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Mealey's Securities

August 19, 2024
Delaware High Court Affirms Attorney Fees in $1B Dell Securities Settlement

WILMINGTON, Del. — A unanimous Delaware Supreme Court upheld a vice chancellor’s award of $266.7 million in attorney fees to counsel for the lead plaintiff in a complaint brought by investors alleging that Dell Technologies Inc., certain of its controlling stockholders and directors, and its financial adviser breached their fiduciary duty by engaging in a stock swap that resulted in significant losses to investors, holding that the vice chancellor did not abuse his discretion in setting the award.
August 15, 2024
Judge Rules Missouri’s ESG Factor Rules Preempted, Grants Permanent Injunction

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Ruling against state officials on all claims, a Missouri federal judge on Aug. 14 granted summary judgment for a trade association and entered a statewide permanent injunction barring enforcement of two new Missouri rules the association said require “a state-authored script” for “incorporating a social or nonfinancial objective into investment advice.”
August 15, 2024
Amici Decry Discovery Ruling In FirstEnergy Bribery Securities Case

CINCINNATI — A coalition of 39 law firms was one of four groups to file amicus curiae briefs in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in support of an energy company’s petition for a writ of mandamus, echoing the company’s argument that an Ohio federal judge inappropriately ruled that internal investigation reports about the company’s bribes to an Ohio state representative were not subject to attorney-client privilege in a securities complaint stemming from the bribery; the law firms say the ruling has the potential to severely damage companies’ ability to perform internal investigations.
August 14, 2024
Patent Attorney Urges High Court To Decline Review Of 9th Circuit FCA Reversal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent attorney who was a district court’s qui tam plaintiff in a suit accusing pharmaceutical companies of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) by artificially inflating drug prices urges the U.S. Supreme Court to decline review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling reversing the district court’s dismissal, arguing that the Ninth Circuit correctly “held that the public disclosures did not collectively disclose the fraud.”
August 14, 2024
NVIDIA Tells High Court Pension Funds’ Securities Suit ‘Flunks’ Scienter Test

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A computer manufacturer and its CEO tell the U.S. Supreme Court in their Aug. 13 opening brief that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals enlarged a split over the legal standard for alleging scienter under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) by allowing retirement funds to rely on the findings of experts to show falsity.
August 14, 2024
9th Circuit Partly Revives Investor’s Price-Fixing Claim Against Crypto Outfits

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partially revived a putative class complaint brought by an investor against several cryptocurrency companies, alleging that they conspired to deflate the value of a crypto asset, holding that an Arizona federal judge erred in holding that the investor failed to establish personal jurisdiction regarding the crypto companies.
August 13, 2024
5th Circuit: Litigation Bar Against Liquidators Of Ponzi Assets Was Inappropriate

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Texas lacked personal jurisdiction to bar two liquidators who were appointed by an Antiguan court to collect assets related to a massive Ponzi scheme from bringing any future claims related to the scheme against a Swiss bank that reached a settlement with the receiver appointed in the United States to also oversee Ponzi assets, a split panel of judges in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
August 12, 2024
Facebook To High Court: Risk Disclosure Statements Weren’t Misleading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The social media giant formerly known as Facebook Inc. told the U.S. Supreme Court in an Aug. 9 brief that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it held that the company issued misleading statements about the risk of potential misuse of user data because the company was aware that it had already occurred; Facebook argues that it disclosed all information required under federal securities laws.
August 12, 2024
Briefly: Some Claims May Proceed In Securities Fraud Case About Pipeline

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled in a long and winding securities fraud class action related to the construction of a hydraulic fracturing pipeline that only claims brought by shareholders that are based on corrective disclosures made by the pipeline company in August 2018 may proceed.
August 09, 2024
Magistrate Judge: Crypto Exchange Not Subject To U.S. Securities Laws

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal magistrate judge in Texas recommended that a putative class complaint brought by investors who say an online crypto asset exchange and its organizers misled them by saying their investment was risk free should be dismissed without prejudice, writing that the complaint should proceed in an Israeli court because the crypto organization is registered as an entity in Israel and lacked sufficient contact with the United States.
August 09, 2024
Judge Tosses Most Claims In Shareholder Derivative Suit Against Formula Maker

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois dismissed without prejudice multiple claims brought by investors in a shareholder derivative complaint against a food company whose shutdown of a plant contributed to a national shortage of baby formula, holding that the investors failed to show that a presuit demand on the company’s board of directors would have been futile.
August 09, 2024
Judge: No Filing Errors In Dismissed Asbestos Investor Claims Against Honeywell

WILMINGTON, Del. — After dismissing with prejudice a shareholders’ derivative complaint against Honeywell International Inc. brought by investors over the company’s 2018 announcement increasing its asbestos liability by more than $1 billion, a federal judge in Delaware issued an order determining that all parties complied with a procedural rule the judge said was required by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA).
August 08, 2024
Federal Judge Orders $125M Civil Penalty Against Crypto Firm In SEC Enforcement

