Sky Blog
The media often highlights hefty CEO compensation packages featuring lucrative stock grants, restricted shares, and stock options. The rationale for offering such equity-type compensation to top executives is to align the interests of managers and shareholders to mitigate agency conflicts …
Illegal insider trading is the weird Barbie of securities regulation, a concept that, like the movie-version of the doll, has been pushed and pulled and misshapen over time. It started with the notion that trading securities of a company based …
Company insiders will typically possess material non-public information (MNPI) about their companies. To allow them to trade, the SEC in 2000 adopted Rule 10b5-1, which provides an affirmative defense to insider trading liability if the trades are made pursuant to …
In a typical year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brings a few dozen enforcement cases against individuals for insider trader. These cases are typically settled before a decision by a court. Many of the issues raised by insider selling …
Few types of behavior attract as much attention in corporate and securities law as insider trading – that is, securities transactions based on material non-public information (MNPI).[1] Yet there is very limited empirical evidence on whether the law effectively …
Unsecured debt of distressed companies is a popular investment for certain hedge funds, not least because it often allows the funds to serve on a distressed company’s unsecured creditors’ committee (UCC) shortly after the firm files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. …
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal relating to whether there is a private right of action for omissions from the disclosures required by Item 303 of Regulation S-K (i.e., Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and …
In a new essay, I examine public company wrongdoing by focusing on securities fraud.
In general, there are two main reasons why companies commit wrongful acts. The first is that managers have incentives to further their own interests. They may …
Over the past four decades, the share of U.S. public firms held by institutional investors who concurrently invest in other firms within the same industry – common ownership – has increased fivefold. While some argue that common ownership has anticompetitive …
Fueled by the landmark decision in Citizens United, which granted corporations essentially the same political speech rights as humans, corporations continually attempt to control political outcomes, ostensibly to promote shareholder value.[1] During the 2022 election cycle, corporations and business …
Financial markets and securities regulation in the European Union and the United States are converging in an increasing number of areas, from the repression of market manipulation to the provision of stricter requirements for market gatekeepers, such as auditing firms …
Corporate insiders engage in “shadow trading” when they use private information about their own firm to trade in the shares of economically connected companies such as suppliers, customers, or competitors. While legal scholars have long recognized that shadow trading can …
On August 17, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed the first lawsuit charging insider trading in an economically related stock. A former employee of Medivation (MDVN, a mid-sized biopharmaceutical company) was charged for trading on confidential information about …
The U.S. insider trading framework is a mess. Principles apply that are inconsistent with one another and that treat similarly situated persons in a disparate manner. In my 2021 book and a forthcoming book chapter, I argue that, rather than …
On February 7, 2023, Ishan Wahi (Ishan), a former Coinbase product manager, pled guilty to wire fraud charges in an indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
Ishan admitted that he had used …
In a recent case, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pursued an unconventional form of insider trading involving Medivation Inc., an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical firm and one of its former, senior executives. According to the SEC, the executive profited from trading …
In December 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) modified the rules governing preset stock trading programs for corporate insiders, known as 10b5-1 plans, which begin taking effect this year. The new rules will require directors, executives and other …
United States v. Blaszczak[1] has long been a one-off case that did not fit the mold of the traditional insider trading prosecution, but now — following a 2-1 decision of the Second Circuit in December, reversing most of the …
In a new article, I respond to an article by Professor Andrew Verstein concerning the awareness/use problem in insider-trading law. As many readers know, this problem arises because, although Rule 10b-5 prohibits persons bound by a duty of confidentiality from …