Feds Scrub 'Reputation Risk' From Raft Of Banking Guidance

By Jon Hill

Federal banking regulators said Tuesday that they are reissuing a slew of longstanding guidance documents to take out mentions of so-called reputation risk, the latest move in the Trump administration's push to eliminate bank examiners' use of the concept.

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Iran's Biggest Crypto Exchange Hit With US Sanctions

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Iran's largest crypto exchange and three other crypto platforms Tuesday for allegedly aiding the Iranian government and evading sanctions amid the Trump administration's efforts to put economic pressure on Iran.

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Texas Crypto Group Ordered To Halt Unregistered Token Sales

By Sydney Price

The Texas State Securities Board announced it has entered an emergency order to halt a purported property group, its principals and an associated Texas resident from offering and selling unregistered and fraudulent tokenized real estate investments, saying the conduct "threatens immediate and irreparable public harm."

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SEC Floats Strategic Plan For Next Four Years

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said it plans to reevaluate how administrative proceedings operate and to write regulations governing the cryptocurrency industry, calling for public feedback as it put forth Chairman Paul Atkins' vision for running the agency over the next four years. 

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NY, EU Banking Agencies To Share Stablecoin Oversight Info

By Aislinn Keely

New York's Department of Financial Services and the European Banking Authority said Tuesday that they plan to share information about their respective supervision, monitoring and investigations of stablecoin issuers and markets under a new memorandum of understanding.

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Aspiration Co-Founder Gets 14 Yrs In $248M Fraud Scheme

By Gina Kim

Joseph Sanberg, co-founder of the now defunct, celebrity-backed and sustainability-focused financial services company Aspiration Partners, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by a California federal judge, stemming from a years-long scheme where he defrauded more than 130 victims of at least $248 million. 

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Kalshi Looks To Halt Minnesota Sports Prediction Market Ban

By Alex Lawson

Kalshi has moved to freeze the enforcement of a new Minnesota law barring prediction markets, telling a federal judge the company will face "acute" harm if it is unable to offer sports event contracts on its online platform.

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OneMain Says States' Loan Add-On Suit Retreads CFPB Order

By Jon Hill

Installment lender OneMain has urged a New York federal court to dismiss a multistate lawsuit over its loan add-on product sales, arguing the case improperly seeks to punish it for practices either already addressed in or required by a prior Consumer Financial Protection Bureau order.

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Entrata Sued Over Auto-Enroll Credit Reporting 'Junk Fees'

By Nate Beck

A proposed class of tenants argued in a Colorado federal lawsuit that software company Entrata paid kickbacks to property management companies that enticed residents to pay monthly fees for a credit monitoring service called RentPlus.

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Digital Lender Forbright Launches Plans For $150M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Middle-market commercial lending digital bank Forbright on Tuesday launched plans to go public through an estimated $150 million initial public offering steered by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

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Opinion

SEC Must Clarify Crypto Guidance For Investment Advisers

Until the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission clarifies a conundrum created by recently issued guidance that classifies crypto tokens as digital commodities rather than securities, every registered investment adviser managing a digital commodity portfolio will be simultaneously compliant and exposed, says Nicole Trudeau at Wave Digital Assets.

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Operational AI Washing: Dismantling Claims Before Discovery

Operational AI washing claims can be rebuffed before discovery extracts their true costs by turning the documentary record established in earnings calls and public disclosures into a layered defense, which can exploit the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act’s heightened pleading standards, say attorneys at Akerman.

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Opinion

Attys Should Aid Clients' AI Use While Safeguarding Privilege

Until legislatures enact laws expressly extending privilege to artificial intelligence queries, lawyers should try to shield their clients' case-related use of AI tools by offering them dedicated access on firms' enterprise accounts and utilizing a long-standing privilege precedent, says Joseph Rillotta at Meadows Collier.

