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Mealey's Securities

  • November 07, 2025

    Investors: 5th Circuit Wrong To Allow Division Of Purchaser, Acquirer Subclasses

    NEW ORLEANS — Investors filed a petition for panel rehearing and a petition for rehearing en banc in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that the court was wrong to affirm a district court’s order that partially granted and partially denied class certification in its securities fraud class action against an offshore development company because the decision undermines the established framework in securities fraud class actions by not treating purchasers and acquirers the same.

  • November 07, 2025

    High Court Sets Date For Oral Arguments Over ICA Private Right of Action

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has set the date for oral arguments in a case between closed-end funds (CEFs) and a hedge fund, asking it to determine whether the CEFs violated the Investment Company Act of 1940 (ICA) and whether Congress intended there to be a private right of action in Section 47(b) of the ICA.

  • November 07, 2025

    Split 6th Circuit Panel Finds Executives Did Not Mischaracterize Partnership

    CINCINNATI — A partially split Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that investors did not plausibly plead with particularity their claims that electric car company executives provided fraudulent misstatements about the state of its partnership with a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer and that the lower court had been right to dismiss the investors’ complaint.

  • November 06, 2025

    Judge Finds Company’s Offering Documents, Disclosures Not Inherently Misleading

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a biopharmaceutical company’s motion to dismiss investors’ securities class action against it for allegedly failing to disclose the findings from clinical trials of its lead product candidate that, once revealed, caused the company’s stock to drop, holding that the risk disclosures were not inherently misleading even though they didn’t discuss the risks presented by the clinical trial findings.

  • November 05, 2025

    Order Awarding Penalties, Disgorgement Affirmed In Stock Sale Enforcement Case

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment and order of civil penalties and disgorgement in an enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against a company and its CEO for allegedly engaging in the sale of unregistered stocks and a “pump-and-dump” scheme involving those stocks, finding the CEO was a necessary party to the sales and was aware that statements he made regarding the stocks were false.

  • November 05, 2025

    Judge OKs $167.5M Settlement In Fracking Securities Saga

    PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Nov. 4 granted final approval to a $167.5 million class action settlement in a long-running securities fraud case brought by investors who contended that a hydraulic fracturing operator had made false statements about its potential capacity for oil and gas production.

  • November 04, 2025

    FirstEnergy Argues 6th Circuit’s Mandamus Grant Vacates Deposition Order

    CINCINNATI — In its response to investors’ petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, FirstEnergy Corp. argues that the panel’s grant of FirstEnergy’s petition for mandamus vacating a lower court’s order includes the lower court’s deposition testimony order because there is no distinction between deposition testimony and investigatory documents from law firms retained by FirstEnergy.

  • November 03, 2025

    Judge Approves $38M Deal In Securities Fraud Case Related To Roundup Herbicide

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on Oct. 31 granted final approval to a $38 million settlement in a securities fraud class action against Bayer AG, the parent company of Monsanto Co., related to statements it made about Monsanto’s science-based trial defenses in Roundup litigation, ruling that the agreement is consistent with other federal securities class action settlements.

  • October 31, 2025

    Shareholders Seek Rehearing, Argue 3rd Circuit Improperly Excluded Information

    PHILADELPHIA — Shareholders filed a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a panel affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of their class action alleging that a real estate investment trust’s (REIT) failure to stop a tenant’s fraud against it made certain statements false or misleading; the shareholders argued that the panel improperly excluded critical information supporting the falsity of the defendants’ due diligence statements.

  • October 30, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Disgorgement, Prejudgment Award In Short-Swing Suit

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the disgorgement and prejudgment interest award in favor of two companies whose stock was the subject of a dealer-broker and its CEO’s short-swing profits, finding that the lower court properly granted summary judgment, calculated the short-swing profits and awarded prejudgment interest.

  • October 29, 2025

    High Court Asked To Determine SEC’s, Courts’ Authority Over Receivership’s Scope

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man subject to a civil action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as a criminal action, for his part in an alleged securities fraud scheme has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether federal securities laws allow the SEC and a district court to use the commission’s general equitable authority to order a receivership that will seize every entity owned by a defendant that even slightly benefited from the defendant’s allegedly illegal acts.

  • October 29, 2025

    Individual Asks High Court Whether SEC Must Show Harm For Disgorgement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An individual in a civil enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to determine whether the SEC is required to show that investors suffered pecuniary harm when asking for a disgorgement award; the individual was one of 14 people and entities the SEC brought a civil enforcement action against and lower courts awarded disgorgement.

  • October 28, 2025

    Judge Approves $138.75M Settlement Between Investors, Mining Company

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $138.75 million settlement between investors and a mining company and two executives who allegedly violated federal securities laws by making false and misleading statements about the progress of a mine’s construction.

