Securities Law

Fired Simpson Thacher managing clerk is indicted, accused of surfing firm computers for merger info

A fired former managing clerk for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is now front and center in a federal insider-trading case over a scheme that allegedly earned $5.6 million in illegal profits on $33 million in stock purchases. Steven Metro, 40, was indicted (PDF) Thursday by a federal jury in Trenton,…

Jan 16, 2015 7:30 AM CST

2nd Circuit reverses 2 insider-trading convictions, narrowing scope of future prosecutions

In a blow to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the insider-trading convictions of two former hedge fund portfolio managers. Finding that the government failed to prove defendants Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman had prerequisite knowledge of wrongdoing, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit…

Dec 10, 2014 2:30 PM CST

Madoff operations chief gets 10 years in $20B swindle; judge says he was not ‘evil at heart’

Federal sentencing guidelines had called for 67-year-old Daniel Bonventre to spend the rest of his life in prison, and the prosecution and the probation department had sought a sentence of 20 years or more. But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain gave him only 10 years. “You were…

Dec 8, 2014 2:55 PM CST

Lawyers targeted in sophisticated email hack attack seeking insider-trading info, consultant says

Often, attempts to get email recipients to click on bogus links are easily recognized because of grammar and spelling errors or ridiculous claims about vast sums of money a stranger is seeking the recipient’s financial backing to obtain. But that isn’t true of a year-long scheme to hack into the…

Dec 2, 2014 11:50 AM CST

Dec. 2, 2001: Enron files for bankruptcy

At its height, Enron was a master of its universe: a gas pipeline company that stepped into a newly deregulated market and made money by the barrel. First chartered in Omaha, Nebraska, as Northern Natural Gas, the company became Enron in 1985 when Kenneth Lay, a former federal regulator, began…

Dec 1, 2014 12:20 AM CST

Wilson Sonsini systems engineer pleads guilty to insider trading

A former technology employee at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati accused of using confidential information to reap more than $300,000 in stock profits has pleaded guilty to insider trading. Dimitry Braverman, 41, of San Mateo, California, pleaded guilty on Thursday, report the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and a press…

Nov 14, 2014 8:58 AM CST

Prison looms for onetime law student: 2nd Circuit denies stay in ‘most lucrative’ insider-tip case

Saying that Mathew Martoma had failed to show any “substantial question of law or fact” in his appeal of a high-profile insider-trading conviction, a federal appeals court has lifted a stay of his nine-year prison sentence over a tip that prosecutors said earned $275 million for his employer. While the…

Nov 13, 2014 11:50 AM CST

5th Circuit rejects convicted Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford’s 299-page brief

The man convicted of running the second-largest Ponzi scheme in American history filed a 299-page pro se brief with the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Dallas Morning News and Vice collaboratively reported. R. Allen Stanford, who is representing himself after firing his court-appointed attorney, had his…

Oct 7, 2014 3:14 PM CDT

SEC spent $8.6M collecting $3.7M from former corporate raider in $62M case

Once a high-profile corporate raider, Paul Bilzerian was convicted of fraud in 1989 and served 13 months. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission won a $62 million judgment in a subsequent civil suit. Now, more than 20 years later, the SEC is winding up its efforts to collect. The final…

Sep 18, 2014 1:25 PM CDT

Employee of Wilson Sonsini is charged with insider trading; firm calls case ‘deeply disturbing’

An information technology worker at a powerhouse Silicon Valley law firm was arrested Tuesday in an insider-trading case. Dmitry Braverman, 41, is accused of using information he learned from his work at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati about potential mergers and acquisitions when purchasing stock. He faces a single count…

Sep 16, 2014 3:05 PM CDT

Investor suit claims SeaWorld didn’t disclose ‘Blackfish’ impact

An investor suit filed against SeaWorld on Tuesday claims the company failed to disclose the impact of the documentary Blackfish, which highlighted killer whales in captivity, including a whale involved in three deaths. The suit filed in California federal court says the company didn’t initially disclose a link between falling…

Sep 11, 2014 6:15 AM CDT

Onetime law student Mathew Martoma gets 9 years in ‘most lucrative’ $275M insider-trading case

A onetime Harvard University law student expelled for altering his transcript was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison in a case billed by federal prosecutors as “the most lucrative insider-trading scheme ever charged.” Mathew Martoma, 40, had faced as much as 20 years in the Manhattan case over his…

Sep 8, 2014 4:05 PM CDT

Law firms that sued HP want to represent it as part of settlement; objecting lawyer says deal a joke

A federal judge indicated on Monday that he wouldn’t approve a deal in which plaintiffs lawyers who sued Hewlett-Packard would represent the company in future litigation, earning as much as $48 million for their work. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco rejected the attorney fee plan at a…

Aug 26, 2014 4:10 PM CDT

Bank of America to pay record $16.6B in mortgage-securities settlement with US

Bank of America has agreed to pay a record $16.65 billion settlement for misrepresenting the quality of toxic mortgage securities. The bank will pay $9.65 billion to six states and several federal agencies. It will also provide $7 billion in consumer relief that includes reducing principal owed by underwater homeowners…

Aug 21, 2014 2:58 PM CDT

3rd Circuit upholds insider-trading conviction based on information gleaned through AA friendship

A federal appeals court has upheld an insider trading conviction based on information gleaned from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the securities fraud conviction of Timothy McGee in an Aug.14 opinion, report the Legal Intelligencer and ABA Media Alerts. McGee, a…

Aug 19, 2014 6:39 PM CDT