Investment advisory firms EM Capital Management and Barthelemy Group have settled SEC administrative charges that they got in the way of Commission staff examinations. Both cases were settled without the parties involved denying or admitting to the allegations. According to the SEC, Barthelemy Group and Evens Barthelemy allegedly misled examiners…
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is allowing the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s residential mortgage-backed securities lawsuits against Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley (MS), Barclays Bank PLC (BCS), and RBS Securities to go to trial even while granting the dismissal of some of the motions…
According to the SEC Division of Corporation Finance’s Office of Small Business Policy chief Gerald LaPorte, Commission staff are working hard to create under Reg A a new $50 million offering cap as soon as possible, even without a hard deadline. LaPorte, who expressed his own views at a Jumpstart…
According to a study conducted by UCLA psychologist Shelley Taylor, one reason that older adults may be more easily prone to being deceived is that there appears to be less activity in the part of their brains that processes subtle danger and risk. She wanted to find out how well…
Ralph Janvey, the Stanford receiver based in Houston, has filed a putative class action lawsuit against Hunton & Williams LLP and Greenberg Traurig LLP, two law firms accused of playing roles that allowed R. Allen Stanford to execute his $7B Ponzi scam. The securities complaint, which was filed in the…
MLB player Douglas DeCinces has been indicted by a federal grand jury In California with 42 counts of securities fraud (including insider trading and tender offering fraud charges) related to the 2009 acquisition by Abbott Laboratories (ABT) of Advanced Medical Optics Inc. His friends Fred Scott Jackson, David Parker, and…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada has rejected Goldman Sachs & Co.’s (GS) bid to arbitrate its dispute with the city of Reno, Nevada. The financial firm had sought to stop a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority proceeding over its underwriting of $210 million in ARS. Per Judge…
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has refused the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request to reinstate its antifraud claim against Goldman Sachs & Co. (GS) executive Fabrice Tourre for alleged misstatements related to a collateralized debt obligation connected to subprime mortgages. Judge Katherine Forrest said…
For the third time in two years, the US Supreme Court has stood up for arbitration agreements, overturning yet another decision by a state court. The case is Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard. The Oklahoma State Court had ruled that the non-compete provision in an employment arbitration agreement was unenforceable because…
According to Securities and Exchange Commission Stephen Cohen, when an entity self-reports possible wrongdoing, the “tone” of the SEC investigation into the matter may be impacted in a manner that benefits that party. Cohen, who spoke while participating at a Securities Docket’s Securities Enforcement Forum panel in DC last month…