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Post Frequency: 38.1/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 16:18:26

SEC's Atkins on Materiality

Posted on February 11, 2008
SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins, at the SEC Speaks in 2008 conference, chided the agency for its failure to achieve predictability. Here is an excerpt on his discussion of the always troublesome definition of "materiality:" One of the most glaring...

SEC Settles Insider Trading Charges in Chemed Stock

Posted on February 11, 2008
The SEC settled charges today against William G. Williams ("Williams") for unlawful insider trading in the securities of Chemed Corporation ("Chemed"). The SEC alleged that, shortly before the April 30, 2007 post-closing public announcement regarding Chemed's quarterly earnings and improved...

Lerach Sentenced to Two Years

Posted on February 11, 2008
William Lerach, one of the plaintiffs' securities lawyers that corporate management most despised, was sentenced to two years in prison (exactly what prosecutors requested) and two years' probation, as well as agreeing to forfeit $7.75 million in ill-gotten gains and...

Spindler on 10b-5 Litigation

Posted on February 10, 2008
Are We Wrong About 10b-5? Insights from a Signaling Model of Fraud-on-The-Market, by JAMES C. SPINDLER, University of Southern California Law School, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: I formulate a model of the fraud on the...

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Bartlett on Going Private

Posted on February 10, 2008
Going Private But Staying Public: Reexamining the Effect of Sarbanes-Oxley on Firms' Going-Private Decisions, by ROBERT P. BARTLETT III, University of Georgia Law School, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article examines whether the cost of...

Pan on Internationalization of Securities Regulation

Posted on February 10, 2008
The New Internationalization of US Securities Regulation: Improving the Prospects for a Trans-Atlantic Marketplace, by ERIC J. PAN, Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2007, the Securities...

Anabtawi & Stout on Activist Shareholders

Posted on February 10, 2008
Fiduciary Duties for Activist Shareholders, by IMAN ANABTAWI, University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law, and LYNN A. STOUT, University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Corporate...

Gerding on Financial Regulation

Posted on February 10, 2008
Laws Against Bubbles: An Experimental-Asset-Market Approach to Analyzing Financial Regulation, by ERIK F. GERDING, University of New Mexico School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article analyzes the effectiveness of proposed and actual securities,...

Gross & Black on Fairness of SRO Arbitrations

Posted on February 10, 2008
Perceptions of Fairness of Securities Arbitration: An Empirical Study, by JILL GROSS, Pace Law School, and BARBARA BLACK, University of Cincinnati - College of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Report to the Securities Industry...

Fried on Options

Posted on February 10, 2008
Hands-Off Options, by JESSE M. FRIED, University of California, Berkeley - School of Law, was recently posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Despite recent reforms, public company executives can still use inside information to time their stock sales, secretly...

Chair Cox Outlines 2008 Agenda

Posted on February 08, 2008
In a speech at the PLI "SEC Speaks" Conference today, Chair Cox outlined an ambitious 2008 agenda for the SEC that includes major enforcement initiatives (e.g., improved Fair Fund distributions, insider trading and market manipulation by hedge funds, fraud involving...

SEC Charges Pump and Dump, Market Manipulation Scheme

Posted on February 08, 2008
The SEC filed a Complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington against Strategic Management & Opportunity Corporation ("SMPP"), Robert J. Pratt ("Pratt"), and Jeffrey A. Brommer ("Brommer") on February 6, 2008. The Complaint alleges...

Professor Hillary Sale of University

Posted on February 08, 2008
Professor Hillary Sale of University of Iowa Law School is to be commended for her efforts to increase the number of women who serve as directors on public corporations. Here is an excerpt from Iowa's press release about DirectWomen: Among...

Regulators Looking for Firms' "Best Practices" in Dealing with Senior Investors

Posted on February 08, 2008
In a joint press release, the SEC, NASAA and FINRA announced a new initiative on behalf of senior investors. The goal of the initiative is to identify effective practices used by financial services firms in dealing with senior investors, and...

Criminal Investigations into Investment Firms' Mortgage Bond Practices Continue

Posted on February 08, 2008
The Department of Justice has notified the SEC that it wants to review the information the SEC has gathered in its inquiry into Merrill Lynch's practices in valuing mortgage bonds and whether it inflated those values. The SEC, meanwhile, upgraded...

