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‘Enforcement 40’ for 2020
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Join the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group on LinkedInElizabeth Holmes has pleaded with a judge to overturn her Theranos convictions, citing “insufficient evidence” | Business Insider
In a 24-page filing, lawyers for the Theranos founder targeted her conviction of wire fraud, arguing the evidence provided did not amount to a guilty verdict. “Because no rational juror could have found the elements of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud beyond a reasonable doubt on this record, the Court should grant […]
Fidelity’s Crypto-Focused Business Plans Tech Hiring Spree – WSJ
A Fidelity Investments subsidiary, launched a few years ago to let institutional investors store and trade bitcoin, plans to double its head count this year as it predicts rising demand for cryptocurrency amid market volatility. Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC plans to hire 110 tech workers, including engineers and developers with blockchain expertise, to build […]
Molly White is becoming the crypto world’s biggest critic – The Washington Post
A 28-year-old software engineer who writes Wikipedia articles for fun, White is an odd figure to make the crypto industry cower. On her website, “Web3 is Going Just Great,” White documents case after case of crypto malfeasance: investments that turn out to be scams, poorly-run projects that collapse under mismanagement and hacks that drain supporters’ […]
NYC, Calif. Courts Emerge as Top Crypto Case Magnets
The SDNY was home to 58 of the 221 federal cryptocurrency complaints (26%) over the 2020–2021 time period. The Northern District of California had the next highest number of complaints, with 36 (16%). The Central District of California (17 complaints, 8%) and the Northern District of Illinois (10 complaints, 5%) rounded out the top four, […]
Making progress on decentralized regulation — It’s time to talk about crypto together | The Hill
Crypto gives us a new opportunity to cooperate and do so publicly. As an initial step, we are calling on our agencies to hold a joint set of public roundtables to evaluate recent market events and risks, and to discuss how to regulate crypto responsibly. These roundtables would be open to the public, and panelists […]
Cooley Lawyer Elon Musk Tried to Get Fired Heads to Robinhood
A Big Law associate who drew the ire of Elon Musk for his prior work at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has left Cooley for an assistant general counsel position at the online trading platform Robinhood Markets Inc. Walker Newell, a former senior counsel at the SEC, was part of an investigation of Musk […]
We Need to Talk About Exchanges That Sell You Coins Like UST
But the post raised a much larger point: Do crypto exchanges like Coinbase have a responsibility to customers when they choose what tokens they offer for sale? Should exchanges warn customers about projects or tokens regarded as questionable by their own staff? Or is an exchange’s role more neutral, simply listing tokens and letting customers […]
Kalshi’s ‘Stock Market of the World’ Lets You Bet on Anything – Bloomberg
On Nov. 3, 2020, Election Day, two young entrepreneurs received a call from the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with some important news. Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour had spent the past 18 months trying to get permission to start an ambitious and controversial new type of financial exchange—one where, rather than […]
Fifth Circuit Court Ruling Asks if SEC Can Even Make Rules – Bloomberg
The decision could go beyond the SEC. Other regulators, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, also use in-house courts. “It will inspire a wave of litigation across all agencies” that use the administrative proceedings, says John Coates, a professor of law and economics at Harvard Law School and a former […]
SPACs Are Warning They May Go Bust – WSJ
The SPAC boom brought a wave of companies to the public markets promising years of rapid growth and profits to investors. Two years since the boom began, many of these companies are already warning they may go bust. At least 25 companies that merged with special-purpose acquisition companies between 2020 and 2021 have issued so-called […]