- May 01, 2024
Artist Can Exhibit 'MetaBirkins' NFT Despite TM Trial Loss
A New York federal judge has said the Los Angeles-based designer behind the "MetaBirkins" non-fungible token can provide permission to a Swedish museum to display his trademark-infringing artwork, despite an injunction barring him from promoting or selling the NFTs.
- May 01, 2024
NY Man Charged With $43M Hospitality Ponzi Scheme
A Manhattan resident was charged Wednesday with soliciting $43 million in investments through a Ponzi scheme that peddled false claims about his company's business interests in cryptocurrency, Las Vegas sports stadiums and hospitality.
- May 01, 2024
Microsoft Details How It Addresses AI Risks In New Report
Microsoft Corp., the leading investor in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, detailed Wednesday in its first-ever artificial intelligence transparency report how the tech giant is working to keep its ballooning stable of AI tools from causing harm in the U.S. and abroad.
- May 01, 2024
Conn. Attorney Scores Default $85K Win In Legal Bill Feud
A federal judge has ordered two Colorado companies, one of which claimed to be working on a cryptocurrency exchange, to pay a default judgment of $85,456 after failing to answer a Connecticut firm's claims that they failed to pay nearly $107,000 in legal fees.
- May 01, 2024
AI Is Top Of Mind For Companies — And Securities Regulators
As references to artificial intelligence in securities filings soar, attorneys say companies must ground their disclosures in fact and be upfront about risks posed by AI in order to avoid the wrath of regulators, who promise to crack down on misleading claims.
- May 01, 2024
5th Circ. Wants Texas Injunction Ruling In CFPB Late Fee Case
In a late Tuesday twist, the Fifth Circuit has sent a banking industry lawsuit over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule back to Texas federal court, saying it doesn't want to be the first to decide whether the rule should be blocked from taking effect later this month.
- April 30, 2024
'Bitcoin Jesus' Dodged Nearly $50M In Taxes, Feds Say
The U.S. has charged an early bitcoin investor dubbed "Bitcoin Jesus" over allegations that he dodged approximately $48 million in taxes by filing false tax returns and concealing how much of the cryptocurrency he owned, according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday.
- April 30, 2024
Debt Box Wants Attorney Fees Paid If SEC Brings New Action
Crypto project Debt Box has asked a Utah federal judge to impose multiple "guardrails" if the court allows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to refile its troubledregistration suit against the firm, including payment of all attorney fees arising from the original, compromised suit.
- April 30, 2024
Crypto Exec Denies $2B Laundering Charges, Is Out On Bail
The CEO of crypto mixer Samourai Wallet has pled not guilty to charges he helped facilitate over $2 billion in illegal transactions and was released on $1 million bail after surrendering to federal authorities voluntarily.
- April 30, 2024
Sens. Warn Of Crypto's Role In Helping Russia Skirt Sanctions
Two U.S. senators have asked multiple government agencies for additional information on what authorities regulators may have to block rogue foreign actors' growing use of cryptocurrency like Tether to skirt U.S. sanctions, which is posing a threat to national security.
- April 30, 2024
Dechert Adds Wilson Sonsini, Ex-SEC Crypto Expert In DC
A cryptocurrency and financial technology attorney who spent nearly six years with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has left his most-recent role as a partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC to join Dechert LLP in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Tuesday.
- April 30, 2024
Binance Founder Gets 4 Mos. For Lax Money Laundering Policy
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for his failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering program at the global crypto exchange, as a federal judge rejected a more severe punishment sought by the government citing concerns about sentencing disparity.
- April 29, 2024
Robinhood's Top Lawyer Saw Pay Slashed By 29% In 2023
Dan Gallagher, the chief legal officer for online securities trading company Robinhood, earned $10.7 million in 2023, a nearly 30% decrease from the $15.1 million he came away with in 2022, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- April 29, 2024
5th Circ. Urged To Block CFPB's Credit Card Late Fee Rule
Banking industry trade groups have called for the Fifth Circuit to act quickly to put the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee standard on hold, arguing that large credit card issuers stand to suffer "substantial" losses if it goes into effect even for just one day.
- April 29, 2024
Terraform Says SEC's $5.4B Sanction Bid Fails Under Morrison
Crypto firm Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon struck back at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's $5.4 billion sanctions request following its trial win, filing dual briefs Monday that argued the regulator has only shown that "a small number" of allegedly illegal token sales took place in the U.S.and under its jurisdiction as outlined inthe U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison decision.
- April 29, 2024
TD Ameritrade Fined $600K Over Flawed Automated Approvals
TD Ameritrade Inc. has agreed to pay a $600,000 fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which alleged the online stock trading platform relied on an inadequate automated approval system for options trading that allowed risk-prone customers to be approved for certain trades despite red flags.
- April 29, 2024
Maker Of 'Let's Go Brandon' Coin Seeks Lawsuit Transfer
An attorney behind the digital asset inspired by the "Let's Go Brandon" meme urged a Florida federal judge to hand off to another court a securities fraud lawsuit against him, arguing Monday that the remaining parties in the suit have no connection to the district where the action was filed.
- April 29, 2024
DCG Gets To Face Combined Crypto Actions In Conn.
Cryptocurrency venture capital company Digital Currency Group Inc. has won its bid to move an investor action from Manhattan to Connecticut, where it faces similar claims over alleged losses during the so-called "crypto winter."
- April 29, 2024
Target, Grubhub Say Visa, Mastercard Fee Deal Is A Scam
Visa and Mastercard's settlement to slash their merchant fees by some $30 billion over the next several years has no fans in Target and Grubhub, who told the judge overseeing the long-running antitrust litigation that the deal isn't fair to anyone except the credit titans.
- April 29, 2024
'Tornado Cash' Crypto Fraud Wasn't Free Speech, Feds Say
The founder of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency exchange is mistaken in his arguments that First Amendment protections on computer code are grounds to dismiss his money laundering and sanctions-dodging charges, prosecutors told a Manhattan federal judge.
- April 29, 2024
Orrick Adds Morgan Lewis Securities Regulatory Atty In DC
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has hired a longtime Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP partner who focuses his practice on helping clients understand a myriad of securities regulations and financial laws, the firm announced Monday.
- April 29, 2024
Security Startup Founder Joins Greenberg Traurig From MoFo
Greenberg Traurig LLP has added a former Morrison & Foerster LLP technology litigator and data security software startup founder to its San Francisco office, the firm announced Monday.
- April 26, 2024
Law360 Reveals Titans Of The Plaintiffs Bar
In the past year, plaintiffs have won settlements and judgments for millions and billions of dollars from companies such as Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Facebook and Fox News, with many high-profile cases finally wrapping up after years of fighting. Such cases — involving over-the-top compensation packages, chemical contamination, gender discrimination and data mining — were led by attorneys whose accomplishments earned them recognition as Law360's Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar for 2024.
- April 26, 2024
Binance Can Arbitrate Suit Over Terra Stablecoin Collapse
A California federal judge ruled Friday that Binance can arbitrate a proposed class action alleging the company misrepresented the stability of "algorithmic stablecoin" TerraUSD, rejecting the plaintiff's argument he is an "unsophisticated consumer" who could not "clearly and unmistakably" delegate the question of arbitrability to the arbitrator and not the court.
- April 26, 2024
CFTC Receives Competing Visions For AI's Regulatory Future
Business lobbyists have urged the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to lean on existing regulations to address the financial industry's use of artificial intelligence, while skeptics say those regulations don't go far enough to guard against the technology's potential to spur market crashes and data breaches.