NEW YORK — A crypto asset firm will be required to pay more than $120 million as a civil penalty after a New York federal judge on Aug. 7 granted the Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion for entry of final judgment on the commission’s allegations that cryptocurrencies sold by the firm were effectively unregistered securities.
August 08, 2024
Federal Judge: Musk Rehashes Arguments In Bid For Judgment On Investors’ Claim

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California denied Elon Musk’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a putative class complaint brought by investors in the company formerly known as Twitter who say Musk attempted to manipulate the company’s stock price before his takeover, holding that Musk makes nearly identical arguments as he did in a previously denied motion to dismiss.
August 07, 2024
4th Circuit Upholds Receiver’s Distribution Plan For Ponzi Scheme Assets

RICHMOND, Va. — A panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 6 upheld a Maryland federal judge’s approval of a court-appointed receiver’s plan to distribute assets recovered from a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $345 million, finding the judge committed no abuse of discretion in approving the plan, despite the objections from two groups of investors.
August 07, 2024
J&J Tells 3rd Circuit Asbestos-Talc Securities Class ‘Reverse-Engineered’ Case

PHILADELPHIA — An asbestos-talc securities class produced none of the type of new and corrective disclosures required for class certification and instead “reverse-engineered” their case by working backward from price drops and identifying media reports and verdicts supporting the case, Johnson & Johnson and its executives told the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in urging reversal of class certification.
August 06, 2024
SEC Tells 8th Circuit It Has Authority To Institute Climate Disclosure Rules

ST. LOUIS — The Securities and Exchange Commission says in an Aug. 6 response brief filed before the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that, contrary to arguments put forward by nearly half of the nation’s states, the commission has the authority to enact disclosure rules related to climate change issues, arguing that the rules will have a material benefit for investors.
August 06, 2024
Judge Won’t Rethink Partial Dismissal Of Stock Drop Suit Against AI Lending Firm

CINCINNATI — A federal judge in Ohio on Aug. 5 denied a lending platform’s motion to reconsider a ruling that claims made by shareholders about the platform’s use of artificial intelligence to approve loans are actionable, holding that the lending platform incorrectly argued that the investors’ inability to establish a single factor in a multi-factor test to determine scienter “is so essential that its inapplicability is fatal to Plaintiffs’ claims.”
August 06, 2024
Judge: Investors Cite Only Opinions, Not Falsehoods, In Medical Stock Drop Suit

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted a pharmaceutical company’s motion to dismiss a putative class complaint brought against it by investors who claimed the company and certain of its executives issued misleading statements about a drug it was developing for a kidney disease; the judge found that “nearly every one” of the statements cited by the investors was an unactionable forward-looking statement.
August 05, 2024
Judge: Investor’s Claim Medical Company Lied About AI To Raise Stock Price Fails

HARTFORD, Conn. — An investor who brought a putative class complaint against a medical company, claiming it misled investors both about its artificial intelligence data platform and its own financial results, failed to illustrate in his amended complaint how some of the alleged misstatements were false and also failed to show that any of them were knowingly made, a Connecticut federal judge held, dismissing the complaint without prejudice.
July 31, 2024
Investor: CrowdStrike Misled Investors About Testing Before Global Tech Outage

AUSTIN, Texas — A retirement system says in a putative class complaint filed on July 30 in a Texas federal court that a cybersecurity company and certain of its executives issued misleading claims to investors about its internal testing systems before a recent software glitch caused a global outage of computers on the Microsoft Windows operating system, leading to a steep drop in value for the company’s stock.
July 30, 2024
Judge Won’t Dismiss Stock Loss Claims Over ‘Sham’ Wells Fargo Interviews

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge on July 29 denied a motion by Wells Fargo & Co. and certain of its executives to dismiss a putative class complaint brought by a group of shareholders, holding that the shareholders adequately established that the company was aware of a widespread practice of using fake interviews to give the impression of complying with internal diversity hiring practices before news about the interviews led to a drop in stock value.
July 30, 2024
Judge: No Misleading Claims About Stock Conversion In Premerger Statements

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge dismissed a putative class complaint brought by former employees of a satellite manufacturer who claimed that the company and certain of its executives issued misleading statements in violation of federal securities laws about the company’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), with the judge holding that the employees failed to show that the company made misleading statements about the redemption rate of shares after the merger.
July 30, 2024
Federal Magistrate: Some Investor Claims Over 2023 Derailment Should Be Tossed

NEW YORK — Investors failed to show that railroad company Norfolk Southern Corp. and certain of its executives had an obligation to disclose previous federal compliance failures in the company’s strategic plan, which meant that the investors failed to show that the plan was false or misleading, a federal magistrate judge said in a report recommending that some claims related to the strategic plan be dismissed from a putative class complaint alleging that the company misled investors leading up to a February 2023 train derailment in Ohio.
July 29, 2024
After Forced Deal, Insurer Sues Reinsurer’s Former Parent Company In Federal Court

NEW YORK — Alleging a “$300 million fraud,” an insurer sued a holding company in New York federal court, asserting claims for securities and common-law fraud and breach of contract in connection with the insurer’s April 14 purchase of Bermuda-based reinsurer JRG Reinsurance Company Ltd.