Wells Fargo to Pay $1 Billion to Shareholders Over Cleanup of 2016 Fake Accounts Scandal

Wells Fargo Agrees to Pay Shareholders $1 Billion to Settle Class-Action Suit

Wells Fargo agreed to pay shareholders $1 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the bank of overstating its progress in cleaning up after its 2016 fake-accounts scandal.

The bank’s shareholders alleged Wells Fargo and its past leadership misled them about how swiftly they were fixing the governance issues and risk-management systems that failed to prevent the bank from opening up perhaps millions of phony accounts.

SEC Charges Red Rock Secured, Three Executives in Fraud Scheme Targeting Retirement Accounts

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against El Segundo, California-based Red Rock Secured LLC, its CEO, Sean Kelly, and two of its former Senior Account Executives, Anthony Spencer and Jeffrey Ward, in connection with a fraudulent scheme that involved convincing hundreds of investors to sell securities in their retirement accounts to buy gold and silver coins at prices that included markups far greater than the defendants had promised.

According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least 2017, the defendants repeatedly solicited investors through false and misleading statements, telling them to “protect” their retirement savings by selling securities held in their federal employee Thrift Savings Plan accounts, 401(k) plans, and Individual Retirement Accounts to invest in gold or silver coins at only a 1 to 5 percent markup. In reality, Red Rock charged as much as 130 percent in markups, which allowed them to pocket more than $30 million of the more than $50 million they received from investors.

Elon Musk still needs ‘Twitter sitter,’ judges rule

A February letter from Musk attorney Alex Spiro said the terms of the consent decree amounted to “unconstitutional” infringement of his free-speech rights.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed those claims, writing that the court saw “no evidence to support Musk’s contention that the SEC has used the consent decree to conduct bad-faith, harassing investigations of his protected speech.”

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The court added that if Musk had concerns about SEC oversight over his “right to tweet without even limited internal oversight,” he could have defended himself against the SEC’s charges or negotiated a different settlement. “But he chose not to do so,” the court emphasized.

“Having made that choice,” the court concluded, Musk’s team couldn’t argue “to collaterally reopen a final judgment merely because he has now changed his mind.”

SEC Urges Judge to Reject Coinbase Demand for Rules Explanation

The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked a judge to deny Coinbase Global Inc.’s request to compel the agency to respond to a rule-making petition the company submitted last year focused on how securities laws apply to cryptocurrency.

Coinbase, the biggest crypto exchange in the US, sued for the order last month, claiming the commission hasn’t been reasonable or prompt in providing a response. The exchange is also seeking a formal notice-and-comment process to allow the public to weigh in.

The SEC responded in a court filing Monday, calling Coinbase’s assertion that the already made its decision “baseless.”

“Coinbase’s preference for faster or different regulatory action by the commission does not entitle it to extraordinary relief from this court,” the commission’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “The petition should be denied.”

Disney Hit With Securities Suit with COVID-Related Allegations

Earlier this month, the U.S. Center for Disease Control announced the end in the U.S. of the COVID-19-related public health emergency that began in March 2020. Yet even though the public health emergency has now officially ended, the pandemic’s effects still continue to affect company’s financial results, and still continue to result in COVID-19-related securities class action lawsuits. In the latest litigation example, late last week a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company related to the fallout from the company’s early pandemic-related success with and commitment to its Disney+ streaming services, a bet that soured as the pandemic progressed. The new filing shows that though the public health emergency may have ended, the pandemic-related securities litigation risk continues.

One Million Individual Wallets Now Hold a Whole Bitcoin

Individual wallets holding at least one bitcoin (BTC) set a milestone figure earlier this week, suggesting long-term sentiment for the tokens remains intact even as broader markets weigh down bitcoin prices.

Data from the on-chain analytics tool Glassnode show bitcoin wallets holding more than one token crossed the millionth mark on Monday. This is a 20% bump since February last year.

The data shows that bitcoin wallets holding one token grew by 79,000 between November and January – amid the collapse of crypto exchange FTX as prices fell from over $22,000 to briefly under $16,000.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be subject of ‘high-octane’ book by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of The Big Short and Flash Boys, will tell the story of the cryptocurrency exchange founder and alleged fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried in his next book.

Going Infinite: the Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis will be published on 3 October, and is described by its publisher Penguin Press as a “high-octane story of the enigmatic figure at the heart of one of the 21st century’s most spectacular financial collapses”.

Playing with House Money

… The variables that now affect JPMorgan’s decision-making are now borderline bewildering. A verdict, plea or settlement in which Javice acknowledges fraud remains quite valuable to the company. But pursuing the civil case could easily force JPMorgan to burn through millions of dollars on its own legal expenses as well as those for Javice. How will JPMorgan try to streamline the discovery process, knowing it is the only one bearing its cost? And, with all incentives regarding spending or saving suddenly upside down, imagine Javice’s newfound excitement for endless depositions and numerous expert witnesses….