Did high-flyer Winstar co-opt its auditing firm?
Defendants facing securities fraud claims have won more than their share of cases in the last half a decade or so. Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have helped.
In 2011, for instance, the Court ruled that you must have "ultimate authority" to make a false statement
Sue-wee!
Your bank in Louisville spent $50 million on fancy paper that a nice salesman at Bear Stearns told you would earn the bank a decent return without much risk. But things didn't turn out as the kindly broker said. The fancy paper — residential mortgage-backed securities (or RMBS)s — proved pretty much worthless once
Way back in March 2012, the Supreme Court dealt with a New Deal-era law (section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act) that bars "short-swing profits" on a purchase and sale (or sale and purchase) (a) of a public company's equity security, (b) within a six-month period, (c) by an "insider" of the company. The Court held, 8-0, that the two-year limit on how
We can all agree that granting people stock options that can't lose — as Apple and lots of other (often high-tech) outfits did Not Long Ago — at least feels wrong. But who knew that accounting for them in the wrong way could expose you to a suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission?
Blawgletter
You didn't ask what Blawgletter thinks about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as its fate dangles in the well of the U.S. Supreme Court courtroom. We'll tell you just the same.
The "individual mandate" part of it (and perhaps the requirement that insurers cover all comers) will vanish in a puff of
Have you heard people — okay, lawyers — talk about "the Southern District"? As if you MUST know what they mean? Surely not the Southern District of West Virginia — one of the coolest names in the entire U.S. court system.
No. Not that. This:
S.
D.
N.
Y.
Where Learned Hand sat before Calvin
Caveat emptor, buyers of auction rate securities! The issuer's giving of notice that it might create the illusion of liquidity in an ARS auction defeats your claim that the issuer "manipulated" the auction market. Wilson v. Merrill Lynch & Co, Inc., No. 10-1528-cv (2d Cir. Nov. 14, 2011).
The Ninth Circuit today upheld an order that granted class status to a federal securities fraud case against Amgen. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds v. Amgen Inc., No. 09-56965 (9th Cir. Oct. 8, 2011).
The panel gave the back of its hand to Amgen's jutting chin of a point — that the class
What do you do if you paid a bunch of money to settle a class action but some of the class members who didn't opt out demand that you arbitrate a dispute relating, at least in part, to the subject matter of the claims you settled?
You start by asking the arbitrators to stay their
You may recall that, back in the go-go days, brokers sold a lot of auction rate securities to people who wanted a bit more interest than money market funds and bank accounts yielded but desired about the same degree of safety and liquidity.
When the auctions froze up in early 2008, the chumps who bought ARS couldn't get their