New York Attorney General Not Satisfied with Rating Firm's Proposals for Reform

Posted on February 08, 2008
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is not satisfied that Standard & Poor's and Moody's have proposed meaningful reforms to their ratings procedures. In a statement he said that S&P and Moody's "are attempting to make piece-meal change that seem...

Securitization Forum Held in Vegas

Posted on February 08, 2008
The Fifth Annual Conference of the American Securitization Forum was held this week in Las Vegas, and the New York Times headline may say it all: Creators of Credit Crisis Revel in Las Vegas. Countrywide Financial, poster child for the...

University of Cincinnati Corporate Law Symposium on Dysfunctional Boards

Posted on February 07, 2008
Corporate Law Center and University of Cincinnati Law Review 2008 Corporate Law Symposium The Dysfunctional Board: Causes and Cures March 14, 2008 9:00 a.m. -- 4 p.m. Hewlett-Packard presents a cautionary tale of the damage caused by distrust and dissension...

Ratings Firm Revamp Their Procedures

Posted on February 07, 2008
Ratings firms are announcing changes in their ratings procedures to counter criticisms that their ratings are not always the product of objective, unbiased research. S&P, for example, says it will rotate lead rating analysts after five years to prevent the...

Bond Insurers Seek to Maintain Ratings

Posted on February 07, 2008
Fitch Ratings estimates that bond insurers collectively are exposed to about $100 billion in CDOs backed by deteriorating subprime mortgage collateral. Efforts to prevent drastic downgrades in the triple-A rating essential to a bond insurer's business are underway...

Thomsen Testifies on Sovereign Wealth Funds

Posted on February 07, 2008
Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director, Division of Enforcement, SEC, testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on February 7, 2008 on Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Disclosure.

SEC Settles Fraud Charges Against Attorney for Role in Pump and Dump Scheme

Posted on February 07, 2008
The SEC continues its crackdown on attorneys who facilitate microcap fraud. Today it announced a settled enforcement action against California attorney Kenneth M. Christison for facilitating a multi-million dollar pump-and-dump scheme by issuing a series of bogus legal opinion letters...

Time Warner Considers Spin-offs

Posted on February 06, 2008
New Time Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes is expected to tell investors today of plans to shake up the company, whose stock price has fallen 7% in the past year. Plans include a spin-off or sale of Time Warner Cable...

Expert Predicts Increase in High-Yield Bond Default Rate

Posted on February 06, 2008
NYU finance professor Edward Altman predicts that high-yield bonds will default at a rate of 4.64% this year, up from 0.51% in 2007. This would be the highest rate since 2003. WSJ, A Year of Reckoning.

SEC Agenda for Feb. 13 Open Meeting

Posted on February 06, 2008
The SEC will hold an Open Meeting on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 10:00 a.m. The subject matter will be: The Commission will consider whether to propose amendments to its rules regarding the circumstances under which a foreign private issuer...

Former KPMG Consulting Managing Director Settles Peregrine Fraud Charges

Posted on February 06, 2008
The SEC settled an enforcement action against a former principal and managing director of KPMG Consulting LLC for his role in deceiving investors in a major corporate accounting fraud. Larry A. Rodda was charged by the SEC in 2004 with...

Empirical Study on Perceptions of Fairness in SRO Customer Arbitrations Is Released

Posted on February 06, 2008
The Securities Industry Conference on Arbitration (SICA) commissioned Professor Jill Gross of Pace Law School and myself to conduct an empirical study of participants' perceptions of the fairness of the SRO securities arbitration process relating to customer-broker disputes...

SEC Settles $24 Million Settlement Involving Inside Trading in Dow Jones Stock

Posted on February 05, 2008
The SEC today announced a $24 million settlement with a former Dow Jones & Company board member and three other Hong Kong residents accused of illegal tipping and insider trading ahead of news that News Corp. made an unsolicited buyout...

Former Credit Suisse Banker Convicted of Insider Trading

Posted on February 05, 2008
Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem, a former Credit Suisse banker in New York, was convicted for his role in a $7.5 billion insider trading scheme that included tipping inside information about the TXU buyout to Ajaz Rahim, the former head of...

FINRA Sets Up Screening Process for Enforcement Actions

Posted on February 05, 2008
The securities industry has long accused regulators of "rulemaking by enforcement." FINRA enforcement chief Susan Merrill says it won't happen in her shop. In addition, FINRA has instituted a screening process to review and approve enforcement staff's cases before they...

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