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Mealey's Securities

  • February 21, 2025

    5th Circuit Grants SEC’s Voluntary Dismissal Of Appeals In ‘Dealer Rule’ Cases

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued orders granting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s motions for voluntary dismissal of appeals in two cases where a federal judge in Texas found the SEC “engaged in unlawful agency action taken in excess of its authority” and vacated the SEC’s “Dealer Rule.”

  • February 20, 2025

    Fund Manager Argues 1st Circuit Should Reverse Denial Of Fees In SEC Enforcement

    BOSTON — A hedge fund manager and his company argue in an appellant reply brief that the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should reverse a Massachusetts federal judge’s finding that they are not entitled to attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) after partially prevailing on claims brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission because the sanctions the SEC demanded were excessive.

  • February 19, 2025

    Final Approval Of Settlement Granted In Stock-Drop Suit Against Holding Company

    ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to an $850,000 settlement ending a class action filed by stockholders against a bank holding company for allegedly failing to disclose that the company maintained defective disclosure controls that increased the risk that it couldn’t timely file required financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission and become delisted from the NASDAQ, ultimately causing the stock price to drop after the alleged misrepresentations were disclosed.

  • February 19, 2025

    Federal Judge Finds Investors’ Fraud Claims Fail To Meet Pleading Standards

    MILWAUKEE — A federal judge in Wisconsin granted an energy-related products company’s motion to dismiss securities fraud claims brought by two pension funds, finding that the investors’ allegations of fraudulent nondisclosure surrounding the company’s COVID-19 pandemic-related gains and subsequent drop did not identify any false statements of material fact.

  • February 13, 2025

    9th Circuit Holds Plaintiff Didn’t Prove Traceability In Direct Listing Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — On remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the lead plaintiff in a putative class action failed to prove that he purchased shares traceable to a technology company’s direct listing of shares as required when he brought claims under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 alleging that the company issued false and misleading statements in the registration statement regarding issues with its service platform.

  • February 13, 2025

    Federal Judge Dismisses Securities Claims Against CVS, Finds They Lack Specificity

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge in Rhode Island dismissed shareholder claims against CVS Health Corp., certain executives and members of its board of directors and members of Aetna Insurance Corp.’s board of directors, finding that the shareholders’ securities law claims regarding alleged misrepresentations of CVS’s long-term care business at the time CVS and Aetna merged were insufficiently pleaded.

  • February 12, 2025

    Federal Judge Grants Final Approval To Settlement In Six Flags Stock-Drop Suit

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas granted final approval of a $40 million settlement in a case brought against Six Flags Entertainment Corp. and two of its former senior executives by stockholders who alleged that Six Flags violated federal securities law by issuing alleged misrepresentations regarding the company’s theme park expansion in China.

  • February 11, 2025

    Proposed Deal Reported In SEC Fraud Action Against Former Brazilian Exec

    NEW YORK — Parties in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action against the former senior executive of a Brazilian reinsurance company announced an unspecified agreement in principle to settle the case, telling a New York federal court that a determination on whether the SEC commissioners “will accept the settlement offer can take several months.”

  • February 11, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Former CEO’s Misdeeds Defeated Privilege Via Crime-Fraud Exception

    NEW YORK — Any attorney-client privilege claimed in certain communications between a company’s former chief executive officer and his counsel was negated by the crime-fraud exception in light of securities filing failures and allegations of sexual misconduct, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found.

  • February 06, 2025

    Delaware High Court Reverses Ruling In D&O Coverage Dispute Over Securities Action

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Delaware judge’s ruling that an underlying federal securities lawsuit brought in 2016 against a pharmaceutical company insured is not “meaningfully” related to a May 7, 2015, subpoena issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, finding that directors and officers liability coverage should have been placed in the pharmaceutical company’s first tower of insurance.

  • February 06, 2025

    Split 2nd Circuit: Stockholder Properly Pleaded Loss Causation Against Game Company

    NEW YORK — A split panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined that a former stockholder and former owner of American Depository Shares (ADS) sufficiently pleaded loss causation in its class action complaint against a video game company that allegedly committed securities fraud when taking the company private, vacating the lower court’s dismissal of those claims against the company.

  • February 06, 2025

    Rhode Island Supreme Court Affirms Dismissal Of Securities Case Against CVS

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A panel of the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of stockholders’ complaint against CVS Health Corp. for violating federal securities laws by providing false or misleading statements in its stock offering documents, finding that while the lower court erred by finding that the case was collaterally estopped, the stockholders waived their right to address the lower court’s dismissal based on the merits of the case.

