federal Judge Thomas L. Ludington was sentenced by a state judge on Wednesday to six months' probation and fined $1,175 after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge last month in Emmet County.

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6th Circ. Says Kentucky Judicial Hopefuls May Tout Ideology

By Emily Sawicki

Kentucky judicial hopefuls are cleared to discuss their political leanings on the campaign trail, according to a precedential ruling by the Sixth Circuit, which permanently enjoined the state's Judicial Conduct Commission from pursuing an enforcement action against two candidates who described themselves as "conservatives" and "Republicans" amid the 2022 election season.

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Judge Says LegalForce Must Pay $93K After Losing TM Suit

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge on Wednesday ordered LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC to pay nearly $93,000 in fees and costs to the company that operates LawFirms.com, finding the case to be exceptional because LegalForce alleged facts it knew were false and took steps to obscure other facts that showed its case was meritless.

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CORRECTED: Senate Advances 13 US Attorneys In En Bloc Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 46-45, along party lines, to advance the nomination of 13 U.S. attorneys on Monday as part of a larger nominations package. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the status of the nominees in the Senate.

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