Are Record-Low FINRA Enforcement Actions a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

Warren Presses Finra to Explain Decline in Enforcement

Senator Elizabeth Warren is pressing the nation’s broker-dealer regulator, Finra, on its claim that success in kicking bad actors out of the industry explains why enforcement numbers have plummeted in recent years.

Fines levied by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority have dwindled to half their recent levels, and the number of enforcement actions last year was the lowest in history, Bloomberg News reported in June. The regulator attributed the decline to improved rules and strategies to weed out repeat offenders.

Elon Musk, Tesla Beat Suit Over Promoting Dogecoin ‘Pyramid Scheme’

Elon Musk and Tesla Inc. won dismissal of a lawsuit claiming they pumped up the price of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin into a $258 billion “pyramid scheme.”

Investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in the token faulted Musk for promoting it to his millions of followers on Twitter (now X) with statements like “One word: Doge,” causing it to rise. Musk further inflated the price by announcing that Tesla would accept Dogecoin as payment for merchandise, according to the 2022 complaint.

How Coinbase Went From DC ‘Kids Table’ to Political Power Seat

The crypto industry has accounted for almost half of the nearly $250 million in corporate donations to political campaigns in 2024, the Public Citizen analysis shows. Coinbase alone is responsible for more than $52 million of that amount.

The Regulatory State Is In Flux Like Never Before, and Businesses Are Hating It

In some cases, businesses are faced with deciding whether to prepare for costly regulations that might never come into existence.

Earlier this year, a judge struck down a proposal by the SEC that would have extended the regulator’s oversight over private funds like private-equity firms.

“Many of our clients were spending a lot of time preparing for that,” said Caswell, the Linklaters lawyer. “Those that decided to wait and see were rewarded.”

Andrew Left Case Spooks Short Sellers to Add Research Warnings

Short sellers are beefing up disclaimers in their research reports in the clearest signal yet that last month’s criminal charges against Andrew Left are reverberating through the industry.

Hindenburg Research and Kerrisdale Capitalboth upped warnings in reports this week in the wake of the charges against Left, who is accused of misleading investors by making quick trades after issuing his investment recommendations.

The new language shows that short sellers have long-term concerns about the impact of the Left case on an industry that critics say sometimes operates in legal gray areas….

Crypto Winter Shines on Big Law to Tune of $750 Million in Fees

Big Law firms have amassed more than $750 million in legal fees from cryptocurrency-related bankruptcies, but the lucrative work resulting from a scandal-plagued period is inching toward the finish line.

A group of 22 major law firms is working on seven Chapter 11 bankruptcies stemming from the crypto fallout that began in 2022. They have been paid or requested fees worth $751 million as of mid-August, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of court documents.

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The crypto legal fees are starting to wind down, and the spigot may be completely shut by the end of the year. Only three of the cases are currently generating large monthly bills for law firms, with four having largely finished.

Yes, But Who is an “Officer”?

Individuals serving as corporate officers take on significant potential liability exposures in the performance of their duties. As a result, most companies provide their officers with advancement, indemnification, and insurance protection for liabilities incurred while acting as corporate officers. However, it is not always clear who is an “officer” for purposes of claiming the benefits and protection. In a recent decision, the Delaware Chancery Court addressed the question whether two former executives of Unisys were “officers” entitled to advancement rights under the company’s bylaws and under Delaware Corporate law. The context of the court’s inquiry is interesting and in addressing the questions presented the court undertook a broad review of advancement rights generally. The court’s conclusion that the two individuals were officers entitled to advancement rights is also interesting and has important implications for other contexts, including the D&O insurance context.