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Join the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group on LinkedInStanford professor pays $29M in fraud case | The Stanford Daily
Prominent Stanford geneticist Stan Cohen has paid $29.2 million in damages after losing a lengthy court battle. Cohen was found to have intentionally misled investors into a biotechnology company he founded in 2016 and also admitted to providing inaccurate testimony to the court. Cohen, a professor in the School of Medicine, was the first geneticist […]
Sam Bankman-Fried to Be Released on $250 Million Bond – WSJ
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bond and restricted to confinement in his parents Palo Alto, Calif., home, a federal magistrate judge said Thursday, in the former executive’s first appearance in a New York federal court after he was extradited from the Bahamas. Mr. Bankman-Fried, charged with engaging in criminal conduct […]
Caroline Ellison Plea Agreement: $250,000 Bail, Surrender of Travel Documents, Forfeiture of Assets
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison will not be allowed to leave the continental United States, and must forfeit any proceeds derived from the commission of the offenses she has been charged with, according to a recently unsealed plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York. She will also […]
SEC Announces Departure of Dan Berkovitz; Megan Barbero Named General Counsel
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that General Counsel Dan Berkovitz will depart the agency, effective Jan. 31, 2023. Megan Barbero, currently SEC Principal Deputy General Counsel, will be appointed General Counsel, effective upon Mr. Berkovitz’s departure. Source: SEC.gov | SEC Announces Departure of Dan Berkovitz; Megan Barbero Named General Counsel
SEC Calls FTT Exchange Token a Security
FTX’s exchange token FTT was sold as an investment contract, and is a “security,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a complaint filed late Wednesday, in a move that is sure to have a wide-ranging impact on the industry. “If demand for trading on the FTX platform increased, demand for the FTT token […]
Recent Rulings Can Help Securities Defendants Avoid Industry Bans
Federal district courts increasingly are expressing concerns about the effect being barred from the securities industry as part of a settlement will have on defendants’ livelihoods, even in cases where they acted with knowledge of wrongdoing. In three recent litigated Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions involving violations of the Investment Advisers Act, courts have […]
New York Flags Climate Risks for Banks – WSJ
Banks both big and small should pore over how climate change could impact their business, New York’s influential state banking regulator said in a proposal that would heighten risk management expectations for financial institutions. Financial institutions of all sizes—including foreign-based banks with operations in New York—would be expected to evaluate climate risks throughout their business […]
Crypto Giant Binance Offers Little Transparency After FTX Collapse – WSJ
Like FTX, Binance discloses limited financial information. It doesn’t say where the company is based. And its founder, Changpeng Zhao, is affiliated with market makers providing liquidity on its own platform, an arrangement some market observers say leads to a potential conflict of interest. “Does the exchange give preferential treatment to an affiliate? Is the […]
SEC Heightening Scrutiny of Auditors’ Crypto Work – WSJ
The Securities and Exchange Commission is stepping up scrutiny of the work that audit firms are doing for cryptocurrency companies, concerned that investors may be getting a false sense of reassurance from the firms’ reports, a senior official at the regulator said. “We’re warning investors to be very wary of some of the claims that are being […]
SEC Charges Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX
According to the SEC’s complaint, between 2019 and 2022, Ellison, at the direction of Bankman-Fried, furthered the scheme by manipulating the price of FTT, an FTX-issued exchange crypto security token, by purchasing large quantities on the open market to prop up its price. FTT served as collateral for undisclosed loans by FTX of its customers’ […]