Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
Editors’ Remarks
In This Issue:
Caselaw & Market Updates
Second Circuit Limits
Scope of Tippee Insider
Trading Liability
01
SEC Focus on MD&A
Trends and Uncertainties
Disclosure
04
The Ian Hannam Decision:
Important Lessons for
UK-Listed Companies
and Advisers
07
The Battle for Allergan Sheds
Light on Insider Trading in
Tender Offers and Raises
Questions About Beneficial
Ownership Reporting
10
SEC Ramping Up
Use of Administrative
Proceedings in Insider
Trading Actions
15
Developments To Watch
Section 16(a) and 13(d)
Reports: SEC Targeting
Repeated Late Filers
18
SEC Drops Enforcement
Action Over Herbalife
Trades, Leaving Questions
Unanswered 19
SDNY to Investors:
Properly Crafted Risk
Factors Serve as
Adequate Warning
21
SEC Annual Report for
2014 Highlights
Enforcement Trends
22
Scalia Issues Open
Invitation to Challenges
That Could Clarify Scope
of Insider Trading Law
23
Notable Cases and
Enforcement Actions 24
Notes 28
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Figuring prominently in this Update is the recent Second Circuit decision
reversing the insider trading convictions of “downstream tippees” Todd
Newman and Anthony Chiasson. The Court’s decision materially alters
the basis for tippee liability and may significantly curtail the Government’s
ability to bring large-scale enforcement proceedings against tippees going
forward. In this Update, we also focus on the Securities and Exchange
Commission’s use of administrative actions to bring insider trading
enforcement proceedings and pending court challenges to this practice, and
we highlight the SEC’s pursuit of non-scienter based violations. Finally, we are
excited to present in this Update our first feature article on insider tradingrelated developments in a foreign jurisdiction.
We hope that you find this Update useful and informative, and we look
forward to bringing you further news and analysis in future issues.
Sincerely,
The Editorial Board
Caselaw & Market Updates
Second Circuit Limits Scope of Tippee Insider Trading Liability
On December 10, 2014, the Second
Circuit Court of Appeals handed
down a landmark decision defining
the scope of “remote tippee”
liability under insider trading law.1
The Second Circuit held that a tippee
must know that an insider disclosed
confidential information in exchange
for a personal benefit.
In so holding,
the Court resoundingly rejected
the Government’s theory that
knowledge of a breach of the duty
of confidentiality alone, without
knowledge of a personal benefit, is
sufficient to impose criminal liability.
In addition, and perhaps even more
significantly, the Court ruled that
while a personal benefit may be
inferred from a personal relationship
between the tipper and tippee, such
an inference can only be established
by proof of a “meaningfully close
personal relationship” where
the exchange of the personal
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Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
Second Circuit Limits
Scope of Tippee Insider
Trading Liability
benefit is “objective, consequential, and
represents at least a potential gain of a
pecuniary or similarly valuable nature.”2
In overturning Newman and Chiasson’s
convictions, the Court has sharply
curtailed liability for tippees and brought
into question the Government’s ability
to bring large-scale criminal or civil
insider trading cases with tippees that
are far removed from the inside tipper.
Background
Newman and Chiasson were portfolio
managers at Diamondback Capital
Management, LLC and Level Global
Investors, L.P., respectively, who
were alleged to have traded on inside
information obtained by employees
of Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corporation.
Neither defendant was alleged to
2
need know only of the former.”3
The District Court instructed the jury
that the Government only needed to
prove that Newman and Chiasson knew
that the information “was originally
disclosed by the insider in violation of a
duty of confidentiality.”4
The Second Circuit’s Decision
The Second Circuit ruled that
the District Court’s jury instructions
were in error. The Court’s opinion
noted that “Newman and Chiasson
were several steps removed from
the corporate insiders,”5 and either three
or four levels removed from the inside
tippers.6 The opinion stated that
“the Government has not cited, nor have
we found, a single case in which tippees
as remote as Newman and Chiasson
I
n overturning Newman and Chiasson’s convictions, the Court
has sharply curtailed liability for tippees and brought into question
the Government’s ability to bring large-scale criminal or civil insider
trading cases with tippees.
have had any direct contact with
the corporate insiders who disclosed
the inside information.
Newman and Chiasson requested a
jury instruction that the Government
was required to prove that the tippee
knew that the tipper received a personal
benefit, but the District Court found
that a “tipper’s breach of fiduciary duty
and receipt of a personal benefit are
separate elements and that the tippee
Continued on page 3
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have been held criminally liable for
insider trading.”7
In overturning the convictions of
Newman and Chiasson, the Court
found that the “exchange of confidential
information for personal benefit is not
separate from an insider’s fiduciary
breach; it is the fiduciary breach that
triggers liability for securities fraud
under Rule 10b-5 [under the Exchange
Act].”8 Therefore, the Court found
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January 2015
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Second Circuit Limits
Scope of Tippee Insider
Trading Liability
that the Government must establish
that “the tippee knows of the personal
benefit received by the insider in
exchange for the disclosure.”9 The Court
held that to find a tippee criminally
liable, the Government must prove
each of the following elements:
(1) the corporate insider was entrusted
with a fiduciary duty; (2) the corporate
insider breached his fiduciary duty by
disclosing confidential information to a
tippee in exchange for a personal benefit;
(3) the tippee knew of the tipper’s
breach (that is, he knew the information
was confidential and divulged for
personal benefit); and (4) the tippee
still used that information to trade in
a security or tip another individual for
personal benefit.10
The Court went on to hold that
the personal benefit received “must be
of some consequence.”11 Significantly,
the Court held that an inference of
personal benefit based on the personal
relationship between tipper and tippee
is “impermissible in the absence of
proof of a meaningfully close personal
relationship that generates an exchange
that is objective, consequential, and
represents at least a potential gain
of a pecuniary or similarly valuable
nature.”12 In the case of Newman and
Chiasson, the Court found the evidence
of the alleged personal benefit—alleged
“career advice” given and evidence
of an alleged casual acquaintance
between the alleged tipper and tippee
Continued on page 4
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3
—was “scant” and insufficient to meet
the Court’s objective-and-consequential
standard.
The Court further limited
the inferences that could be made from
the specific nature of the information
being shared by finding that “even if
detail and specificity could support an
inference as to the nature of the source,
it cannot, without more, permit an
inference as to the source’s improper
motive for disclosure.”13 Under this
standard, the Court found that
the Government’s evidence regarding
Newman and Chiasson’s knowledge
of the tippers’ personal benefit was
insufficient to sustain their convictions
on either the substantive insider trading
counts or the related conspiracy count.
Implications of the Decision
The Second Circuit’s decision in the
Newman/Chiasson case has far-reaching
implications for the Government’s ability
to bring large-scale insider trading cases.
In prosecuting its recent spate of insider
trading cases, the Government has often
used tippers as cooperators in an effort to
convict the tippees that actually traded
on the information. Often, as in the case
of Messrs. Newman and Chiasson, these
tippees were several levels removed from
the tippers’ original disclosures. Going
forward, it will be more challenging
for civil enforcement authorities and
criminal prosecutors to find evidence
that a remote tippee knew the tipper
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
Second Circuit Limits
Scope of Tippee Insider
Trading Liability
received a significant personal benefit in
exchange for inside information.
The Second Circuit’s ruling may also
have widespread consequences for all
tippee liability, even if the tippee is in
direct contact with the tipper. The Court
strongly suggests that the benefit
must be significant, resulting in either
immediate or future pecuniary gain.
4
of SAC Capital portfolio manager
Michael Steinberg, whose case was
also tried before the District Court
judge presiding over the Newman/
Chiasson case. The Government had
added Mr. Steinberg to a superseding
indictment in the Newman and
Chiasson prosecution, even after
those defendants had already been
Prosecutors as well as the SEC will no longer be able to bring an
insider trading case alleging a vague reputational benefit that can be
implied by the personal relationship between tipper and tippee.
Prosecutors as well as the SEC will no
longer be able to bring a case alleging
a vague reputational benefit that may
be implied by the personal relationship
between tipper and tippee.
As discussed elsewhere in this
Update, the SEC recently dropped its
downstream tippee insider trading
action involving trading in shares of
Herbalife Ltd. The Court’s decision
also will likely affect many of the U.S.
Attorney’s convictions currently on
appeal, including, most notably, that
convicted, an exercise in judicial forum
shopping that did not go unnoticed by
the Second Circuit.
In a December 31,
2014 order, the Second Circuit granted
Mr. Steinberg’s unopposed request
to delay his appeal while prosecutors
grapple with the Court’s acquittal of
Messrs. Newman and Chiasson and
presumably decide whether to appeal
the dismissal of the charges. It is also
possible that other individuals who
have already pled guilty to insider
trading charges may seek to have their
pleas withdrawn. ï®
SEC Focus on MD&A Trends and Uncertainties Disclosure
On August 21, 2014, Bank of America
(“BOA”) entered into a $16.65 billion
settlement with the U.S.
Department
of Justice (“DOJ”) to resolve federal
and state claims over BOA’s sales of
mortgage-backed securities. As part
Continued on page 5
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of the settlement with the DOJ, BOA
entered into a $20 million civil settlement
with the SEC in which BOA admitted
that it failed to disclose to investors
known uncertainties potentially
adversely affecting its future income
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Trends and Uncertainties
Disclosure
arising from its exposure to repurchase
claims on securitized mortgage loans.
