Articles Posted in Firm News

(November 26) The U.S. Supreme Court today issued an opinion in Nitro-Lift Technologies, L.L.C. v. Howard, firmly upholding the idea that if there’s a challenge to the validity of a contract which compels arbitration, an arbitrator must decide the validity of that contract (except in the special case where the arbitration clause itself is challenged).…

(November 14) A U.S. District Court Judge in Austin, Texas has ruled that the officers of a corporation may have their bonuses, stock options and stock profits “clawed back” (ordered repaid) when their corporation violated securities laws — even when those officers were not directly involved in the violation. The ruling is consistent with previous…

(November 23) What is apparently the largest insider-trading case in history has been filed by the Manhattan office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bahrara against a former portfolio manager for Steven A. Cohen’s well-known SAC Capital Advisors LP. The criminal complaint charges Mathew Martoma of trading on inside information of disappointing Alzheimer’s drug trials, and coming…

(October 23) The president of an insurance and re-insurance company based in Costa Rica has been found guilty of criminal mail fraud and money laundering charges in connection with an international fraud scheme worth half a billion dollars. Minor Vargas Calvo of Provident Capital Indemnity sold guarantee bonds to other companies that sold “life settlement”…

(October 23) The annual enforcement survey of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) released today shows an increase in state-level securities law enforcement. State securities regulators investigated roughly 6000 cases. About 10% were related to financial abuse of seniors. Unregistered sellers of unregistered securities amounted to the largest single category of investment fraud. NASAA…

(October 18) The British bank HSBC has been sued by three counties in the Atlanta area for the bank’s conduct in the housing collapse. Filed under the Fair Housing Act, the suit accuses HSBC of systematically steering minority borrowers into subprime mortgages, a practice deemed “reverse redlining”. This caused a chain of defaults, falling property…

(October 4) For those of us tracking the progress of former Eugene, Oregon financial planner Scott McKee through the court system, today the Lane County District Attorney Alex Gardner handed down an indictment with another 37 felony counts against him. The total includes nine counts of aggravated theft in the first degree, one count of…

(September 27) FINRA has released one of its periodic Investor Alerts, this one called “When Trading Stops: What You Need to Know About Halts, Suspensions and Other Interruptions.” It explains why, when and how regulatory interruptions in securities trading happen. The document addresses both the broad-market “circuit breaker” halts triggered by a percentage drop in…

(September 25) A case to be decided this year by the U.S. Supreme Court may effectively extend the window of time for potential plaintiffs who suffered losses in the 2008 financial crisis. The case Gabelli et. al. v Securities Exchange Commission hinges on the application of the five-year statutory limitation time clock, called the “discovery…

(September 24) The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has censured and fined Merrill Lynch $500,000 for failing to file some 650 required reports, and failing to acknowledge nearly 300 customer complaints, between 2005 and 2011. As the largest independent regulatory agency for securities firms operating in the United States, FINRA protects investors and maintains the…