On Monday, January 16, 2012, Judge Lynn Hughes granted defendant John O’Shea’s motion for acquittal in the FCPA case, dismissing the FCPA charges case against him. According to a Press Release from defense counsel, Judge Lynn Hughes "found that the Government’s chief witness, … could not tie Mr. O’Shea to the alleged crimes. The judge found … Continue Reading
Today, the Federal Securities Law Blog takes a look back at the last 30 days in the world of securities-related litigation in a regular feature which appears on approximately the 15th of each month. In the last month, events in the Citigroup matter continued to dominate the news, but there were some interesting developments in … Continue Reading
On Thursday, January 12, 2012, Business Roundtable ("BRT"), the association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, requested leave to file an Amicus Brief in the SEC v. Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. appeal, requesting that the Second Circuit reject the "potentially dangerous, approach to reviewing settlement agreements" in Judge Jed Rakoff’s November 28, 2011 … Continue Reading
Two unique insider trading cases have received a bit of attention recently. One case, brought on December 12, 2011 against a company and its former CEO, alleged that they defrauded shareholders by buying back stock at severely undervalued stock prices – at a time when the company was privately held. The second, brought on January … Continue Reading
On Monday, January 9, 2012, Judge Richard Leon, who had already dismissed the central conspiracy count against six defendants in the FCPA Sting Case, was faced with an interesting question: if the conspiracy count was dismissed for insufficient evidence, should the trial continue when much of the evidence the Government has offered was based on … Continue Reading
According to media reports, the SEC decided last week that it will no longer allow defendants who plead guilty in criminal proceedings to settle parallel civil charges with the Commission by neither admitting or denying the allegations. At the present, the policy shift applies only in those cases where there has been an admission of … Continue Reading
On January 3, 2012, Judge Lynn Hughes denied defendant John O’Shea’s Motion to Dismiss the Indictment against him. Mr. O’Shea’s Motion, which was filed in March 2011, argued that the Indictment failed to alleged that he bribed a "foreign official" because it only alleged that he bribed employees of a state-owned entity. Judge Hughes’ decision … Continue Reading
In an Opinion and Order entered on January 4, 2012 and a separate Order entered on January 5, 2012, Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson granted the SEC’s motion for a order to show cause, requiring Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. ("D&T Shanghai") to file a brief by mid-January 2012 and appear before the Court in early … Continue Reading
The participants in the Citigroup litigation did not take much of a break during the holidays. As discussed here, on December 27, 2011, Judge Rakoff denied the SEC’s request to stay the litigation. As it turns out, the Commission did not even wait for that order – it appears that the SEC’s Motion for an … Continue Reading
Today, the Federal Securities Litigation Blog continues its with its larger-than-usual blog entry examining the Top 10 securities litigation stories that were the most intriguing in 2011. As mentioned yesterday, like any sort of Top 10 list, not everyone will agree. Other bloggers will have their own lists with different stories. But on a personal … Continue Reading
Today and tomorrow, the Federal Securities Litigation Blog will take a break from discussing the most recent events and, with a larger-than-usual entry, examine the Top 10 securities litigation stories that were the most intriguing in 2011. Undoubtedly, others will be preparing similar lists and this is not intended to be a definitive or complete … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, December 28, 2011, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the SEC’s case against Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (which is before Judge Rakoff in New York). The appellate court received an emergency motion for a stay after Judge Rakoff denied the request made at the District Court level. That emergency motion is to … Continue Reading
On Thursday, December 22, 2011, Judge Richard Leon ruled on the Rule 29 Motions for Judgment of Acquittal in the FCPA Sting Case by dismissing Count 1 (on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence to that the six defendants participated in the overarching conspiracy to violate the FCPA) as to all six defendants … Continue Reading
Yesterday the SEC released its final rule regarding the exclusion of the value of a person’s primary residence when determining whether the person qualifies as an “accredited investor” on the basis of having a net worth in excess of $1 million. The accredited investor standards are used to determine certain exemptions from Securities Act registration … Continue Reading
On Friday, December 16, 2011, the SEC filed a Motion in front of Judge Jed Rakoff, asking him to stay to proceedings which the Commission had brought against Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. while the SEC’s appeal is pending before the Second Circuit. On December 20, 2011, Citigroup filed a memorandum joining in the SEC’s Motion. … Continue Reading
In legal briefs filed in the last week, Mark Cuban and the SEC continued to attack each other for their conduct in discovery. On December 13, 2011, Mr. Cuban responded to the Commission’s November 22 Motion to Compel (which asked the Court to order Mr. Cuban to produce a privilege log of documents) by arguing … Continue Reading
In a 135-page report issued entitled "U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: A Roadmap for Transformational Reform" issued on December 14, 2011, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness expanded on the incremental changes it proposed in a 2009 report, saying that "extraordinary steps are needed to achieve change." The Report, which was … Continue Reading
On Friday, December 16, 2011, the House Committee on Financial Services announced that it "will hold a hearing next year to examine the practice by the Securities and Exchange Commission of settling cases with defendants that neither admit nor deny complaints made by the SEC." The decades-long practice has garnered a great deal of attention … Continue Reading
On Friday, December 16, 2011, the SEC announced that it had entered into non-prosecution agreements with the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") and filed charges against six of their former executives for securities fraud, alleging that "they knew and approved of misleading statements claiming the … Continue Reading
On Thursday, December 15, 2011, the SEC appealed the Opinion and Order issued on November 28, 2011 by Judge Jed Rakoff rejecting the SEC’s proposed settlement with Citigroup Global Markets for $285 million (previously discussed here). In a statement, the Director of the Division of Enforcement, Robert Khuzami said that Judge Rakoff "committed legal error … Continue Reading
Today, the Federal Securities Law Blog takes a look back at the last 30 days in the world of securities-related litigation in a regular feature which appears on approximately the 15th of each month. In the last month, the most discussed issues have been two losses suffered by the federal regulators – one by the … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, the Department of Justice and the SEC brought charges against a group of former employees and agents of Siemens AG for FCPA violations based on an alleged decade-long scheme to bribe senior Argentine government officials to secure, implement and enforce a $1 billion contract with the Argentine government to produce … Continue Reading
In a December 9, 2011 Opinion, the D.C. Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision that the SEC was not required to produce the notes of its staff members taken during an investigation of two individuals who were subsequently Government witnesses in a criminal prosecution of another individual. The Court found that notes were privileged under … Continue Reading
An article from Lina Saigol and Kara Scannell in the Financial Times this morning (December 12, 2011) reports that the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance has sent letters to at least a dozen companies instructing them to "disclose business activity in and with Syria, Iran and others deemed ‘state sponsors’ of terror by the State … Continue Reading