The SEC claimed that BOA had
failed to include disclosure regarding
known trends or uncertainties, as well
as material changes to any trends or
uncertainties previously disclosed, in
the Management’s Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations (“MD&A”) section
of its periodic filings as required by Item
303 of Regulation S-K. In contrast to
the SEC’s frequent use of Rule 10b-5
disclosure-based proceedings, which are
predicated on a claim that the subject
disclosure was knowingly misleading,
the SEC brought its action against BOA
5
SEC interpretive guidance from 1989
states that one of the objectives of this
rule is to allow the reader to evaluate
whether a company’s past performance
is indicative of its future performance.
Instruction 3 to Item 303(a) is critical
to compliance with this requirement.
The instruction requires the MD&A
to focus “on material events and
uncertainties known to management
that would cause reported financial
information not to be necessarily
indicative of future operating results or
of future financial condition.” The SEC
has made clear its view that companies
should prepare the MD&A mindful of
the fact that material forward-looking
In contrast to the SEC’s frequent use of Rule 10b-5 disclosure-based
proceedings, the SEC brought its action against Bank of America under
Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act, which does not require a finding of
knowingly culpable conduct.
under Section 13(a) of the Exchange
Act, which does not require a finding
of scienter or otherwise knowingly
culpable conduct.
In its enforcement action, the SEC
claimed that BOA’s disclosures did
not adequately address Item 303(a)
of Regulation S-K, which requires
the MD&A in annual reports on
Form 10-K to provide “information
that the registrant believes to be
necessary to an understanding of its
financial condition, changes in financial
condition and results of operations.”
Continued on page 6
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information regarding known material
trends and uncertainties is required
to be disclosed as part of the required
discussion of those matters and
the analysis of their effects.
Item 303(b) of Regulation S-K
requires interim reports on Form 10-Q
to include analogous disclosure with
a focus on “a discussion of material
changes in those items specifically listed
in Item 303(a)” other than the impact
of inflation and changing prices on
operations. In its settlement with BOA,
the SEC emphasized that Item 303(b)
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SEC Focus on MD&A
Trends and Uncertainties
Disclosure
requires “material changes to each and
every specific disclosure requirement
contained in paragraph (a), with
the noted exception, [to] be discussed”
and made clear that, as required by its
1989 guidance, disclosure of a known
trend, demand, commitment, event
or uncertainty is required unless
management determines either
(1) it is not reasonably likely to occur;
or (2) if management is unable to make
that determination, the event is not
reasonably likely to have a material
adverse effect on the company’s financial
condition or results of operations.
The backdrop to the BOA MD&A
settlement, as with the other larger
settlements BOA entered into,
was the accelerating decline of its
residential mortgage investments
during the economic downturn. In
connection with residential mortgage
sales from 2004 to 2008, BOA made
various contractual representations and
warranties to purchasers of mortgagebacked securitization facilities regarding
the underlying quality of the mortgage
loans. In the event of a breach of these
representations or warranties, the loan
purchaser had the right to demand that
BOA repurchase the related mortgage at
its outstanding unpaid principal balance.
During 2008 and 2009, uncertainty
grew regarding whether the future
repurchase obligations, which had
become increasingly significant, would
have a material effect on BOA’s future
income; however, BOA’s Forms 10-Q for
Continued on page 7
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6
the second and third quarters of 2009 did
not discuss this uncertainty.
Although somewhat unusual,
the BOA case does not represent a
wholly novel use of Section 13(a) as an
enforcement tool. In the early 1990s,
the SEC commenced an administrative
proceeding against Caterpillar Inc.
(“Caterpillar”),14 citing a failure by
Caterpillar to disclose in its Exchange
Act reports information related to future
uncertainties regarding the impact
that the operations of its wholly owned
Brazilian subsidiary had on Caterpillar as
a whole.
In that matter, the SEC found
that although Caterpillar’s Brazilian
subsidiary accounted for an outsized
portion of the overall company’s 1989
profitability, neither its Form 10-K for
1989 nor its Form 10-Q for the first
quarter of 1990 discussed the magnitude
of the subsidiary’s impact, or
the political and economic uncertainty
in Brazil that had led Caterpillar’s
senior management to begin providing
separate updates to the Caterpillar board
of directors relating to the potential
future negative impact of currency
reform in Brazil. According to the SEC,
this failure to integrate the discussion
that management was engaged in at
the board level into its public disclosures
“left investors with an incomplete
picture of Caterpillar’s financial
condition and results of operations
and denied them the opportunity to
see the company ‘through the eyes of
management.’”15
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
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SEC Focus on MD&A
Trends and Uncertainties
Disclosure
The SEC’s use of Section 13(a) to bring
its civil violation claim against BOA
provides another proof point of the SEC’s
willingness to use the broad array of
enforcement tools at its disposal. Further,
the action underscores the importance of
maintaining effective disclosure policies
7
and practices. Specifically, a reporting
company’s best defense against an
allegation that its trend and uncertainty
disclosure was deficient is to maintain a
vigorous process to ensure compliance
with MD&A rules and applicable
SEC guidance. ï®
The Ian Hannam Decision: Important Lessons for UK-Listed
Companies and Advisers
One of the most high-profile market
abuse cases in the United Kingdom
in recent years has concluded with
the Upper Tribunal (a review body for
decisions of the UK market regulator
and part of the UK’s administrative
justice system) finding that a senior
investment banker at J.P. Morgan had
engaged in market abuse by disclosing
“inside information” (in the context of
the EU market abuse regime applicable
in the UK) other than in the proper
course of his employment, profession or
duties.
The judgment is the first detailed
judicial assessment of a number of
points relating to the definition of inside
information and the circumstances
in which selective disclosure would
be considered improper disclosure.
In particular, it is the first judicial
interpretation of the exemption from
the market abuse offence of disclosing
inside information to another person
other than in the proper course of
employment, profession or duties.
Continued on page 8
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The Law
In general, under UK and EU law,
market abuse comprises insider trading
(or “insider dealing”) and market
manipulation. Inside information, which
is the currency of insider dealing, means
information that is precise, nonpublic
and likely to have a significant impact
on the price of a financial instrument.
Market manipulation can take the form
of transactions or orders to trade
that give false or misleading signals
regarding the supply of, demand for or
price of the security or secure the price
of a security at an abnormal or artificial
level; transactions or orders to trade
that employ any form of deception
or contrivance; or dissemination of
information by any means that gives
or is likely to give false or misleading
signals to the market about the security.
Under EU law, the prohibition on
disclosure of inside information in
the context of market abuse does
not apply if the disclosure is made
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The Ian Hannam Decision:
Important Lessons for
UK-Listed Companies and
Advisers
in the normal course of a person’s
employment, profession or duties
(among other circumstances).
The Background
The case revolved around two e-mail
messages sent in 2008 to business contacts
by Ian Hannam, who at the time was
Global Co-Head of UK Capital Markets
at J.P. Morgan in London and one of
the most prominent London investment
bankers operating in the natural resources
sector. The e-mail messages contained
information obtained by Mr. Hannam
in the course of providing advisory
services to his client, Heritage Oil Plc
(“Heritage Oil”), a London-listed oil and
gas exploration and production company,
which had exploration projects in Uganda
and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The first e-mail message, sent to
the Minister for Oil in the Kurdish
Regional Government, consisted of an
update on discussions between a potential
acquirer of Heritage Oil and an estimate
of the per-share value of the acquisition
offer.
The second e-mail message, which
also blind copied another third-party
adviser, included as a postscript: “PS—
Tony [Buckingham, Heritage Oil’s CEO]
has just found oil and it is looking good.”
In 2012, the UK Financial Services
Authority (now the Financial Conduct
Authority, or “FCA”) concluded that,
in sending these e-mail messages,
Mr. Hannam had engaged in market abuse
through improper disclosure of inside
Continued on page 9
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8
information and fined him a penalty of
£450,000. In reaching this conclusion,
the FCA accepted that there was no
intention on the part of Mr. Hannam to
commit market abuse or any evidence of
personal gain or trading in Heritage shares
as a result of the disclosure.
Mr. Hannam subsequently sought
a review of the FCA’s decision by
the Upper Tribunal, asserting that
the relevant information did not
constitute inside information and,
that, even if it were considered inside
information, he had properly disclosed it
in the course of his employment.
The Upper Tribunal’s Conclusions
In upholding the original verdict of
the FCA, the Upper Tribunal provided
valuable analysis on the method
of assessing whether nonpublic
information constitutes inside
information: (1) when assessing
the price sensitivity of non-public
information in determining, on an ex
ante basis, whether a reasonable investor
would base an investment decision on
the information, the likely (i.e., “real
prospect”) effect on price must be taken
into account, and the information must
be such that it is possible to predict
the direction of the price movement;
(2) when information refers to future
circumstances or events that may
reasonably be expected to occur, there
must be a “realistic prospect” of that
circumstance or event occurring (i.e.,
more than remote but not necessarily
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Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
The Ian Hannam Decision:
Important Lessons for
UK-Listed Companies and
Advisers
a better than even chance); and
(3) inaccuracies in non-public information
do not preclude that information from
constituting inside information insofar as
parts of it are accurate.
