The high risks and potential benefits—to both companies and investors—of taking securities fraud class actions to a jury were on full display in three rare trials that concluded over two recent months. Verdicts left Vaxart Inc. investors empty-handed in their suit against a hedge fund that sold its majority stake in the vaccine developer, and denied recovery to Exxon Mobil…
A Texas jury on Wednesday found Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab not ?liable on claims it defrauded ?investors through disclosures tied to its Canadian oil sands and Rocky ?Mountain gas operations.
The ?investors said they bought ?Exxon ?shares at artificially inflated prices because the company concealed material information ?about ?its reserve valuations ?and accounting practices.
The 2016 ?lawsuit alleged Exxon concealed that ?its Canadian bitumen operations were ?losing money, failed to properly ?incorporate carbon-cost assumptions into reserve valuations, and delayed recognizing impairment charges tied to ?Rocky Mountain dry gas assets.
Investors who acquired Exxon common stock between ?February ?24, 2016 and October 28, 2016 failed to prove that the company misled them, according ?to a ?jury ?verdict sheet filed in Dallas federal court.
Source: Exxon Mobil not liable to investors over Canadian oil sands, gas assets, jury says | Reuters
Today, after a nine-day trial and fewer than four hours of deliberation, a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found defendant Steven M. Gallagher liable for securities fraud and manipulative trading. As demonstrated at trial, between December 2019 and October 2021, Gallagher used his Twitter account to encourage his numerous followers, including…
Ozy Media and Chief Executive Officer Carlos Watsonwere found guilty of defrauding investors in a case featuring allegations Watson coached his co-founder to impersonate a YouTube executive to get Goldman Sachs bankers to back the media startup. A jury delivered its verdict on the former TV host and Ozy Media Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court following a six-week trial. Watson…
Mike Lynch, a British software mogul who was once one of his country’s most celebrated chief executives, was acquitted of fraud on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, clearing him of charges that he had led one of the biggest frauds in the technology industry. A jury found him not guilty of falsely inflating revenue at Autonomy, the company he…
A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted a dual Russian-Swedish national today for his operation of the longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet. *** According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Roman Sterlingov, 35, was involved in operating Bitcoin Fog from 2011 through 2021. Bitcoin Fog was the longest-running cryptocurrency “mixer,” gaining notoriety as a go-to…
A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker was found guilty of passing inside information on deals to a once-close friend and squash partner who became the prosecution’s star witness. Brijesh Goel was convicted Wednesday of tipping off former Barclays Plc trader Akshay Niranjan about deals at Goldman. Niranjan made some $280,000 in illegal profits trading on the information but later…
A shareholder class action making its way to trial is an incredibly rare feat. Of the thousands of cases filed against public companies since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act in 1995, it is believed that only 16 have resulted in trial verdicts, including Mr. Musk’s recent win. A majority of cases are dismissed, while the remaining actions…
A jury rejected investor claims that Elon Musk violated federal securities law when he tweeted in 2018 about potentially taking Tesla Inc. increase; green up pointing triangle private, handing a major win to the billionaire chief executive. The nine-person jury said the investors who brought the class-action case failed to prove that Mr. Musk hurt them by tweeting about a…
After a seven-day trial, a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut found Bernard Findley and Halitron Inc, liable for securities fraud in connection with their false and misleading statements in press releases as part of a scheme to defraud investors. “We are pleased with the jury verdict holding Bernard Findley and Halitron, Inc., liable for…