Groundhog Day: Bipartisan Legislation Seeks to Bar Executive and Legislative Branches from Owning Stock

Senators to Propose Ban on U.S. Lawmakers, Executive Branch Members Owning Stock

Two U.S. senators are set this week to introduce bipartisan legislation to bar members of the federal executive branch and lawmakers from owning stock in individual companies, as new polling shows broad public support for such a measure.

The bill from Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) would permit the president, vice president, lawmakers, Capitol Hill aides and employees of the executive branch to own mutual funds and broad industry and index funds.

But it would prohibit them from owning stocks in individual companies, even in blind trusts.

SEC punts on whether syndicated loans are securities, in closely watched appeal

The $2.5 trillion syndicated loan market has been on edge for nearly two years thanks to an appellate case that could expose some of these private deals to new scrutiny under state and federal securities regulations. Law firm alerts have gone so far as to call the appeal an “existential threat” to the entire syndicated loan market.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might have quelled the market’s concerns this week with a single amicus brief. Indeed, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the SEC in March to submit a brief expressing its views on the crucial question of whether the syndicated loans at issue in its case are securities specifically because the appeals court wanted to hear from the SEC before reaching a decision with huge policy implications.

The SEC chose to leave the market dangling.

The One with the Girlfriend’s Laptop

The Securities and Exchange Commission actually uses the term “romantic partner”, not girlfriend in this complaint. I guess the SEC doesn’t want to impose labels on the relationship. Based on this case, I assume the relationship is over. The COVID pandemic was hard on a lot of relationships with couples isolated at home. Stealing information from your “romantic partner” seems likely to end the relationship.

That’s just what Steven Teixeira did. While working at home during the pandemic, Teixeira would access her laptop while she was out of the room or outside their Queens apartment.

SEC punts on whether syndicated loans are securities, in closely watched appeal

The $2.5 trillion syndicated loan market has been on edge for nearly two years thanks to an appellate case that could expose some of these private deals to new scrutiny under state and federal securities regulations. Law firm alerts have gone so far as to call the appeal an “existential threat” to the entire syndicated loan market.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might have quelled the market’s concerns this week with a single amicus brief. Indeed, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the SEC in March to submit a brief expressing its views on the crucial question of whether the syndicated loans at issue in its case are securities specifically because the appeals court wanted to hear from the SEC before reaching a decision with huge policy implications.

The SEC chose to leave the market dangling.

SEC Hears Climate Rule Concerns ‘Loud and Clear,’ Gensler Says

The SEC is well aware corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting requirements that the agency proposed in its climate rule have worried small farmers and others, agency Chair Gary Gensler told senators Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has heard concerns about small private businesses facing burdens under its plan to direct big public companies to report emissions from their supply chains and other indirect sources, Gensler said at a Senate hearing on the agency’s budget….

 Dogecoin Jumps 4% on Elon Musk Tweet

Popular dog-themed cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE) jumped about 4% in a handful of minutes following a tweet mention from Elon Musk.

DOGE’s price spiked to as high as $0.072 from $0.069 late Wednesday morning after Musk’s post. The token just as quickly pared some of its gains and was trading at just under $0.070 at press time, still ahead about 2% over the past 24 hours.

Danaher Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit Filing

From the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, one related phenomena that immediately became apparent was the emergence of coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuits and other corporate and securities litigation. I have been tracking the COVID-related securities litigation since the very beginning, and now, even though we are now well into the pandemic’s fourth year, the COVID-related securities suits are continuing to be filed. In the latest example of a COVID-related securities suit filing, a plaintiff shareholder this week sued Danaher Corporation for the company’s disclosures related to the impact of the pandemic on the company’s sales. This latest filing suggests that the COVID-19-related securities litigation phenomenon may have further to go yet. A copy of the complaint in the new lawsuit against Danaher can be found here.

Whistleblowers or scoundrels: unpacking the debate on short selling bans

Over the next months, big businesses will likely continue to urge regulators to ban short selling. Meanwhile, advocates will emphasize the value that short sellers bring to the capital markets, exposing frauds, and right-pricing stocks. Regulators do have a middle-ground: rather than ban short selling in toto, regulators may focus their attention and efforts on particular short-seller practices that pose an unfair advantage and detract from the overall goal of market efficiency and right-priced stocks.

French AMF Officials Take Pride as U.S. SEC’s Crypto Campaign Stutters With XRP Ruling

Officials in France are boasting of the regulatory certainty they can offer, as U.S. enforcers wage a fierce – if not entirely successful – war on crypto.

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MiCA, which lets wallet providers and exchanges operate across the EU with a single license, “will allow this sector to go to the next gear in terms of regulatory requirements,” said Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, adding that France’s Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the regulator which she chairs, is “resolutely open to innovation.”

Barbat-Layani contrasted France’s situation with that across the Atlantic.

“Some of our peers, notably the U.S. SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], have launched litigation strategies – strategies of which the successes aren’t totally clear – but which seek to treat crypto as a traditional financial instrument,” she said. “It’s a different choice to that made in Europe.”

Caroline Ellison Writes About Ex-Crypto Mogul Sam Bankman-Fried

As Mr. Bankman-Fried’s sometime-girlfriend and one of his earliest hires, Ms. Ellison had unique insight into the FTX founder. She also recorded many of her thoughts in writing, making observations about her personal and professional life in a handwritten diary and on Google documents that have circulated among lawyers involved in the case, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and four people familiar with the investigation.

The documents, which have not been previously reported, offer new insight into Ms. Ellison’s psychology during the final months of FTX. Ms. Ellison, now 28, was a prolific writer whose Tumblr posts about Harry Potter and Jane Austen have been widely dissected. But the Google documents are more personal and raw, with some directly addressed to Mr. Bankman-Fried, illustrating the complexity of their relationship and her ambivalence about Alameda.