In considering under what circumstances
disclosure of inside information to another
person would be considered to be made
in the proper course of employment,
profession or duties, the Upper Tribunal
arrived at the following conclusions:
(1) the recipient should be subject to
express confidentiality obligations and
understand that the information is
(or may be) inside information; and (2) to
the extent the relevant information relates
to a prospective bid for a listed company,
9
The decision also addressed the ability
of a listed company to delay disclosure
of material inside information, which
otherwise must be disclosed as soon as
possible. The Upper Tribunal accepted
that a listed company could delay such
disclosure in order to allow for a period
of verification by the company to ensure
that, when an announcement is ultimately
made, it is not misleading, provided that
the listed company restricts its employees
from trading in the company’s shares
until public disclosure is made.
Implications for Listed Companies
and Advisers
Information about future events may
now be more likely to be regarded as
Under the UK market abuse regime, forward-looking information
may now be more likely to be regarded as inside information, but
the findings of the Upper Tribunal may broaden the circumstances
in which listed companies may legitimately delay disclosure.
such disclosure must not result in a breach
of the UK Takeover Code restrictions on
disclosing such information.
These conclusions are significant
because they represent the first judicial
interpretation of the “proper course
of employment, profession or duties”
exemption in the market abuse offence
of disclosing inside information to
another person. They provide useful
guidance regarding the standards of
conduct that companies should expect of
their employees and advisers who have
access to inside information.
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inside information, as the standard
for determining whether an event
is reasonably expected to occur is
relatively low. However, the findings
of the Upper Tribunal may broaden
the circumstances in which listed
companies may legitimately delay
announcements.
More generally,
the conclusion of this disciplinary process
once again emphasizes the complexities
involved in assessing what information
may constitute inside information under
the EU market abuse regime and the need
for listed companies and their advisers to
exercise extreme caution. ï®
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The Battle for Allergan Sheds Light on Insider Trading in Tender
Offers and Raises Questions About Beneficial Ownership Reporting
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International,
Inc. (“Valeant”) and Pershing Square
Capital Management, L.P.’s (“Pershing
Square”) hostile bid for Allergan, Inc.
(“Allergan”) seems to have run its
course following the announcement of
the proposed acquisition of Allergan
by Actavis plc—but not before the U.S.
District Court for the Central District of
California (Southern Division), the court
hearing Allergan’s lawsuit alleging that
Valeant and Pershing Square engaged
in insider trading by purchasing shares
of Allergan in violation of Rule 14e‑3
under the Exchange Act, shed light on
two key aspects of that rule. Apart from
the courtroom drama over Allergan’s
insider trading allegations, Pershing
Square and Valeant’s Schedule 13D
the contentious question of whether
the ten‑day filing deadline for reporting
the accumulation of more than 5% of
a voting class of a company’s equity
securities on Schedule 13D should
be shortened.
Overview of Rule 14e-3
Rule 14e-3 strictly prohibits, subject to
certain exceptions, trading or “tipping”
on the basis of material non-public
information (“MNPI”) concerning a
tender offer. In contrast to Rule 10b-5,
the prohibition applies whether or not
the information was obtained in breach
of a duty.
Rule 14e-3 reflects the SEC’s
long-held position that insiders must
either publicly disclose MNPI or
refrain from trading. For the rule to
The Allergan court articulated preliminary reasoning that elucidates
two key aspects of Rule 14e-3: (1) when a bidder takes a “substantial
step or steps” toward commencement of a tender offer and
(2) when a co-bidder in a tender offer is exempt from the scope
of the rule.
disclosure that they had jointly acquired
nearly 10% of Allergan’s common stock
at the end of the Exchange Act’s ten-day
filing period under Regulation 13D‑G,
without prior notice that they had
crossed the 5% beneficial ownership
disclosure requirement in Schedule 13D,
has added fuel to the fire surrounding
Continued on page 11
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adhere, the confidential information
at issue must have been acquired from
the person engaging in the tender offer,
the issuer of the subject securities, or
any officer, director, partner, employee
or other person acting on behalf of
either the offering person or the issuer.
The rule’s prohibition applies once any
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Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
The Battle for Allergan
Sheds Light on Insider
Trading in Tender Offers
and Raises Questions
About Beneficial
Ownership Reporting
person has taken a substantial step or
steps to commence, or has commenced,
a tender offer. Rule 14e-3 does not
apply, among other circumstances, to
purchases on behalf of the offering
person or sales to the offering person,
or to communications of MNPI relating
to the tender offer to a person acting
on behalf of the offering person. As
discussed later in this article, a “cobidder” in a tender offer may also
constitute an “offering person” for
purposes of the exception to the rule’s
prohibition. In an order entered on
November 4, 2014, the Court articulated
preliminary reasoning that elucidates
these two key aspects of the rule as
applied to the facts of the litigation:
(1) when Valeant took a “substantial step
or steps” toward commencing a tender
offer for Allergan; and (2) whether
Pershing Square was really a co-bidder
and an offering person and, as such,
exempt from the scope of the rule.
Background
The origins of the insider trading
litigation (and the takeover attempt
itself ) lie with a discussion between
J. Michael Pearson, Valeant’s CEO, and
William Ackman, Pershing Square’s
founder and CEO, during which
Mr. Pearson disclosed to Mr. Ackman
Valeant’s intent to acquire Allergan.
In
February 2014, Valeant and Pershing
Square entered into an agreement
pursuant to which the two parties
agreed to form a joint venture entity
Continued on page 12
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11
(“JV”) to facilitate the acquisition of
Allergan by Valeant. This “relationship
agreement” specifically stated that the
parties had not taken a substantial step
toward a tender offer for Allergan by
entering into the agreement. Thereafter,
Pershing Square, through the JV, initially
acquired 4% of Allergan’s stock, and
then, in the ten days between April 11
and April 21, increased its ownership
interest to 9.7%, which the JV disclosed
in a timely Schedule 13D filing (having
taken full advantage of the ten-day
window).
Ultimately no formal tender
offer was launched between April 22,
the date on which Valeant sent its first
unsolicited bid to Allergan’s board
and CEO, and June 18, the date on
which Valeant initiated an unsolicited
exchange offer through a wholly owned
subsidiary (naming the JV entity and
ultimately Pershing Square as co-bidders
in the Schedule TO filing with respect
to the exchange offer). On August 1,
2014, Allergan filed suit against Valeant,
Pershing Square, the JV and Mr. Ackman.
When Do Steps Become Substantial
Steps Toward a Tender Offer?
The SEC has stated that for purposes
of Rule 14e-3, “substantial steps”
include the formulation of a plan or
proposal to make a tender offer by
the offering person or the person(s)
acting on behalf of the offering person,
arranging financing for a tender offer,
or authorizing negotiations, negotiating
or entering into agreements with
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
The Battle for Allergan
Sheds Light on Insider
Trading in Tender Offers
and Raises Questions
About Beneficial
Ownership Reporting
any person to facilitate the tender
offer.16 A general principle for
determining whether a person has
taken substantial steps toward a tender
offer is whether the offering person
exhibits a seriousness of purpose such
that the prospect of a tender offer has
become likely. Courts have found that
substantial steps have been taken under
a range of circumstances, including
(1) when a company has retained a
consulting firm, signed a confidentiality
agreement and has ongoing meetings
with top officers of the target;17 (2) when
an acquiror has taken a large position in
the target’s stock and the target’s CEO
has met with the company’s advisors
to plan its defenses;18 and (3) where
there has been a meeting between
executives (including a meeting “from
which [one party] realized that the deal
had to go down fast”) followed by due
diligence procedures and entry into a
confidentiality agreement.19
In its November 4, 2014 order,
the Court found that Valeant and
Pershing Square’s strategy and
subsequent actions “raised serious
questions going to the merits of
[plaintiffs’] Rule 14e-3 claim” and
therefore allowed the litigation to
proceed (although without ordering
much of the injunctive relief that
Allergan requested).20 In this regard,
the Court noted contemporaneous
statements by Mr. Ackman at an
April 22 investor presentation and
deposition testimony in Allergan’s
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12
securities litigation as suggesting that
the parties may have thought a tender
offer would be necessary, or at least
likely, to effectuate the takeover.21
When considered in light of the various
judicially determined indicia of
substantial steps described above,
the Court found that it would be
reasonable to conclude that a tender
offer for Allergan shares by Valeant and
Pershing Square was in fact likely.
What is a Co-Bidder, and is a
Co-Bidder an Offering Person?
The Court determined that,
notwithstanding a dearth of guidance
directly on point, a co-bidder with MNPI
who trades in an issuer’s securities
does not run afoul of Rule 14e-3.22 In
its analysis of this issue, the Court
employed a two-step analytical process.
First, the Court considered whether
Pershing Square was a “co-bidder,”
reasoning by analogy to SEC guidance
as to whether a person constitutes a
co‑bidder in a tender offer for purposes
of Regulation 14D. The relevant
Regulation 14D guidance indicates that a
person should be considered a co‑bidder
if that person: (1) played a significant
role in initiating, structuring and
negotiating the tender offer; (2) acted
together with the named bidder;
(3) controlled the terms of the offer;
(4) was involved in financing the tender
offer; and (5) would beneficially own
the securities purchased by the named
bidder in the tender offer or the assets of
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
The Battle for Allergan
Sheds Light on Insider
Trading in Tender Offers
and Raises Questions
About Beneficial
Ownership Reporting
the target company. Second, the Court
considered whether Pershing Square, if a
co-bidder, was also an “offering person”
for purposes of Rule 14e-3. The Court
indicated that labelling a person an
“offering person” under Rule 14e‑3
must be consistent with Rule 14e‑3’s
primary purpose of limiting the universe
of persons permitted to trade on inside
information only to those actually
making the tender offer. The Court
suggested that, as a practical matter,
the analysis on this point could hinge on
control-related factors, such as control
over the terms of the offer, control over
the surviving entity and control over
and identity with the named bidder.
