Securities Fraud
The SEC brought a federal complaint against Alan G. Heide, 61, of Lake Worth, Fla., saying he fraudulently raised more than $322 million from at least 3,600 investors nationwide in an unregistered securities offering.
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Sticky Fingers
The SEC brought a federal complaint against Frost Management Company, saying it defrauded investors of more than $14 million by charging undisclosed and excessive fees to pay its owners’s “exorbitant salary and extravagant personal expenses.”
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Shareholders Say Conagra Buried Troubles on Pinnacle Foods Merger
Conagra Brands Inc. faces a shareholder derivative alleging the company’s top officers withheld wrongfully withheld information about internal issues spurred by its acquisition of Pinnacle Foods Inc.
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No Prison Time for Inside Trader Doug DeCinces
Doug DeCinces, the former Major League Baseball star convicted two years ago of making a $1 million profit from insider stock trading, must spend eight months on home confinement but will serve no time in prison, a federal judge declared Monday.
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US Steel Shareholder Says Cost-Cutting Led to ‘Skeleton Crew’
U.S. Steel Corp. faces a shareholder derivative action after the company allegedly engaged in extreme cost-cutting and fraudulently pushed a process called the “Carnegie Way Program” as a means to make the company profitable again after years of financial downturn.
Read moreAppellate Panel Revives CFTC Claims Against Precious Metal Dealer
The Ninth Circuit revived with an enforcement action by the Commodity Future Trading Commission against precious metal dealer Monex Credit Company.
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Israeli Pension Fund Manager Leads Class Action Against Teva Pharmaceuticals Over Price-Hike and Opioid Scandals
Joining a long list of complainants against pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceuticals and similar drug makers, Israel’s largest pension fund manager claims in a class action that Teva colluded with competitors to exorbitantly raise the price of generic drugs over the past five years.
Read moreVice Chancellor Dismisses Shareholder Claim against CEO for Alleged Compensation Conflict in $18B Merger
(CN) – The Delaware Chancery Court dismissed a class action in its entirety after shareholders failed to state a claim for breach of fiduciary duty in challenging an $18 billion merger between Tower Watson & Co. and Willis Group Holdings PLC because of a potential conflict in the compensation of Tower’s CEO.
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SEC Claims Sports-Betting Firm Exploited Nevada Bill
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged now-defunct sports betting company Bettor Investments LLC with fraud for allegedly selling unregistered securities.
Read moreBanks
A federal judge dismissed a putative antitrust complaint that accused Citibank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase of conspiring to fix prices of derivatives traded in New York by manipulating two benchmark interest rates.
Read moreSecurities Fraud
A federal judge certified a class that bought securities from Community Health Systems from July 27, 2006 through Oct. 26, 2011, and seeks $891 million in damages for securities fraud.
Read moreJudge Shoots Down FINRA Suit by Arizona Brokerage
(CN) – A federal judge has again blocked brokerage Scottsdale Capital Advisors from suing the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on claims that the regulator unfairly targets the penny-stock sector.
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5th Circuit Tosses Objectors’ Claims Against Settlements with Insurance Brokers in Stanford Ponzi Litigation
(CN) – The Fifth Circuit upheld settlement agreements stemming from R. Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme after a group of objectors claimed that the deals were reached prematurely while a “far greater recovery was possible.”
Read moreElectric Merger
Directors are selling El Paso Electric Co. too cheaply through an unfair process to Sun Jupiter Holdings, for $68.25 a share or $4.3 billion, shareholders say in a federal class action.
Read moreSotheby’s Merger
Directors are selling Sotheby’s too cheaply through an unfair process to BidFair USA, for $57 a share or $3.7 billion, shareholders say in a federal class action.
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Shareholders Claim Diebold Misled Investors After Merger
Diebold Nixdorf and two of its top officers face a shareholder class action for allegedly withholding information about the company’s business operations as well as disseminating misleading statements that preceded a 23 percent drop in Diebold shares last year.
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Class Skewers UK Pharma Firm Over Opioid-Addiction Treatment
Investors claim in a class action that U.K.-based health conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC engaged in a multibillion-dollar scheme to facilitate opiate usage and abuse among U.S. consumers, generating over $3 billion in proceeds by allegedly misleading consumers and investors about risks of the company’s Suboxone film and Suboxone tablets, prescription drugs used to treat opioid addiction.
Read moreSecond Circuit Upholds Fraud Conviction of ‘Pharma Bro’ Shkreli
The Second Circuit on Thursday affirmed the conviction of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who has been in federal prison since he was found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy charges two years ago.
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