Important developments in U.S. securities law, white collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement and other emerging issues impacting financial services institutions, publicly traded companies and private investment funds
On December 10, 2014, the Second Circuit reversed insider trading convictions of two former hedge fund managers, holding that, to sustain a conviction for insider trading, the government must prove a tippee who trades on the basis of material non-public information had knowledge that the tipper not only disclosed confidential inside information, but also that … Continue Reading
In the recent decision, Goldman Sachs & Co. v. Golden Empire Sch. Fin. Auth., 764 F.3d 210 (2d Cir. 2014), the Second Circuit held that nearly-identical forum selection clauses in broker-dealer agreements between the broker-dealers/underwriters of auction rate securities (“ARS”) and the public financing authorities who issued the ARS superseded the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, … Continue Reading
In a recent case arising from the Facebook IPO, NASDAQ OMX Group v. UBS Securities, LLC, No. 13-Civ. 2657 (2d Cir. October 31, 2014), the Second Circuit determined that the federal courts had jurisdiction to enjoin an arbitration against NASDAQ, finding that the case implicated important federal issues regarding the regulation of an orderly securities … Continue Reading
By Harry Frischer, Jessica Fisher and Philip Arnold on Posted in Financial Services
Originally published as a Proskauer Client Alert. On October 23, 2014, the New York Court of Appeals held for the first time that, under New York law, the “separate entity” rule prevents a court from ordering a foreign bank operating branches in New York from restraining a judgment debtor’s assets held in foreign branches of the bank. Motorola … Continue Reading
By Harry Frischer, Brian Friedman and Philip Arnold on Posted in Securities Regulatory
In the recent case Citigroup Global Markets Inc. v. Ghazi Abdullah Abbar, et al., 13 Civ. 2172 (2d Cir. Aug. 1, 2014), the Second Circuit held that, under FINRA rules, an investor who purchased an over-the-counter derivative from a financial institution was not a “customer” of the financial institution’s affiliated broker-dealer, notwithstanding the broker-dealer’s involvement … Continue Reading
By Tanya Dmitronow and Alexandra Skellet on Posted in White Collar
On April 23, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated the action brought by the European Community and its 26 member states against RJR Nabisco and related entities (collectively, “RJR”) for allegedly laundering drug money through the exchange of discounted euros and cigarettes. In the long-running case European Community v. RJR … Continue Reading
In its landmark 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, the Supreme Court articulated what seemed to be a bright-line test for determining the extent to which the U.S. securities laws apply to transactions with international elements. In so doing, the Court harshly rejected the fact-intensive “conduct/effects” tests propounded several decades ago by the … Continue Reading
The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled today that the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibition on retaliation against whistleblowers does not apply extraterritorially. In affirming the dismissal of the case on extraterritoriality grounds, the court declined in Liu v. Siemens AG to address another issue that has attracted attention: whether a person qualifies as a … Continue Reading
