Today the New York State Court of Appeals upheld the criminal convictions of former Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski and the company’s former CFO, Mark Swartz. In a written opinion, the Court stated that In this appeal relating to the convictions of two former executives for crimes associated with corporate wrongdoing, we are asked to determine whether the admission of…
On Wednesday, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of a securities class action against Home Depot and six corporate executives that alleged financial fraud. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia had previously found that the amended complaint failed to adequately plead scienter. In its opinion affirming…
On September 30th, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in In Re: Salomon Analyst Metromedia Litigation that plaintiffs alleging securities fraud against research analysts do not need to make a heightened evidentiary showing in order to benefit from the fraud-on-the-market presumption of Basic Inc. v. Levinson. However, the Court also vacated the June 2006 grant of…
As discussed here previously, on August 22, 2008 the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to oversee auditors was constitutional. A Las Vegas accounting firm had challenged the board’s legality in a 2006 lawsuit, arguing its makeup violated the Constitution’s separation of powers…
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion today reversing the district court’s dismissal of the securities class action against Merck & Co. The district court ruled in April 2007 that plaintiffs were on inquiry notice of the alleged fraud more than two years before they filed suit, and thus their claims were barred by the statute of limitations.…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held Tuesday that “when a non-employee consultant to a public corporation causes misstatements or omissions within periodic financial reports submitted to the Commission, knowing that those misstatements or omissions will reach investors, he can be held primarily liable under the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.” The Court’s ruling came in SEC v.…
In a highly anticipated opinion, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit held today that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to oversee auditors is, in fact, constitutional. As reported by Bloomberg, a Las Vegas accounting firm challenged the board’s legality in a 2006 lawsuit, arguing its makeup violated the Constitution’s separation…