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Jennifer Schulp, a director at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, said the Republicans' unexpectedly tight margin of control in the House will not prompt them to tone down their rhetoric. 'REGULATORY EXUBERANCE'Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican in line to lead the House Financial Services Committee in the new Congress, said in an emailed statement to Reuters before the election that Biden's administration "is pushing its agenda through financial regulators because they don’t have the votes to pass it in Congress." "Committee Republicans will work together to conduct appropriate oversight of activist regulators and market participants who have an outsized impact," McHenry said. "The appropriations process in the House will be a messaging exercise, and it's less worrisome since the Democrats will have the Senate," McGannon said. While those Senators will not be in the majority, House Republicans have also criticized companies on ESG-related matters.

Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. crypto investors sued FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and several celebrities who promoted his exchange including NFL quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David, claiming they engaged in deceptive practices to sell FTX yield-bearing digital currency accounts. The proposed class action filed on Tuesday night in Miami alleges that FTX yield-bearing accounts were unregistered securities that were unlawfully sold in the United States. When the crypto exchange faltered on liquidity concerns, U.S. investors sustained $11 billion in damages, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit seeks damages from Bankman-Fried and 11 athletes and other celebrities who promoted FTX, including David, the creator of "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Sean Masson, an attorney at Scott+Scott who represents crypto investors in the EMAX case, said investors have used the Florida unfair trade law to target crypto promoters in lawsuits that are pending.

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Dell Technologies Inc (DELL.N) on Wednesday said it reached a $1 billion settlement of a lawsuit accusing it of short-changing some shareholders in a controversial $23.9 billion transaction in 2018 that marked its return as a publicly traded company. The disputed December 2018 transaction involved a stock swap related to Dell's interest in software maker VMware. Dell paid $14 billion in cash and issued 149.4 million Class C shares in exchange for outstanding Class V shares, which tracked VMware's publicly traded stock. Holders of the Class V shares sought $10.7 billion in damages, saying their stock was worth far more than Dell paid for it, while the Class C stock was worth far less than Michael Dell and Silver Lake claimed. Michael Dell was worth $52 billion on Tuesday, according to Forbes magazine.

A recent multimillion-dollar transaction could show how Trump might get around that restriction. Many U.S. election law experts expect that MAGA Inc will spend money to support Trump's 2024 campaign, which he officially kicked off on Tuesday. "That's a gray area in the law that they might try to exploit," said Weiner, a former lawyer at the Federal Election Commission. If the FEC doesn't act on the Campaign Legal Center's request for a probe, the group could ask a judge to order the regulator to launch an investigation. A deadlock could lead to further court cases, potentially running out the clock before the 2024 election.

☆ Musk says he was focused on reviving Tesla, defends $56 billion pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Hals | Hyunjoo Jin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, arrives to a trial regarding his Tesla pay package at the Delaware Court of Chancery in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 16, 2022. Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued Musk and the board in 2018 and hopes to prove that Musk used his dominance over Tesla’s board to dictate terms of the package, which did not require him to work at Tesla full-time. Musk, the world’s richest person, described how the automaker was struggling to survive in 2017, when the pay package was developed. The legal team for Musk and the Tesla directors have cast the pay package as a set of audacious goals that worked by driving 10-fold growth in Tesla’s stock value, to more than $600 billion from around $50 billion. The disputed Tesla package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla’s stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met.

☆ Amid Twitter turmoil, Musk takes stand in $56 billion Tesla pay trial
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Hals | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In one clip, Musk dismissed the idea that the board should have discussed requiring that he spend more time with Tesla. He apologized from the stand to a British diver who he called “pedo guy” in a tweet and who sued Musk for defamation. The disputed Tesla package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla’s stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met. Tesla has hit 11 of the 12 targets, according to court papers. The Musk case survived a motion to dismiss because it was determined he might be considered a controlling shareholder, which means stricter rules apply.

☆ Amid Twitter turmoil, Musk arrives in court for $56 billion Tesla pay trial
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Hals | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

On Monday and Tuesday, the court got a taste of Musk’s testimony through short clips from his 2021 deposition in the litigation. In one clip, Musk dismissed the idea that the board should have discussed requiring that he spend more time with Tesla. The disputed Tesla package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla’s stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met. Tesla has hit 11 of the 12 targets, according to court papers. The Musk case survived a motion to dismiss because it was determined he might be considered a controlling shareholder, which means stricter rules apply.

