The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced that United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) has agreed to pay a $45 million penalty for materially misrepresenting its earnings by improperly valuing its UPS Freight...more
Of the 46 enforcement actions in 2023: 26 actions (57%) alleged fraud under Section 17(a) - of the Securities Act and/or Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act; 28 (61%) alleged an unregistered securities...more
In a kind of sad coda to the litany of claims, charges, investigations and litigation surrounding the tragic crashes in 2018 and 2019 of two Boeing 737 MAX airplanes and the heartbreaking deaths of 346 passengers, the SEC...more
On January 28, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against HeadSpin, Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up....more
On July 13, 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against special purpose acquisition corporation Stable Road Acquisition Company, its sponsor SRC-NI, its CEO Brian Kabot, the SPAC’s proposed...more
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) brought enforcement actions against a company and its former CEO for failure to adequately disclose certain compensation and related party transactions. The move...more
Last week, the SEC charged BMW and subsidiaries with Securities Act violations for disclosing inaccurate and misleading information about the company’s retail sales volume in the U.S.—not as sales in its financial statements,...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently charged two Maryland companies and their executives in a scheme that allegedly defrauded approximately 1,200 investors of more than $27 million. ...more
Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Chris Lazarini provided insight on a case in which the defendant appealed a verdict claiming the court abused its discretion and issued a “highly excessive” judgment when it ordered him to disgorge...more
In a case reminiscent of last year’s blockbuster government actions against Theranos and its former executives, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have separately charged two former...more
In the past few years, the SEC has become increasingly active in bringing enforcement actions based on broker-dealers' alleged failures to comply with requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), in particular that requirement...more
Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Chris Lazarini discussed a case brought by the SEC against an individual broker accused of violations of Section 17(A) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on April 24, 2018 that Yahoo! (now known as Altaba, Inc.) agreed to pay a $35 million civil penalty to resolve claims that it failed to appropriately and timely disclose...more
Rejecting the analysis of every other federal appellate court to consider the issue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that most claims filed under Section 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of...more
In Varjabedian v. Emulex Corp., No. 16-55088, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 10000 (9th Cir. Apr. 20, 2018), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit split from the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth and Eleventh Circuits to...more
Varjabedian ruling challenges long-standing precedent of scienter requirement. Section 14(e) ruling creates circuit split, increasing odds of Supreme Court review. ...more
On March 1, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (“Court”) charging Leonard Genova, town attorney and deputy supervisor for...more
A federal district court in Connecticut has entered final judgments pursuant to agreements between the SEC and three defendants—David Haddad, Trafalgar Square Risk Management, LLC, and New England RE, LLC—in a case alleging...more
On December 1, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois charging David Webb, Jr. (“Webb”), mayor of Markham, Illinois from...more
On November 21, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint charging Oyster Bay, New York (the “Town”), along with its former Supervisor and Chief Executive Officer, John Venditto, with...more
Barbara Duka was an employee of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. The SEC contended that Duka loosened S&P’s methodology for rating commercial mortgage-backed securities to help the company generate ratings business from...more
The Southern District of New York has confirmed that when the trustee of a non-citizen aircraft trust brings suit in its own name, the citizenship of that trustee may be used to establish diversity jurisdiction in federal...more
S.E.C. v. Radius Capital Corp., No. 15-12004, 2016 WL 3542235, ___ F. App’x ___ (11th Cir. June 29, 2016). The Eleventh Circuit last month explained the material similarities and differences between two kinds of...more
The Commission filed another group of settled actions under its initiative regarding municipal bond underwriters. This time a group of fourteen actions were filed. Each centered largely on claims that the underwriter failed...more
In the latest round of regulatory action involving high frequency trading and dark pools, the SEC announced yesterday that it reached a settlement with ITG, Inc., and its affiliate Alternet Securities, Inc., imposing a $20.3...more