German prosecutors provisionally seized nearly 50,000 Bitcoin worth about $2.1 billion as part of an investigation into what they see as an illegal file-sharing platform. It’s the largest amount of Bitcoin ever secured by law enforcement in Germany, Saxony prosecutors said Tuesday. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation supported the investigation. Source: German Police…
The Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a nonprofit’s request to rescind its policy that bars defendants from denying the agency’s allegations after a settlement, likely prompting legal action. The SEC for decades has allowed parties to settle cases brought by the agency without admitting wrongdoing. But it also requires them to promise not to publicly deny the SEC’s allegations. The…
At the height of the SPAC boom, liberated startups capitalized on the ability to tout lofty goals about the years ahead without much of a risk of legal fallout. Now, the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rules tightening SPACs’ disclosure requirements are set to clamp down on such forecasts when they come into force as soon as later this…
Fifth Year Master of Information and Data Science students Matthew Dodd, Aditya Shah, Jocelyn Thai, and Ethan Yen are the winners of the 5th Year MIDS Capstone Award for their project, PoliWatch. Their project addresses a common issue in Congress: insider trading. Despite a fifth of trades by Congress being reported as problematic, little has been done to hold politicians accountable. To gather information on stock trades,…
Dawn raids are on the rise: the first three months of the new SFO director’s tenure saw two dawn raids, and the Financial Conduct Authority’s dawn raid activity during 2023 was significantly increased compared with 2022. Our global investigations team is seeing a similar trend in other jurisdictions. We expect authorities across the globe to continue to utilize dawn raid…
If you’re looking for more proof of the gap of comprehension between “normies” and crypto fanatics, look no further than the results of a Deutsche Bank survey of 2,000 retail clients last week. The most striking result wasn’t even that a third of respondents saw bitcoin below $20,000 by year end. That’s less than half its current price, and well…
On January 26, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the SEC partial summary judgment against former Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (“Synchronoss”) CFO, Karen Rosenberger, and Synchronoss controller, Joanna Lanni. According to the SEC’s complaint, Rosenberger and Lanni engaged in accounting misconduct which resulted in the overstatement of revenue by Synchronoss. The SEC alleged that…
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, suffered a stunning rebuke Tuesday when a Delaware judge voided the pay package that helped make him a billionaire many times over and the world’s wealthiest human being. In a decision that cast a harsh light on the behavior of Mr. Musk and Tesla’s board of directors, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of…
When faced with a lawsuit, it’s common for a public company to argue in the court of public opinion that the claims asserted against it are “without merit.” However, as a recent U.S. District Court of the District of Massachusetts ruling in the case of City of Fort Lauderdale Police & Firefighters’ Retirement System v. Pegasystems Inc. demonstrates, such an…
Building on its national reputation for excellence in securities enforcement defense, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has added Barry O’Connell as a partner in the firm’s New York office. O’Connell brings to the firm more than a decade of experience at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including as senior enforcement counsel in the Market Abuse Unit. He was most recently a…