Former Clifford Chance Lawyer Acquitted of Insider Trading Charges

Ex-Clifford Chance Lawyer Cleared in London Insider Trading Case

An ex-Clifford Chance lawyer, who was on trial with his former-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst brother for insider trading, was acquitted of all charges by a London jury.

Lawyer Suhail Zina and his younger brother Mohammed Zina were charged with insider trading and fraud. Both denied the allegations. The trial against Suhail was dropped last week while the trial against the Goldman Sachs analyst continues.

Adam Neumann Wants to Take Over WeWork

Adam Neumann shot to fame by turning WeWork into a cultural and business phenomenon, before being ousted from the work space operator in dramatic fashion.

But for the past several months, he has been trying to buy the now-bankrupt business — with the help of the hedge fund mogul Dan Loeb, DealBook is the first to report.

Neumann’s new real estate company Flow Global is pushing WeWork to consider its takeover approach, according to a letter his lawyers sent to WeWork’s advisers on Monday. Flow which has already raised $350 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, disclosed in the letter that Loeb’s Third Point would help finance a transaction. (Read the letter.)

Flow has sought to buy WeWork or its assets, as well as provide bankruptcy financing to keep it afloat.

Mark Zuckerberg Lives Dangerously

“Is jiu-jitsu securities fraud,” I asked in this column a few months ago, because that is kind of my schtick. Specifically, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., likes to do mixed martial arts, and he occasionally gets injured doing so. If he got badly injured, that might be bad for Meta’s stock price. If that were to happen, under the theory of “everything is securities fraud,” some Meta shareholders might sue the company, claiming that this risk was not sufficiently disclosed.

Again, this is my schtick, but I didn’t mean it all that seriously in this case. “I can’t really imagine Meta getting sued for this if Zuckerberg gets a concussion,” I wrote….

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Well, Meta filed its 2023 annual report on Form 10-K last Friday and guess what:

“We currently depend on the continued services and performance of our key personnel, including Mark Zuckerberg. Mr. Zuckerberg and certain other members of management participate in various high-risk activities, such as combat sports, extreme sports, and recreational aviation, which carry the risk of serious injury and death. If Mr. Zuckerberg were to become unavailable for any reason, there could be a material adverse impact on our operations.”

Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong Acquitted in Stock, Accounting Fraud Case

A South Korean court on Monday acquitted Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s top executive, on charges of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud, the latest twist in the billionaire’s legal troubles tied to a merger that helped him secure control of the nation’s largest company.

A Seoul district court judge said that there was not enough evidence to prove the prosecutors’ charges against Mr. Lee and 13 other current and former Samsung officials, including the accusation that the primary intent of the merger was to strengthen Mr. Lee’s power over the conglomerate, against the business interests of each Samsung affiliate that merged.

Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of five years and a fine of 500 million won against Mr. Lee, 55….

Ripple Must Share Financial Statements, XRP Institutional Sales Data, Court Rules on SEC Request

The SEC request, made in early January, follows a pivotal judgment in the lawsuit that accuses the crypto firm of selling unregistered securities in the country. Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling last July that only Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP broke U.S. law was celebrated by the crypto industry as a victory in its efforts to clarify how regulators treat digital assets.

Having found Ripple liable for violations before the lawsuit was filed in 2020, the requested documents will aid Torres in determining whether the court should order injunctions or civil penalties for the period since then and, if warranted, decide how much, the SEC said in its request.

An order signed by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn on Monday compels Ripple to hand over financial statements for 2022-2023 along with contracts governing institutional sales since the lawsuit was filed.