  • October 24, 2025

    9th Circuit: DAO Partners Too Late For Arbitration Against Token Purchasers

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the partners of a decentralized anonymous organization that sold tokens filed too late their motion to compel arbitration in token purchasers’ class action against them for allegedly selling unregistered securities, and even if not, the subject arbitration agreement did not allow nonsignatories to the agreement to compel arbitration.

  • October 24, 2025

    Judge Approves Distribution Plan For $40M Settlement In Fracking Securities Case

    HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas has approved the distribution plan for a $40 million all-cash payment to settle claims brought by shareholders against a hydraulic fracturing operator and three of its senior executives, ruling that the process of reviewing claims has been completed.

  • October 23, 2025

    Federal Circuit: No Error In PTAB Recusal, But Board Didn’t Examine Copying

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said Oct. 22 that it saw no error in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) analysis of the recusal of an administrative patent judge (APJ) after the institution of inter partes review (IPR) for a cybersecurity patent; the panel also held, though, that PTAB failed to fully consider evidence on copying provided by the appellant patent holder.

  • October 23, 2025

    9th Circuit: Token Issuer Can’t Enforce Platform’s Terms Against Purchasers

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a cryptocurrency token issuer could not enforce a third-party platform’s terms of service against purchasers of the tokens because the terms of use did not delegate to the arbitrator the question of arbitrability with the nonsignatory issuer and the issuer couldn’t invoke those terms of service through equitable estoppel.

  • October 20, 2025

    3rd Circuit: ‘Corporate Trauma,’ Negligence Don’t Constitute Securities Fraud

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of shareholders’ class complaint alleging that a real estate investment trust’s (REIT) failure to stop a tenant’s fraud against it made certain statements false or misleading; the panel found that most of the challenged statements were opinions that, while “ill-advised,” were not fraudulent.

  • October 17, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Finds SEC Did Not Exceed Authority In Lowering Access-Fee Cap

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied securities exchanges’ petition for review of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s amendment to a rule lowering the cap of fees that exchanges can charge investors to access their services, finding the SEC did not exceed its authority or act arbitrarily or capriciously.

  • October 15, 2025

    Investors Seek Clarification That Mandamus Grant Doesn’t Vacate Deposition Order

    CINCINNATI — Investors filed a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, seeking clarity and confirmation that the panel did not vacate the lower court’s deposition testimony order when the panel granted FirstEnergy Corp.’s petition for mandamus and found that investigatory documents from law firms retained by FirstEnergy are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine.

  • October 15, 2025

    Judge: Failure To Disclose Executives’ Misconduct Doesn’t Make Statements False

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey dismissed investors’ class action complaint alleging a drug design company, its former CEO and former chairman of the board violated federal securities laws by not disclosing the former CEO’s and chairman’s misconduct in public filings about the company’s code of conduct and its fostering of an inclusive workplace, finding that most of the challenged statements were inactionable puffery and that the company’s failure to disclose the misconduct did not render the statements misleading.

  • October 14, 2025

    Hedge Fund Argues High Court Should Find Private Right Of Action In ICA Section

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hedge fund is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision finding that closed-end funds (CEFs) violated the Investment Company Act of 1940 (ICA) and the appellate court’s finding that Congress intended there to be a private right of action in Section 47(b) of the ICA.

  • October 10, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Finding IPO-Related Risk Statements Covered Upgrade Projects

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal of investors’ putative class action against a mobile game developer, its executives, board members and underwriters alleging that the registration statement the developer issued in connection with its initial public offering was misleading because the developer did not include information about significant upgrade projects for two of its popular games; the panel found that the allegations were conclusory and that the risk statements in the registration statement covered the upgrade projects.

  • October 09, 2025

    2nd Circuit Clarifies Position On Use Of Outside Allegations In Securities Case

    NEW YORK — A panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a lower court erred when it did not credit investors’ allegations from confidential witnesses and Spanish criminal proceedings in dismissing the investors’ action against a Spanish-headquartered engineering and construction company, its underwriters and several of the company’s officers for allegedly manipulating financial records to conceal its liquidity crisis; the panel said the plaintiffs’ allegations were detailed and independently corroborated.

  • October 09, 2025

    Judge Gives Final OK To $15M Class Settlement In Pipeline Securities Fraud Case

    PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Oct. 8 gave final approval to a settlement in a securities fraud class action related to the construction of a hydraulic fracturing pipeline, ruling that the deal, which provides a cash payment of $15 million to the plaintiffs, is “in all respects, fair, reasonable, and adequate.”