In its review of the facts most relevant
to considering whether Pershing Square
should be considered a co-bidder and
a co-offering person for purposes of
Rule 14e-3, the Court noted that Valeant
had teamed up with Pershing Square at
least in part because of Mr. Ackman’s
expertise in handling unsolicited bid
situations and to increase the likelihood
that a potential transaction would close.
Pershing Square played an active role
from the beginning of the takeover
attempt by helping Valeant craft its
acquisition strategy: in their relationship
agreement, Valeant agreed to consult
with Pershing Square and to consider
in good faith Pershing Square’s
comments on any actions relating to
the takeover attempt.
Further, while
the economics of the JV were highly
structured and were designed ultimately
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13
to give Valeant ownership of Allergan
stock purchased by the JV, Valeant
had the right under the relationship
agreement to require Pershing Square to
purchase $400 million of Valeant stock
immediately prior to a transaction—
both as means of financing part of
the acquisition and demonstrating a
continued commitment to the combined
entity (as Pershing Square also
agreed to hold $1.5 billion worth of
Valeant stock for one year following
a transaction). Notwithstanding
the foregoing, the Court expressed
doubt as to the sufficiency of these
facts to elevate Pershing Square from
co-bidder to co-offering person status
under Rule 14e‑3.23 In its reasoning,
the Court touched on Valeant’s apparent
control of the final terms of the tender
offer and highlighted the fact that
Pershing Square would not “actually
acquire any Allergan stock through the
tender offer.”24
Tension over Schedule 13D Disclosure
An unresolved question that was
brought into somewhat sharper relief
in the context of the Allergan takeover
battle is whether the ten-day initial
filing requirement for Schedule 13D
filings should be shortened, an issue that
has been the subject of debate for several
years.25 As noted above, the Valeant/
Pershing Square–controlled JV was able
to acquire 9.7% of Allergan’s common
stock before publicly disclosing the fact
that it had exceeded the 5% reporting
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
The Battle for Allergan
Sheds Light on Insider
Trading in Tender Offers
and Raises Questions
About Beneficial
Ownership Reporting
threshold. Further, although not
necessarily implicated in this case,
critiques of the current beneficial
ownership regime have focused on
the use of derivatives to accelerate
the ability of investors to accumulate
economic ownership of shares, thereby
arguably sidestepping the reporting
requirements of Schedule 13D.26
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection
Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) amended
Section 13(d)(1) of the Exchange Act to
give the SEC new statutory authority
to shorten the ten-day filing period for
initial Schedule 13D filings, as well as to
regulate beneficial ownership reporting
of security-based swaps.27 Speaking
in December 2011, then-Chairman
Mary L. Schapiro indicated that the SEC
planned to begin “a broad review of
[the] beneficial ownership reporting
rules . .
. to modernize [those] rules, and
[to] consider[ ] whether they should be
changed in light of modern investment
strategies and innovative financial
products.”28 Chairman Schapiro’s
words, uttered over two years before
the Valeant/Pershing Square–controlled
JV was formed, seem all the more
significant in the context of the Allergan
takeover battle and the recent spate of
shareholder activism.
Case Status and Aftermath
On November 4, 2014, the Court
entered an order finding that there were
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14
sufficient questions of fact for Allergan’s
case against Valeant and Pershing
Square to proceed to trial—although
importantly for Valeant and Pershing
Square, the Court declined to enjoin
Pershing Square from voting shares it
beneficially owned at a December 2014
special meeting of Allergan stockholders
to vote on a slate of six directors of
the nine-person board of directors. On
December 29, 2014, Mr. Ackman filed
a motion to dismiss this lawsuit on the
basis that the plaintiff ’s claims had been
rendered moot, which may limit the
potential for the case to provide further
guidance on these issues.
Separately,
on December 16, 2014, Allergan
stockholders who sold common stock
between February 25 and April 21,
2014 filed a class action lawsuit against
Valeant, Pershing Square, the JV and
Mr. Ackman, alleging that Pershing
Square and Valeant engaged in insider
trading on the basis of MNPI.
In light of Allergan’s definitive
agreement to sell itself to Actavis and
the early stage of the Allergan class
action litigation, definitive guidance
on the elements of a Rule 14e‑3 insider
trading claim remains elusive. However,
the Court’s preliminary analysis on
the matters discussed above may serve
as useful guideposts for other activist
investors contemplating similar
arrangements and to issuers seeking to
oppose their efforts. ï®
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
15
SEC Ramping Up Use of Administrative Proceedings
in Insider Trading Actions
In the face of criticism and courtroom
challenges, the SEC has continued to flex
its administrative muscle by initiating
several recent insider trading cases as
administrative proceedings.
The first of these insider trading
administrative actions was In the Matter
of Richard O’Leary.29 The SEC alleges
that analyst Richard O’Leary received
MNPI relating to publicly traded
internet service provider Towerstream
Corporation (“Towerstream”) and its
plans for an underwritten public offering
of common stock. The SEC alleges that
on January 28, 2013, an advisory group
for Towerstream spoke to Mr. O’Leary
concerning the participation of his
employer, an unregistered investment
advisor, as a potential investor, and that
Mr. O’Leary’s receipt of confidential
information was confirmed in an
e-mail message dated that same day. On
January 29, the day before Towerstream
announced the offer to the public,
Mr. O’Leary sold 16,500 shares in
Towerstream from his wife’s and
children’s brokerage accounts. Following
the public announcement of the offer,
Towerstream stock dropped from $3.17
to $2.95 per share.
In connection with
his sales, Mr. O’Leary and his family
avoided losses of $6,845. Mr. O’Leary has
agreed to settle the action in exchange
for a twelve-month suspension from
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work in the securities industry,
disgorgement, a civil penalty equal to
disgorgement and prejudgment interest.
On September 29, the SEC initiated
administrative proceedings in In
the Matter of George T. Bolan, Jr.
and
Joseph C. Ruggieri against Wells Fargo
research analyst George Bolan and
Wells Fargo senior trader Joseph
Ruggieri on the theory that Mr. Bolan
gave Mr. Ruggieri advance notice of
rating changes likely to affect stock
price.30 Mr. Bolan was responsible for
analyzing companies in the health
care industry and rating them as “buy,”
“hold” or “sell.” According to the SEC,
Mr. Bolan tipped off Mr. Ruggieri to six
of the rating changes that Mr. Bolan
authored between 2010 and 2011.
Mr. Ruggieri, who was paid a percentage
of the monthly profit in his trading
account, allegedly purchased stock ahead
of Mr. Bolan’s upgrades and sold stock
short ahead of Mr. Bolan’s downgrades.
Mr. Ruggieri closed his overnight
positions shortly after the stock prices
moved in response to the publication of
Mr. Bolan’s reports. The SEC alleges that
Mr. Ruggieri generated over $117,000
in gross profits through these trades.
The SEC also claims that Mr. Bolan
provided similar MNPI to a second
trader, whom the SEC has not identified
and who predeceased the proceedings.
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
SEC Ramping Up Use
of Administrative
Proceedings
in Insider Trading Actions
On November 4, the SEC filed an
administrative proceeding, In the Matter
of Steven Durrelle Williams, against
the former CEO of wireless technology
firm Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc.
(“Intellicheck”).31 The SEC alleges that
Mr. Williams sold Intellicheck stock
prior to the company’s disclosure of
unexpectedly weak results for the third
quarter of 2012. In mid-September of
that year, Mr. Williams was allegedly
notified that the company’s lack of
defense contracting sales would cause
revenues to be lower than anticipated
and revealed to several directors that
Intellicheck was unlikely to make
expected revenues for the quarter.
Mr. Williams proceeded to sell
approximately 46% of his Intellicheck
stock over the next two days. In
November, the company announced a
$1.472 million decline in revenue from
the third quarter of 2011. Within three
days, Intellicheck’s stock price declined
by 35.4%.
Mr. Williams has agreed to
a settlement, including disgorgement,
a civil penalty and a two-year bar on
serving as an officer or director of a
registered issuer.
On November 12, the SEC brought
an administrative proceeding against
a ViaSat Inc. (“ViaSat”) employee and
his business colleague in In the Matter
of Michael S. Geist and Brent E.
Taylor.32
Michael Geist allegedly learned on
July 19, 2010 that his employer,
ViaSat, a communications company
specializing in satellite technology,
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16
had been awarded a contract to supply
equipment and services for the U.S.
Army’s Blue Force Tracking 2 program.
Comtech Telecommunications Corp.
(“Comtech”) had been the only other
bidder and most market analysts had
expected Comtech to win the contract.
