New Hostile Takeover Tactic: Swipe EDGAR Codes!

Meme Stock Madness: Swiping EDGAR Codes as a Hostile Takeover Technique?

… In any event, the press release said that the board subsequently terminated Farnsworth and his pals & promised an 8-K filing. The only problem was that “[t]he Company’s SEC codes and SEC filings by the Company have been blocked by the Farnsworth Group,” so that Form 8-K couldn’t filed until those issues were resolved.

Apparently, they still haven’t been completely resolved, because the only 8-K filed after this press release relates to an announcement that the company’s shareholder meeting was being postponed. However, on Wednesday, the company announced that a Nevada court had entered a TRO barring the Farnsworth Group from, among other things, “holding themselves out internally or externally as employed by the Company or acting on its behalf in any capacity.” The court also ordered the Farnsworth Group to turn over the company’s SEC codes.

In its press release, the company claimed that it had “thwarted a hostile takeover attempt for no consideration by the Farnsworth Group.” Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of people try to take control of a lot of public companies in a lot of different ways, but allegedly swiping EDGAR codes as a hostile takeover strategy is a new one on me….

ESG as Economic Threat Catches on as Theme in Key Senate Race

To Blake Masters, the newly minted Republican Senate nominee in Arizona, ESG scores are an existential threat to the US economy along with inflation — an issue worth campaigning on as ardently as securing the border, preventing voter fraud and challenging Big Tech.

“They represent a further merger of government and corporation,” Masters said, comparing ESG scores to the tactics of the Chinese Communist Party in a statement to Bloomberg Government on Wednesday. “These scores have absolutely no place in our country.”

Masters’ advocacy is part of a growing movement among Republicans to make ESG scores — the grading of companies’ performance based on their environmental and societal effects, as well as their governance structure — a cultural issue alongside Democrats’ social justice and environmental advocacy. Those Republicans could seek legislative avenues to limit use of the scores if they take control of the next Congress.

SEC Investigating Melvin Capital Management

The regulator has contacted investors in the hedge fund in recent months as part of an investigation into what Melvin founder Gabriel Plotkin and other senior executives told them following the meme-stock rally in January 2021 and whether it misled investors when it raised money last year.

The SEC has obtained from Melvin its general communications with investors and has sought information about what the firm disclosed about the risks of its investment strategy to clients, the people said. Melvin is in the process of winding down after Mr. Plotkin surprised investors in May by telling them he would return their money.

2022 Mid-Year Securities Enforcement Update

In our 2021 Year-End Review, we noted that the Division of Enforcement under this Administration had outlined its vision of aggressive, heightened enforcement through an escalation of existing remedies, including increased penalties, individual bars and admissions.  The first half of 2022 reflected the Enforcement Division pursuing the playbook as forecasted.

BlackRock bitcoin private trust – Institutional

BlackRock is committed to providing clients with access to their choice of investment opportunities and has launched a spot bitcoin private trust. The trust is available to U.S. institutional clients and seeks to track the performance of bitcoin, less expenses and liabilities of the trust. Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market,1 we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients in how to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets using our technology and product capabilities.