  • February 04, 2025

    Federal Judge Awards Some Costs To Mylan In EpiPen Misrepresentation Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York issued a memorandum and order awarding some costs to drugmaker Mylan N.V. and certain of its current and former executives after previously granting summary judgment to Mylan and against stockholders who filed a class action suit against it alleging that the drugmaker made misrepresentations regarding its classification of the EpiPen and concealed its involvement in an anticompetitive rebate scheme that allowed Mylan to inflate the price of EpiPen.

  • February 04, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Final Judgment Against Securities Fraud Participants

    SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a memorandum affirming the final judgments against three parties who were subject to a civil enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for their roles in a securities fraud scheme.

  • February 03, 2025

    Delaware High Court Upholds Judgment, Discovery Ruling In Oracle Derivative Suit

    DOVER, Del. — A Delaware trial court did not err in denying Oracle Corp. shareholders’ efforts to obtain certain documents from an investigation by a special litigation committee (SLC) in a derivative suit centering on Oracle’s acquisition of another tech company, the Delaware Supreme Court held, finding that the documents were largely protected by privilege.

  • February 03, 2025

    Suit Over Investments Gone Bad Dismissed As Sanction For AI-Created Fake Cites

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A pro se plaintiff’s inclusion of fake cites in a brief opposing dismissal of his suit against former investment partners leads to the “firm conviction” that he used artificial intelligence (AI) to craft that brief regardless of his other explanations for the mistake, a federal judge in Florida said in dismissing the action as a sanction.

  • January 31, 2025

    Judge Grants Final Approval Of $22M Settlement In Block.one EOS Securities Case

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $22 million settlement in a class action accusing a company that promised that it would develop a software program enabling the creation of novel EOS cryptocurrency blockchain technologies of making “a host of materially false and misleading statements to induce investors to purchase EOS Securities” and failing to register its initial coin offering (ICO).

  • January 31, 2025

    Shipping Company Did Not Violate Securities Laws In Seeking Investment, Jury Finds

    DAYTON, Ohio — A jury in a federal court in Ohio found that a shipping company didn’t violate federal securities laws or  commit fraud in seeking investment from a trucking-logistics company in a consolidated case where the trucking-logistics company alleged that the shipping company used misinformation to induce its investment and the shipping company alleged that the trucking-logistics company breached their contract.

  • January 30, 2025

    $47.5M Settlement Between Battery Maker, Shareholders Granted Final Approval

    SAN FRANCISCO — A $47.5 million settlement was granted final approval by a federal judge in California, concluding a case brought by shareholders against the developer of a “solid-state” electronic vehicle battery alleging that the developer violated federal securities laws by misrepresenting the progress and effectiveness of their batteries.

  • January 29, 2025

    Final Approval Of $200M Settlement Granted In Uber IPO Misstatement Class Action

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California issued final approval of a $200 million settlement to end a class action lawsuit bought by investors against ride sharing company Uber Technologies Inc. and certain of its executives that claimed that the company issued a series of misleading statements in the lead-up to its May 2019 initial public offering (IPO).

  • January 29, 2025

    Judge Preliminarily Approves $362.5M Settlement In Securities Action Against GE

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $362.5 million settlement between General Electric Co. and investors who alleged that the company violated federal securities laws in relation to its representations regarding its power division’s factoring of long-term receivables.

  • January 28, 2025

    Securities Suit Involving Reinsurance Dismissed For Lack Of Scienter

    NEW YORK — Ruling that the “allegations fail to raise the required strong inference of scienter” and that further amendment would be futile, a New York federal judge dismissed a putative class action that attempted to use a reported error on the reinstatement premium for a specialty casualty reinsurance treaty — and purported statements from confidential witnesses — as the basis for securities fraud claims.

  • January 27, 2025

    Judge Allows Crypto Company’s Appeal Of Ruling On SEC Enforcement To 2nd Circuit

    NEW YORK — After issuing a split ruling on Coinbase Inc.’s motion for judgment on the pleadings last spring, a federal judge in New York granted Coinbase’s motion to certify the order for interlocutory appeal, determining that a controlling question of law exists regarding the application and reach of SEC v. W.J. Howey Co.’s three-prong securities test for crypto-asset transactions.

  • January 27, 2025

    2 Robinhood Broker-Dealers Agree To Pay $45 Million To Settle SEC Allegations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Broker-dealers Robinhood Securities LLC and Robinhood Financial LLC (together, Robinhood) will pay $45 million in combined penalties to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that they violated more than 10 securities law provisions.

  • January 27, 2025

    SEC Appeals Opinions In 2 Cases Where Judge Vacated ‘Dealer Rule’

    FORT WORTH, Texas — The Securities and Exchange Commission filed notices of appeal of opinions issued by a federal judge in Texas that granted summary judgment in two separate cases challenging the SEC’s “Dealer Rule” where the judge found that the SEC “engaged in unlawful agency action taken in excess of its authority” and vacated the rule.