Mr. Geist purchased ViaSat call options
and Comtech put options before ViaSat’s
award was announced on July 21 and
sold his options after the announcement
for a profit of over $27,000. He also
allegedly shared information about
the award with a business contact,
Brent Taylor, who was then working
for a defense contractor. Mr. Taylor and
his wife avoided combined losses of
approximately $93,660 by selling their
Comtech stock immediately before
news of ViaSat’s contract award was
released to the public.
Both Mr. Geist
and Mr. Taylor have offered to settle
with the SEC. They face a five-year
officer and director bar and will pay
disgorgement, civil money penalties and
prejudgment interest.33
Finally, the SEC last month filed an
administrative proceeding, In the Matter
of Robert A. Hemm, arising out of
consulting firm Randstad Holding NV’s
(“Randstad”) tender offer for SFN Group,
Inc.
(“SFN”), a workforce solutions
provider.34 Robert Hemm’s relative began
advising on the tender offer on July 12,
2011. Mr. Hemm allegedly spoke to
his relative and purchased 5,000 shares
of SFN stock on July 20, hours before
Randstad announced the tender offer to
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
SEC Ramping Up Use
of Administrative
Proceedings
in Insider Trading Actions
the public. Two weeks later, Mr. Hemm
sold his shares for a profit of $21,763.
The SEC alleged that Mr. Hemm knew
that the information he obtained was
non-public and that by purchasing SFN
shares, he breached the duty of trust
and confidence owed to his relative.
Mr. Hemm settled the action and will pay
disgorgement, a civil money penalty and
prejudgment interest.
Defense counsel, legal commentators
and even Judge Rakoff of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of
New York have expressed concerns
about the fairness of the SEC’s use of
administrative proceedings as well as
the SEC’s motivation in pursuing more
cases in this manner.35 The SEC’s use
of administrative proceedings also has
been subjected to several challenges on
constitutional and procedural grounds.
The common impetus for these
challenges hinges on the perception (or
reality) that administrative proceedings
provide the SEC with a “home
court” advantage and lack many of
the important procedural and evidentiary
safeguards that are provided in federal
court—advantages that include expedited
timetables, the absence of a jury and
tenure protections for SEC administrative
law judges. Earlier last year, a suit filed
by money manager, Wing Chau, against
the SEC alleged that the administrative
proceeding against him was so lacking
www.debevoise.com
17
in procedural protections that they
violated his due process rights. On
December 11, however, Judge Kaplan of
the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York rejected
Mr. Chau’s complaint, concluding
that the defendant’s request for relief
ran contrary to the statutory review
scheme governing SEC adjudications.36
Judge Kaplan held that Mr. Chau could
make his procedural and due process
arguments within the administrative
process itself under which he is afforded
the opportunity to appeal to the SEC and
then the Second Circuit.
In his opinion,
Judge Kaplan acknowledged the larger
policy concerns raised by defendant’s
challenge—including the concern that
the SEC’s use of the administrative
process to interpret the federal securities
laws diminishes the important role
played historically by Article III
courts in the development of case law.
Although recognizing the legitimacy of
the concerns raised, Judge Kaplan noted
that “[t]his Court has not considered
any views concerning the proper and
wise allocation of interpretive functions
between the SEC and the courts.
Those are policy matters committed to
the legislative and executive branches
of government.”37 The Chau decision
may impact the outcome of the other
pending challenges. ï®
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
18
Developments To Watch
Section 16(a) and Section 13(d) Reports: SEC Targeting Repeated
Late Filers
On September 10, 2014, the SEC
announced charges against 28 officers,
directors and significant equity holders
(including private fund management
firms) who repeatedly failed to timely
file Section 16 and Section 13(d)
beneficial ownership reports.38 Each
of the insiders was late on multiple
occasions and all but one of those
charged settled with the SEC. The SEC
does not appear to have targeted
every foot fault, but repeat offenders
with “especially high rates of filing
deficiencies.” The number of missed
reports ranged from ten to 70 missed
reports, and some of those charged
had failed to file even a single report
until contacted by the SEC staff.
The SEC also charged and settled with
six issuers that had either taken on
the filing responsibility for Section 16
reports for their insiders but did not
submit timely reports (even though
all necessary information had been
provided to them) or failed to timely
disclose violations of Section 16(a)
in their Forms 10-K or annual proxy
statements. Monetary penalties ranged
from $25,000 to $120,000 for insiders
and $75,000 to $150,000 for issuers.
The SEC’s orders for these actions
emphasize the legislative purpose
behind Section 16(a), that the “most
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potent weapon against the abuse of
insider information is full and prompt
publicity,” indicating that their focus
may be attributable, in part, to the SEC’s
aggressive posture on insider trading.
The SEC proactively identified these
repeat offenders using computer-based
systems with quantitative analytics and
ranking algorithms. This sophisticated
enforcement initiative reflects a change
from historical practices, in which
the SEC had previously generally
brought Section 16(a) or Section 13(d)
reporting actions in conjunction with
another violation (e.g., insider trading,
fraud or tax avoidance), often relying on
tips from whistleblowers or third-party
allegations.
Another notable aspect of
the initiative is that it does not appear
that any of the insiders charged were
failing to file in order to hide nonexempt matching transactions.
These enforcement actions are
a reminder that corporate insiders
and significant shareholders should
diligently confirm that all of their
Section 16 and Section 13(d) reports
(including any amendments) are timely
and accurately filed. The SEC has
cautioned that an “inadvertent” omission
is not an excuse. A reporting violation
by itself can result in SEC prosecution
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
Section 16(a) and
Section 13(d) Reports:
SEC Targeting Repeated
Late Filers
and financial penalty, regardless
of the reasons for the violations,
the intent or value involved, or whether
the transaction involved open market
19
sales and purchases, sales under prearranged 10b5-1 trading plans or stock
option grants and exercises. ï®
SEC Drops Enforcement Action Over Herbalife Trades, Leaving
Questions Unanswered
Two of the most significant insider
trading developments in recent months
arose in the context of the SEC’s insider
trading actions against two men alleged
to have traded on MNPI relating to
Herbalife Ltd. (“Herbalife”). While
the SEC filed a motion to dismiss its
action against alleged “downstream
tippee” Jordan Peixoto following
the Second Circuit’s decision reversing
the insider trading convictions of
downstream tippees Todd Newman
and Anthony Chiasson, the theory
underlying the SEC’s enforcement
action against Mr. Peixoto is interesting
because it evidences the SEC’s desire
to stretch the securities laws to cover
trading on the basis of MNPI regarding,
but not originating from, the issuer.
Moreover, the SEC’s procedural
approach touched on the controversial
topic of whether the SEC should be
entitled to bring enforcement actions
as administrative proceedings before an
administrative law judge rather than as
civil actions in federal court.
According to the SEC, on
December 19, 2012 Filip Szymik,
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the roommate of a former hedge fund
analyst at Pershing Square, allegedly
tipped his friend Jordan Peixoto that
Pershing Square planned to make a
public presentation in the near future
accusing Herbalife of operating
as a pyramid scheme. Mr. Peixoto
purchased put options in advance of
Pershing Square’s December 2012
presentation.
When Herbalife’s stock
price subsequently declined by 39%, Mr.
Peixoto realized $47,100 in allegedly
illicit profit through the exercise of
some of his options.39 The SEC brought
administrative proceedings against both
Messrs. Szymik and Peixoto, charging
them with insider trading. Mr. Szymik
settled the proceeding against him and
paid a penalty of $47,100—the amount
of the profit that Mr. Peixoto realized
from Mr. Szymik’s illegal “tip.”
Mr. Peixoto, however, not only refused
to settle but initiated a federal lawsuit
to enjoin the SEC’s administrative
proceeding against him.
Fundamentally, and even in
the absence of the Second Circuit’s
decision in the Newman/Chiasson
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
SEC Drops Enforcement
Action Over Herbalife
Trades, Leaving Questions
Unanswered
case, the Peixoto case presented a
legitimate question as to whether
either a traditional “insider” theory
or a misappropriation theory of
liability applies to Mr. Peixoto’s
conduct. Neither he nor the source
of the information was a corporate
insider. Under the misappropriation
theory, a corporate outsider can be held
liable for the misuse of confidential
information obtained in breach of a
duty to the source of the information.
However, as the Seventh Circuit recently
reminded the SEC in the Heartland
Advisors40 case, a claim can only be
established where there is an element
of deception—typically, the outsider
trades on confidential information
that was entrusted to him for nontrading purposes, thereby depriving
the source of the exclusive use of that
information.41
Here, it would seem that the SEC
might have been relying on the theory
that Messrs. Peixoto’s and Szymik’s
conduct served to deprive Pershing
Square of its exclusive use of its own
information about its trading strategy.
However, Pershing Square had
already built a sizeable short position
by the time Mr. Peixoto traded on
the information and the information
that moved the market price of
Herbalife was the announcement of
that position (which was information
that Pershing Square already possessed).
As such, it is unclear how Mr. Peixoto’s
purchase of options put William
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20
Ackman, Pershing Square’s founder
and CEO and the ultimate owner of
the information in question, at any
disadvantage.
Perhaps to avoid this
potential pitfall, the SEC premised
the deception element of the violation
on the alleged confidential relationship
between Mr. Szymik and his long-time
friend and roommate, the Pershing
Square analyst.
In challenging the SEC’s use of
administrative procedure, Mr. Peixoto
joined a group of defendants who
have challenged the SEC’s practice.