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FinCEN World Cup Warning Raises Trafficking Risks For Cos.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent warning of human trafficking risks during the World Cup games signals heightened scrutiny ahead of the upcoming tournament, and suggests regulators increasingly expect businesses beyond financial institutions to maintain effective trafficking-risk controls, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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2 'Rocket Dockets' And The Rules That Propel Them

The fastest civil trial courts in the country are currently in the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Florida, and their chief judges provide insights into the court rules that keep them ahead, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

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BigLaw Insider Trading Defendants Have Big-Name Legal Help

By Chris Villani

An insider trading case involving nonpublic information prosecutors say was stolen from some of the largest law firms in the U.S. has ensnared more than two dozen defendants, many of whom have turned to lawyers with notable clients including Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Luigi Mangione.

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Hueston Hennigan Follows Milbank's Lead In Associate Pay

By Tracey Read

The race to match Milbank LLP's attorney pay hikes is officially on, with trial firm Hueston Hennigan the latest to announce it will increase associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually.

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Analysis

The Plaintiffs Atty Now 5-0 At Supreme Court With No Dissents

By Jeff Overley

It's true that Jennifer Bennett is undefeated at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's also an understatement. Bennett's five wins, including two recent ones, were all unanimous decisions. They showed that the plaintiffs bar can still persuade a conservative supermajority. And they turned the tide after a spree of decisions keeping workers and consumers out of court.

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Goldstein Cites Addiction To Avoid Time, DOJ Seeks 8 Years

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors recommended a 97-month prison sentence for convicted SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein, telling a Maryland federal court he has bilked the government out of more than $9.5 million in unpaid taxes. Goldstein, meanwhile, asked for a suspended sentence and supervised release, citing a "severe and longstanding gambling addiction."

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Rocade Capital Buys LFG To Create Combined $2B Lit Funder

By Ryan Boysen

Rocade Capital LLC has acquired fellow litigation funder Law Finance Group LLC, creating a combined platform that has deployed more than $2.3 billion and specializes in $10 million to $50 million deals, including post-judgment financing, portfolio deals and lending to plaintiff's firms.

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Court Reporter Shortage A 'Crisis,' Calif. Supreme Court Told

By Bonnie Eslinger

Two legal nonprofits urged the California Supreme Court to issue an order entitling low-income civil litigants to electronic recording if a live court reporter is not available, saying at a hearing Wednesday that a court reporter shortage in the Golden State has created a "crisis."

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9th Circ. Suspends 2 Attys For 6 Months Over AI Hallucinations

By Rae Ann Varona

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday temporarily suspended two California immigration attorneys from practicing before the appellate court for filing briefs in a deportation relief case containing artificial intelligence-generated hallucinations, finding no excuse for their "extraordinary confession" of not vetting citations used by unlicensed brief writers.

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Tenn. Firm Sanctioned For AI Misuse In Baker Donelson Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Tennessee federal judge has sanctioned a Memphis, Tennessee, law firm over its misuse of artificial intelligence amid a malpractice suit against Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, ordering the regional firm to reimburse costs associated with the matter and report the misconduct to the state's disciplinary counsel.

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Feature

'Read The Cases': Conn. Judge Offers AI Advice To Attys

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge told a gathering of attorneys Tuesday that his law clerks are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence for any purpose involving legal research, his interns are barred from using it at all, and lawyers must be careful when relying on the material that the tools produce.

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Atty Can't Shake $120M Verdict In RICO, Defamation Dispute

By Carolina Bolado

An Alabama federal judge refused to disturb a $120 million verdict against a former Conrad & Scherer LLP managing partner, ruling there was enough evidence at trial for a jury to find the attorney liable on Drummond Co.'s racketeering and defamation claims.

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Graham Pushes Federal Tort Path After DOJ Drops $1.8B Fund

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Department of Justice seemed, at least briefly, to support a Republican senator's alternative solution to the "anti-weaponization" $1.8 billion fund that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday the department is abandoning.

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DOJ Sets New Healthcare Fraud Convictions Record

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced that its Health Care Fraud Unit secured six jury trial convictions across the country in less than three weeks, with the cases involving more than $1.1 billion in fraud losses.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Dardarian Ho's Linda Dardarian

By Lynn LaRowe

Despite being on the other side of a disability rights case that will cost his municipality at least $150 million, Kevin McLaughlin, city attorney for Oakland, California, believes that if more lawyers were like Linda Dardarian, there would be far less lamenting about civility in the legal profession.

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