SAN ANTONIO – A federal judge dismissed Tesla shareholders suit alleging the company's board of directors harmed the company's reputation by permitting a “toxic workplace culture grounded in racist and sexist abuse and discrimination.” The shareholder claims of wrongdoing are not sufficiently specific, and Tesla’s incorporation documents shield Tesla’s directors from liability for all but breaches of the duty of loyalty.
Four alleged co-conspirators — including a Russian military intelligence officer who’s also been charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election — remain at large.
Dutch authorities examining a Maersk cargo ship found record-breaking amounts of cocaine hidden in banana pallets, highlighting the industry's vulnerability to smuggling.
MANHATTAN — A federal court in New York dismissed a union and a police and fire retirement fund’s securities class action against the owners of Ben & Jerry’s, whose board did not immediately inform investors of its decision to stop selling ice cream in Israel due to its conflict with Palestine. The company did not know how the board’s decision would be implemented, so its failure to immediately inform investors was not fraud.
David Bloom, a New York native twice convicted in con schemes, faces new charges in Los Angeles that he defrauded investors out of a quarter million dollars.
WASHINGTON — The D.C. Circuit ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission arbitrarily denied a company’s bitcoin fund soon after approving two other bitcoin futures funds for trading.
BALTIMORE — A federal court in Maryland partially granted biotech company Novavax’s CEO and three of its board members’ motion to dismiss shareholders’ breach of fiduciary lawsuit against them after stocks plunged when info came out regarding issues with the development of its Covid-19 vaccine. There was no pre-suit demand related to the claim.
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court in California dismissed, with leave to amend, an investment management firm and a pension fund’s securities fraud class action against Wells Fargo. The bank allegedly conducted farcical interviews to skirt the company’s own diversity guidelines.
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal court in Texas denied a Canadian broker’s motion to dismiss financial regulators’ lawsuit against him for his alleged role in a “massive fraudulent binary options trading scheme.” The broker had sufficient contacts in the U.S. and he “singled out customers in the United States,” so the court has jurisdiction.
The disgraced cryptocurrency executive's messages to trial witnesses and leaking of his ex-girlfriend's personal diaries cost him a comfortable pretrial house arrest at his parents' California home.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s enforcement of a Securities and Exchange Commission finding that two men defrauded 25 investors out of almost $4.9 million through the sale of unregistered and fictitious securities in their cannabis companies. They owe more than $654,000 in penalties.