Mr. Peixoto’s complaint made
several arguments against the use
of administrative proceedings under
these circumstances. As a purely legal
matter, Mr. Peixoto argued that tenure
protections for SEC administrative
law judges violate Article II of
the Constitution, citing the Supreme
Court’s 2010 holding in which it struck
down the limitations on the removal
of Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board members that had been
included in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
2002.42 He also asserted that the SEC’s
use of an administrative proceeding
violated his rights to equal protection
and to due process by “unfairly and
unconstitutionally” singling him out
for disparate treatment—because, since
the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act,
the SEC had filed 156 insider trading
proceedings against nonregulated
defendants in federal court but had
pursued cases using administrative
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
SEC Drops Enforcement
Action Over Herbalife
Trades, Leaving Questions
Unanswered
proceedings against only two similarly
situated defendants.43 Citing SEC
Director of Enforcement Andrew
Ceresney’s public statements from
June 2014, Mr. Peixoto argued that
the SEC chose to use an administrative
proceeding to compel him to settle,
arguing that “[t]he mere specter of
the process renders submission from
the defendant because the process is
rigged against him.”44
The SEC’s pursuit of its novel
theory in an administrative setting
21
raised precisely the concerns
Judge Rakoff expressed in a recent
speech—“that the law in such cases
would effectively be made, not by
neutral federal courts, but by S.E.C.
administrative judges.”45 The SEC’s
motion to dismiss and the expected
withdrawal of Mr. Peixoto’s case will
leave untested—for the time being—
the validity of the SEC’s theory and use
of administrative actions in these types
of enforcement proceedings. ï®
SDNY to Investors: Properly Crafted Risk Factors
Serve as Adequate Warning
In a case decided in June 2014, the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District
of New York dismissed a putative class
action brought on behalf of investors
who purchased Velocity Shares Daily 2x
VIX Short Term Exchange Traded Notes,
a type of debt security tied to equities
futures on the S&P 500 market index,
which was offered by Credit Suisse AG
(“Credit Suisse”) beginning in 2010.46
The complaint against Credit Suisse
alleged that the pricing supplements
relating to the offering of the exchangetraded notes contained material
misstatements and omissions necessary
for the disclosure documents not
to be misleading.
The Court ruled that Credit Suisse
had adequately warned investors of
Continued on page 22
www.debevoise.com
the security’s risks. The Court engaged
in a useful summary of the standard for
disclosure of material information by
issuers, finding that the determination
of the materiality of a misstatement
or omission depends on whether
the defendants’ representations, taken
together and in context, would have
misled a reasonable investor. The Court
valued the “plain English warnings” and
the “mathematical examples” contained
in the risk factors47 and elsewhere
in the document and reiterated that
determinations of materiality cannot
be based on a “backward-looking
assessment” of the registration
statement.48
The case serves as a reminder that
issuers, underwriters and the lawyers
. Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
SDNY to Investors:
Properly Crafted Risk
Factors Serve as Adequate
Warning
who advise them, should carefully
consider the risks inherent in
the security being offered as well as
the risks associated with the issuer
of the securities and ensure that
those risks are adequately reflected
in the risk factor and other disclosure
22
thoughout the offering document.
The disclosure of these risks should be
tailored to the particular security and
issuer; the specificity of the disclosure
in this case was in part the basis for
the favorable result for Credit Suisse. ï®
SEC Annual Report for 2014 Highlights Enforcement Trends
The SEC recently announced a record
755 enforcement actions filed in fiscal
year 2014, as well as orders totaling
$4.16 billion in disgorgement and
penalties.49 Included in the total are 80
individuals charged with insider trading,
who ranged from a former hedge fund
trader to an accountant to a group of
golfing buddies and friends. As part of
its announcement, the SEC highlighted
its efforts to implement and develop
“next generation analytical tools to help
identify patterns of suspicious trading.”50
The SEC has recently been touting its
use of new analytical tools which enable
it to look for patterns and relationships
between traders. At a recent Securities
Docket forum, Daniel M. Hawke,
Chief of the Enforcement Division
Market Abuse Unit, noted that the new
technology permits the SEC to analyze
an immense amount of data in a way
that focuses on information about
potential connections between traders51
and allows the SEC to shift away from
a “one-off ” approach to investigations
www.debevoise.com
to a more “trader-based approach” that
focuses on discerning trading patterns
across groups of individuals.
Hawke
also noted that insider trading remains a
focus for the Division of Enforcement.
The SEC’s Annual Report also
highlighted that it had charged over 135
parties with reporting and disclosure
violations. Thirty-four individuals
and companies were also charged
with violations of laws requiring
prompt reporting of holdings and
transactions in company stock under
Section 16 or 13(d) of the Exchange
Act. These charges were part of a “new
initiative using quantitative analytics
to identify especially high rates of
filing deficiencies.”52 The SEC further
highlighted its heightened efforts
to uphold disclosure standards for
municipal securities.
Actions included
the announcement of the Municipalities
Continuing Disclosure Cooperation
Initiative to “encourage[ ] and reward[ ]
self-reporting of certain violations by
municipal issuers and underwriters.”53 ï®
. Insider Trading &
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January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
23
Scalia Issues Open Invitation to Challenges That Could Clarify
Scope of Insider Trading Law
In a November 2014 statement issued
in connection with the Supreme Court’s
denial of certiorari in Whitman v. United
States,54 an insider trading case based
on Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act,
Justice Scalia indicated that he would be
“receptive” to granting a petition for a
writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court
that “properly present[s]” the question
of whether a court “owe[s] deference to
an executive agency’s interpretation of
a law that contemplates both criminal
and administrative enforcement”—as
the insider trading laws do.55 Justice
Scalia’s clearly-stated argument that
“only the legislature may define crimes
and fix punishments” effectively sets
out the terms on which at least he
would engage with the question of
the scope of administrative agencies’
discretion to “create (and uncreate) new
crimes” through their interpretation of
ambiguous statutory language—seeming
to challenge the perceived creeping
power of the modern regulatory state.
In his statement, Justice Scalia
dismissed the Government’s position
that the SEC’s interpretation of
Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act
should be accorded so-called “Chevron
deference.”56 Citing the rule of
lenity, Justice Scalia indicated that
the Government’s theory in the Newman
case (i.e., proving mere “knowing
possession” of inside information
www.debevoise.com
suffices for a criminal conviction)
would “upend ordinary principles of
interpretation” of criminal statutes,
as that rule of construction requires
interpreters to resolve ambiguity in
criminal laws in favor of defendants.
Deferring to the prosecuting branch’s
expansive views of these statutes, Justice
Scalia wrote, “would turn [their] normal
construction . . .
upside-down, replacing
the doctrine of lenity with a doctrine
of severity.”57
Some commentators have recognized
and welcomed Justice Scalia’s
statement as an opportunity to clarify
the parameters of insider trading law
and rein in a pattern of enforcement
of the insider trading laws that some
believe has wandered too far from
the enforcement activity permitted
under the statute. The opening lines
of Justice Scalia’s statement suggest
that he shares this view. “A court owes
no deference to the prosecution’s
interpretation of a criminal law,”
Justice Scalia writes, suggesting that
the administrative agency promulgating
a rule and the prosecuting authority
enforcing or litigating that rule
have a shared interest in ensuring a
clear path to judgment and that it is
the role of the courts to step in where
the ambiguity left by the legislative
branch threatens individual liberty. ï®
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
24
Notable Cases and Enforcement Actions
The following notable cases and
enforcement actions from the last several
months demonstrate the SEC and DOJ’s
aggressive focus on enforcement and
prosecution of insider trading and other
securities violations.
In re Sherman:58 In late July 2014,
the SEC announced charges against
Marc Sherman and Edward L.
Cummings, the CEO and former CFO,
respectively, of QSGI Inc. (“QSGI”),
a computer equipment company,
for misrepresenting the company’s
internal controls over financial
reporting (“ICFR”) to external
auditors and investors. Specifically,
the SEC alleges that Sherman and
Cummings misrepresented that
Sherman had participated in assessing
the effectiveness of QSGI’s ICFR in
the company’s 2008 Form 10-K and
10-K/A. Sherman and Cummings are
also alleged to have falsely represented
that they had evaluated the company’s
ICFR and that all significant deficiencies
had been disclosed to QSGI’s external
auditors, a requirement under Section
302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The two
executives allegedly misled auditors
by withholding information about
inadequate inventory controls which
existed in QSGI’s Minnesota operations
that resulted in the acceleration of
the recognition of certain inventory and
accounts receivables in the company’s
Continued on page 25
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books. These actions were taken
to maximize the amount of money
the company could borrow from its
main creditor. Mr. Cummings has agreed
to settle the charges by paying a $23,000
penalty as well as accepting an officerand-director bar and suspension from
practicing as an accountant on behalf
of any entity regulated by the SEC for
five years.
Mr. Sherman has not settled
and intends to litigate his charges in a
separate administrative proceeding.
In re Monness et al.:59 On August 20,
2014, Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co.,
Inc. (“MCH”), a registered brokerdealer and boutique equity research
firm, agreed to settle SEC charges by
paying a $150,000 civil penalty without
admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.
The SEC had initiated administrative
proceedings against MCH for failing to
establish, maintain and enforce written
policies and procedures reasonably
designed to prevent the misuse of
MNPI. The SEC took issue with MCH
failing to enforce two of its written
compliance procedures, which required
the firm to maintain a restricted
securities list and required employees
to submit a report of their securities
transactions.
