Features

Antitrust Actions In Entertainment Industry Sectors
The growth in size of companies dominating sectors of the entertainment industry has been subject to antitrust challenges with mixed results. What are some notable recent developments in this area?
Features

Despite Rhetoric On Individual Accountability, Recent FCPA Enforcement Has Targeted Entities
With ample bravado, in recent years the FCPA unit of the DOJ and the SEC have proclaimed that holding individuals accountable for foreign bribery schemes is of "critical importance," with the FCPA saying "it is unambiguously this department's first priority" to prosecute individuals in corporate criminal matters. Reviewing the enforcement record, however, one sees that the volume of FCPA enforcement activity with respect to individuals has steadily declined in the last three years.
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SEC Selective Enforcement Throws Doubt On Whether Securities Rules Apply to Crypto
Digital assets have created a jurisdictional tug of war between the SEC and the CFTC over whether cryptocurrencies should be regulated as commodities or securities. Also tugging on that rope sit those who say cryptocurrencies are neither, and need new bespoke rules.
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Supreme Court's Slack Ruling Could Curb 'Direct Listings' IPO Alternative
Messaging company Slack Technologies scored a unanimous victory in the U.S. Supreme Court last month, which held that an investor suing over a company stock offering must show he held "registered" securities in the company.
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Ticket Resellers' Campaign Raises Securities Law and Money Laundering Issues
Some markets allow for the sale of a future contract for tickets that have not gone on sale as yet (i.e., "speculative ticketing"). The future contract, like an option or a commodities future, allows someone to purchase the right to buy a ticket once the tickets are offered for sale. This seems to implicate securities law issues, broker-dealer regulations and potentially the general solicitation rule.
Features

Rule 10b-5 Liability: The Second Circuit and 'Rio Tinto'
Part Three of a Three-Part Article The first two installments exposited Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders and Lorenzo v. S.E.C., both essential to understanding S.E.C. v. Rio Tinto, the Second Circuit's most recent holding regarding Rule 10b-5 "scheme" liability. Now we examine how the "Mother Court" of federal securities law has tended to that branch of the mighty judicial oak rooted in that venerable regulation.
Features
Ticket Resellers' State House Campaign Raises Resale Royalty, Securities Law and Money Laundering Issues
Should resale royalties be paid to artists and venues when tickets are resold? Such a resale royalty might encourage artists or sports teams to permit transferability for some or all their tickets. It would also help to value that property right. So how would that work?
Features

Acquitted-Conduct Sentencing: A Quagmire Neither the Supreme Court Nor the U.S. Sentencing Commission Can Continue to Avoid
It has been common knowledge to criminal practitioners for years that a criminal defendant's sentence for a crime which they have been convicted can be increased based on consideration of conduct that the jury acquitted. This outcome can make a partial acquittal in federal court into a pyrrhic victory.
Features

Limitations on Omissions Liability for Opinions Following 'Omnicare'
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." The Supreme Court has applied this maxim to the securities laws, holding in Omnicare v. Laborers District Council , that while statements of opinion generally are not actionable, there are some narrow circumstances in which such statements entail or imply false or misleading assertions of fact.
Features

Rule 10b-5 Liability: The Second Circuit and 'Lorenzo'
Part Two of a Three-Part Article This three-part series discusses the Second Circuit's recent Securities law landmark case, S.E.C. v. Rio Tinto. However, in order to discuss Rio Tinto, it is important to first understand the Supreme Court landmark cases upon which Rio Tinto is based: Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Trader, discussed in the first installment, and S.E.C v. Lorenzo, discussed here.
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