Additionally, MCH failed
to adopt written policies and procedures
to address the potential risk created by
the firm’s Idea Dinner and Corporate
Access programs, which the firm had
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January 2015
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Notable Cases and
Enforcement Actions
established and provided as services to
its existing and prospective customers.
These weaknesses were first identified in
2011 by the SEC’s Office of Compliance,
Inspections, and Examinations, to
which MCH promptly responded with
remedial actions.
SEC v. O’Neill et al.:60 The SEC filed
a complaint in the U.S. District Court
for the District of Massachusetts on
August 18, 2014 alleging that Patrick
O’Neill, former senior vice president
and senior credit officer at Eastern
Bank Corporation, learned that his
company was planning to acquire
Wainwright Bank & Trust Company
(“Wainwright”) and tipped Robert H.
Bray, a fellow golfer and country club
member. Based on this MNPI, Mr. Bray
purchased 31,000 shares of Wainwright
before the June 29 announcement of
the acquisition.
During the few months
after the announcement, Mr. Bray then
sold all of his shares in Wainwright,
receiving approximately $300,000 in
illicit gains. The SEC’s lawsuit comes
after an investigation initiated by
the SEC, in which Messrs. O’Neill
and Bray were both called to testify
but asserted their Fifth Amendment
privileges against self-incrimination for
every question that was asked of them.
SEC v.
Contorinis:61 On October 20,
2014, Joseph Contorinis, a former
director at Jefferies & Company
(“Jefferies”) who received multiple
tips regarding an acquisition of
Continued on page 26
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25
a supermarket chain and used
the information to execute trades on
behalf of a Jefferies fund, filed a petition
with the Supreme Court to reverse
a Second Circuit decision that requires
him to pay $7.2 million in disgorgement
fees on the profits realized by the fund.
The Second Circuit held that monies
subject to disgorgement include all
proceeds realized from an illegal activity,
whether or not personally retained by
the trader, reasoning that otherwise,
wrongdoers would be able to escape
disgorgement by giving away their illgotten gains.62 However, Mr. Contorinis
argues that he never received, possessed,
or controlled the profits of the Jefferies
fund, and therefore he should not be
responsible for these payments. He also
claims that the Second Circuit’s decision
is inconsistent with long-standing
precedent, which could make it ripe for
Supreme Court review.
In the Matter of Hampton Roads
Bankshares, Inc.63 and In the Matter of
Neal A. Petrovich CPA:64 The SEC filed
and settled administrative actions
against Hampton Roads Bankshares,
Inc.
(“Hampton Roads”), a bank-holding
company, and Neal Petrovich, its former
CFO, for allegedly violating the federal
securities laws by improperly accounting
for a deferred tax asset (the “DTA”) that,
according to the SEC, was not fully
realizable because of the company’s
deteriorating loan portfolio. The SEC’s
order alleges that the company and its
former CFO incorrectly determined
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January 2015
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Notable Cases and
Enforcement Actions
that no valuation allowance was
required against the DTA for the yearend 2009 by relying on projections that
the company would become profitable
again in 2011 and would utilize the DTA
within the applicable period. Internal
bank documents, however, revealed that
in late 2009 and the first half of 2010,
the bank’s loan portfolio was continuing
to deteriorate thus indicating that loan
losses would continue. The company did
not disclose this fact. Without admitting
or denying the findings, Hampton Roads
consented to the entry of an order that
it violated the reporting, books and
records, and internal control provision
of the federal securities laws and agreed
to pay a penalty of $200,000.
The former
CFO also resolved the proceedings and
consented to the entry of a cease and
desist order and agreed to pay a $25,000
fine. The case is a vivid example of
the SEC’s broken windows approach—
pursuing violations for non-scienterbased conduct against smaller financial
institutions.
SEC v. Lucarelli:65 In the first of a
series of rapid-fire enforcement actions
brought against a range of actors beyond
typical corporate insiders and Wall
Street traders, on August 26, Michael
Anthony Dupre Lucarelli was charged
with trading ahead of a variety of
corporate announcements, including
earnings results, M&A and tender offer
activity and the results of clinical drug
trials, in each case based on draft press
releases of the public company clients
Continued on page 27
www.debevoise.com
26
of the investor relations firm for which
he worked.
Mr. Lucarelli is accused
of trading ahead of over 20 corporate
announcements in under a year’s
time, reaping illicit profits of nearly
$1 million. The complaint also alleges
that Mr. Lucarelli attempted to hide his
behavior by repeatedly providing false
information about his employment
when setting up the brokerage accounts
used to make the illegal trades.
SEC v. Braverman:66 Less than three
weeks after charging Mr.
Lucarelli,
the SEC charged Dimitry Braverman,
a senior IT professional at the silicon
valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich
& Rosati, with trading in the securities
of eight firm clients ahead of M&A
announcements. Despite profits of only
approximately $300,000 over a four-year
span, which time period included an
18-month hiatus in trading, and the use
of foreign family member’s brokerage
accounts, Mr. Braverman was unable to
avoid detection by the SEC’s increasingly
sophisticated electronic capabilities due
to the similar and suspicious pattern
of each of the trades. Mr. Braverman
is charged with breaching his duty
of confidentiality, as well as ignoring
various firm policies, by accessing
client databases and both trading and
tipping on the basis of the MNPI that
he reviewed.
SEC v.
Tamayo:67 Just three days after
charging Mr. Braverman, the SEC
charged Frank Tamayo with facilitating
. Insider Trading &
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Enforcement Actions
Notes begin on page 28
www.debevoise.com
an insider trading scheme that yielded
over $5.6 million in illegal profits.
Mr. Tamayo is accused of facilitating
the scheme by obtaining MNPI
with respect to pending corporate
transactions from a friend who stole
the information from the law firm
at which he worked and sharing that
information, typically by writing
the ticker symbol on a napkin or Postit® note, with another friend and
stockbroker in the middle of Grand
Central Station. The information
was then used to trade on behalf of
27
Mr. Tamayo and others. Despite the use
of various forensic counter measures
by the scheme participants, including
the ingestion of the Post-it® notes by
Mr. Tamayo and intentionally ensuring
that Mr. Tamayo’s friend (the source)
and Mr. Tamayo’s broker never came
into direct contact with one another,
the SEC has brought charges against
all three men. Clearly, Post-it® notes
are no match for the SEC’s Advanced
Bluesheet Analysis Program or Center
for Quantitative and Risk Analytics. ï®
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
28
Notes
1.
United States v. Newman and Chiasson, Nos. 13-1837-cr, 13-1917cr (2d Cir. Dec.
10, 2014).
2.
Id. at 22.
3.
United States v. Newman, 2013 WL 1943342 at *2 (S.D.N.Y.
May 7,
2013).
4.
United States v. Newman and Chiasson, Nos. 13-1837-cr, 13-1917cr, at 8 (2d Cir.
Dec. 10, 2014).
5.
Id. at 5.
6.
Id.
at 6.
7.
Id. at 15.
8.
Id. at 14.
9.
Id.
10. Id.
at 18.
11. Id. at 22.
12. Id.
13. Id. at 27.
14. In the Matter of Caterpillar Inc., Release No.
33-7692 (March 31,
1992).
15. Id.
16. SEC Release No. 33-6239, n. 33 (Sept.
4, 1980).
17. S.E.C. v. Mayhew, 121 F.3d 44 (2d Cir.
1997).
18. S.E.C. v. Warde, 151 F.3d 42 (2d Cir.
1998).
19. S.E.C. v. Ginsburg, 362 F.3d 1292 (11th Cir.
2004).
20. See Order Granting In Part Motion For Preliminary Injunction
(Document 234), Allergan, Inc. v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals
International, Inc., No.
8:14-cv-01214-DOC-AN (Nov. 4, 2014).
21. Id. at 7.
22. Id.
at 17 et seq.
23. Id. at 21.
24. Id.
25. See Letter from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP to Elizabeth
M. Murphy, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission
(Mar.
7, 2011), re: Petition for Rulemaking Under Section 13 of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, http://www.sec.gov/rules/
petitions/2011/petn4-624.pdf; but see “Point/Counterpoint,”
The Activist Report, vol. 2, no. 4 (Apr.
2012), http://
www.13dmonitor.com/Article.aspx?id=11 (comments of Charles
Penner, Partner and Chief Legal Officer of JANA Partners LLC
arguing against shortening the ten-day period), and Lucian A.
Bebchuk and Robert J. Jackson, Jr., “The Law and Economics of
Blockholder Disclosure,” Harvard Business Law Review, vol. 2,
Continued on page 29
www.debevoise.com
no. 1, pp. 39–60 (2012), http://www.hblr.org/wp-content/
uploads/2012/07/hlb207.pdf.
26. See Letter from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP to
Elizabeth M.
Murphy, Secretary, Securities and Exchange
Commission (Mar. 7, 2011), re: Petition for Rulemaking Under
Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, http://www.
sec.gov/rules/petitions/2011/petn4-624.pdf; but see “Point/
Counterpoint,” The Activist Report, vol. 2, no. 4 (Apr. 2012),
http://www.13dmonitor.com/Article.aspx?id=11 (comments of
David Katz, Partner of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP).
27. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act § 929R, 12 U.S.C § 5201 (2010).
28. Mary L. Schapiro, Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, Remarks at the Transatlantic Corporate
Governance Dialogue, Washington, D.C.
(Dec. 15, 2011),
http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2011/spch121511mls.htm
(last visited Nov. 18, 2014).
29. In the Matter of Richard O’Leary, Adm. Proc.
File No. 3-16166
(September 25, 2014).
30. In the Matter of George T. Bolan, Jr., Adm.
Proc. File No. 3-16178
(September 29, 2014).
31. In the Matter of Steven Durrelle Williams, Adm.
Proc. File No.
3-16246 (November 4, 2014).
32. In the Matter of Michael S. Geist and Brent E.
Taylor, Adm. Proc.
File No. 3-16269 (November 12, 2014).
33. The SEC has also brought two administrative proceedings
related to alleged insider trading of options in nutritional
supplement company Herbalife, In the Matter of Filip Szymik and
In the Matter of Jordan Peixoto.
See infra, SEC Drops Enforcement
Action Over Herbalife Trades, Leaving Questions Unanswered.
34. In the Matter of Robert A. Hemm, Adm. Proc.
File No. 3-16298
(December 5, 2014).
35. See, e.g., Judge Jed S. Rakoff, Is the S.E.C.
Becoming a Law
Unto Itself?, Keynote Address at the PLI Securities Regulation
Institute (Nov. 5, 2014).
36. Chau v. SEC, No.
14-cv-1903 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 11, 2014).
37. Id.
at 35-36.
38. See Press Release, SEC Announces Charges Against Corporate
Insiders for Violating Laws Requiring Prompt Reporting of
Transactions and Holdings: Nearly Three Dozen Charged in
Enforcement Initiative to Root Out Repeated Late Filers
(Sept. 10, 2014), http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/
Detail/PressRelease/1370542904678#.VFqB2KI9VeA
39. Order Instituting Cease-and-Desist Proceedings Pursuant to
Section 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Notice of
Hearing, In re: Jordan Peixoto, SEC Release No. 34-73263,
Adm.
Proc. File No. 3-16184 (September 30, 2014), ¶¶ 28–29.
.
Insider Trading &
Disclosure Update
January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
40. Decision and Order Granting Jilaine H. Bauer’s Motion for
Summary Judgment (Doc. 483) and Dismissing Case, S.E.C. v.
Heartland Advisors Inc.
et al., No. 03-CV-1427
(ED. Wis.
Aug. 29, 2014) 06 WL 2547090, ¶ 2.
41. S.E.C. v.
Bauer, 723 F.3d 758, 769 (7th Cir. 2013). See also United
States v.
O’Hagan, 521 U.S. 642, 655 (1997) (in which the Supreme
Court indicated that “[b]ecause the deception essential to
the theory involves feigning fidelity to the information’s source,
if the fiduciary discloses to the source that he plans to trade on
the information, there is no ‘deceptive device’ and
thus no § 10(b) violation.”)
42. Free Enterprise Fund v. Pub.
Co. Accounting Oversight Bd.,
561 U.S. 477 (2010).
43. Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief and Demand for
Jury Trial, Peixoto v.
SEC, No. 14-8364 (S.D.N.Y. Oct.
20, 2014), ¶
11.
44. Id. at ¶ 15.
45. Judge Jed S. Rakoff, Is the S.E.C.
Becoming a Law Unto Itself?,
Keynote Address at the PLI Securities Regulation Institute
(Nov. 5, 2014).
46. In re TVIX Securities Litigation, No. 12-cv-04191 (LTS) (S.D.N.Y.
Jun. 9, 2014).
47. Id.
at 8, 10.
48. Id. at 7.
49. Press Release, SEC’s FY 2014 Enforcement Actions Span
Securities Industry and Include First-Ever Cases (Oct. 16,
2014), http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/
PressRelease/1370543184660.
29
p.
2), 574 U.S.
(2014) (November 10, 2014). (citing Chevron
U.S.A. Inc.
v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837
(1984)).
57. Douglas F.
Whitman v. U.S., No. 14-29 (statement of Scalia, J.
at
p. 2), 574 U.S.
(2014) (November 10, 2014). (citing Crandon v.
United States, 494 U.S.
152, 178 (1990) (Scalia, J., concurring in
judgment)).
58. Order Instituting Cease-and-Desist Proceedings Pursuant to
Section 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, In the Matter
of Marc Sherman, No. 3-15992 (July 30, 2014) 2014 WL 3735560,
available at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/34-72723.
pdf; http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/34-72722.pdf;
Order Instituting Public Administrative and Cease-and-Desist
Proceedings Pursuant to Sections 4C and 21C of the Securities
and Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 102(e) of the Commission’s
Rules of Practice, Making Findings, and Imposing Remedial
Sanctions and a Cease-and-Desist Order, In the Matter of Edward
L. Cummings, CPA, No.
3-15991 (July 30, 2014) 2014 WL 3735559,
available at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/34-72723.
pdf.
59. Order Instituting Cease-and-Desist Proceedings, Pursuant to
Section 15(b) and 21C of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934,
Making Findings, and Imposing Remedial Sanctions and a Ceaseand-Desist Order, In the Matter of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co.,
Inc., No 3-16025 (Aug. 20, 2014) 2014 WL 4090466, available at
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/34-72886.pdf.
60. Complaint, SEC v. J.
Patrick O’Neill and Robert H. Bray, No. 14CV-13381 (D.
Mass. August 18, 2014) 2014 WL 4059786, available
at http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2014/comppr2014-169.pdf.
50. Id.
61. Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, SEC v. Contorinis (No.
14-471),
2014 WL 5396183 (Oct. 20, 2014).
51. Securities Docket Securities Enforcement Forum,
October 14, 2014, Four Seasons Hotel, Washington, D.C.
62. SEC v. Contorinis, 743 F.2d 296 (2d Cir.
2014).
52. Supra note 49.
53. Id.
54. Douglas F. Whitman v. U.S., No.
14-29 (statement of Scalia, J.),
574 U.S.
(2014) (November 10, 2014).
55. Violations of Section 10(b) and the rules and regulations
thereunder are subject to criminal prosecution, see Section 32
of the Exchange Act, and to civil enforcement proceedings, see
Section 21A of the Exchange Act.
56. Douglas F. Whitman v. U.S., No.
14-29 (statement of Scalia, J. at
www.debevoise.com
63. In the Matter of Hampton Roads Bankshares, Inc., Adm. Proc.
File No.
3-16296 (Dec. 5, 2014).
64. In the Matter of Neal A. Petrovich, CPA, Adm.
Proc. File No. 3-16297
(Dec.
5, 2014).
65. Complaint, SEC v. Michael Anthony Dupre Lucarelli,
No. 14-CV-6933 (S.D.N.Y.
August 26, 2014), 2014 WL 4210263.
66. Complaint, SEC v. Dimitry Braverman and Vitaly Pupynin,
No. 14-CV-7482 (S.D.
Fla September 16, 2014), 2014 WL 4627799.
67. Complaint, SEC v. Frank Tamayo, No. 3:14-CV-05844 (D.
N.J.
September 19, 2014), 2014 WL 4702284.
. Insider Trading &
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January 2015
Volume 2, Issue 1
30
Insider Trading & Disclosure Update
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Kaplan
Co-Editor-In-Chief
Ada Fernandez Johnson
Executive Editor
Nina Kostyukovsky
Co-Managing Editor
Lee Turnier Barnum
John T. Chisholm
Meir Katz
Robert Manson
Laura E. O’Neill
James C.
Scoville
Capital Markets Practice Group
Partner/Counsel
All lawyers based in New York,
except where noted
Katherine Ashton - London
Lee Turnier Barnum
E. Raman Bet-Mansour - London
Pierre Clermontel - Paris
Natalia A. Drebezgina - Moscow
Ethan T.
James
Matthew E. Kaplan
Alan V. Kartashkin - Moscow
Deborah P.
Kubiak
Vera Losonci - London
Peter J. Loughran
Anne C. Meyer
Alan H.
Paley
Paul M. Rodel
Joshua M. Samit
James C.
Scoville - London
Steven J. Slutzky
White Collar Criminal Defense/
Internal Investigations Practice
Group Partner/Counsel
All lawyers based in New York,
except where noted
Scott N. Auby - D.C.
Paul R.
Berger - D.C.
Helen V. Cantwell
Jennifer R. Cowan
Frederick T.
Davis - Paris
Eric R. Dinallo
Matthew E. Fishbein
Philip A.
Fortino
Mark W. Friedman
Lord (Peter) Goldsmith QC,
PC - London & Hong Kong
Mark P. Goodman
Erich 0.
Grosz
Sean Hecker
Mary Beth Hogan
James E. Johnson
Ada Fernandez Johnson - D.C.
Robert B. Kaplan - D.C.
Kristin D.
Kiehn
Antoine F. Kirry - Paris
Andrew M. Levine
Steven S.
Michaels
Michael B. Mukasey
Philip Rohlik - Hong Kong
David Sarratt
Shannon Rose Selden
Robert N. Shwartz
Karolos Seeger - London
Colby A.
Smith - D.C.
Andy Y. Soh - Hong Kong
Jonathan R. Tuttle - D.C.
Bruce E.
Yannett
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