Nov 15 (Reuters) - A federal jury in Texas on Tuesday said Intel Corp (INTC.O) must pay VLSI Technology LLC $948.8 million for infringing a VLSI patent for computer chips. Last March VLSI won a nearly $2.2 billion verdict from Intel in a separate Texas trial over different chip patents, which Intel has appealed. VLSI lost another related patent trial against Intel the following month. An attorney for VLSI said at trial that Intel's chips cause "millions and millions of infringements per second." Two other patent cases brought by VLSI against Intel are still pending in Northern California and Delaware.

Nov 16 (Reuters) - A Wisconsin man convicted of killing six people and injuring dozens more when he drove through a Christmas parade near Milwaukee last year was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday at the conclusion of a two-day hearing. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow handed down six mandatory life in a prison terms to Darrell Brooks, 40, who was found guilty on Oct. 26 of 76 criminal charges, including six counts of intentional homicide. Leanna Owen was performing with her troupe known as the Dancing Grannies when she was struck and killed. Five others, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed in the incident while more than 60 others were injured, including at least 18 children. Before he was sentenced, Brooks, a Milwaukee resident who represented himself during the trial, called several people to speak to the court on his behalf.

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court in Cincinnati sentenced a Chinese national to 20 years in prison on Wednesday after he was convicted last year of plotting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, the Justice Department said. Xu Yanjun, the first Chinese spy extradited to the United States for trial, was convicted in Nov. 2021 by a federal jury on counts of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and trade secret theft. Xu, 42, accused of being a career intelligence officer for China's Ministry of State Security, was detained in Belgium in 2018 after a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. officials say the Chinese government poses the biggest long-term threat to U.S. economic and national security, and is carrying out unprecedented efforts to steal critical technology from U.S. businesses and researchers. FBI Director Christopher Wray has said his agency opens a new counterintelligence case related to China about twice a day.

SummarySummary CompaniesCompanies Related documents The moves could prompt other law schools to follow suitU.S. News' law school rankings loom large in the legal industry(Reuters) - Yale Law School and Harvard Law School both said Wednesday they will no longer participate in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of law schools, marking the biggest shakeup to the closely watched list in years. 1 spot every year since U.S. News began ranking law schools in 1990, was first to announce the decision. U.S. News’ law school rankings loom large in the legal industry, which highly values prestige. Yale and Harvard will not disappear from the law school rankings, however. (NOTE: This story has been update to include Harvard Law School's decision to not participate in the U.S. News rankings.)

In the United States and some other countries, 'Black Friday' is a bargain shopping day that marks the start of the holiday shopping season. The government contends the Oath Keepers plotted to use force to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory, with defendants Meggs, Watkins and Harrelson entering the building clad in tactical gear. Prosecutors also allege the Oath Keepers staged a "quick reaction force" in a nearby Virginia hotel, a plan which entailed stockpiling firearms that could be ferried across the river into the capital if needed. Then this week, defendant Thomas Caldwell, the only other defendant in this case apart from Rhodes who did not physically enter the building, also testified in his own defense. Caldwell later broke down crying as he recalled his wife's reaction on the day the FBI searched his home.

Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. crypto investors sued FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and several celebrities who promoted his exchange including comedian Larry David, alleging they engaged in deceptive practices to sell FTX yield-bearing digital currency accounts. The proposed class action filed late Tuesday night in Miami alleges that FTX yield-bearing accounts were unregistered securities that were unlawfully sold in the U.S. When the crypto exchange faltered on liquidity concerns, U.S. investors sustained $11 billion in damages, the lawsuit alleges. Representatives for Bankman-Fried, Brady, Osaka and the Golden State Warriors did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. FTX filed for bankruptcy and is facing scrutiny from U.S. authorities amid reports that $10 billion in customer assets were shifted from FTX to Bankman-Fried's trading company Alameda Research.

He is now on trial in Los Angeles Superior Court and had been facing 11 charges of rape and sexual assault. Werksman also asked Siebel Newsom to explain "dozens" of emails she sent to Weinstein in the years following her encounter. In one of the emails, Siebel Newsom thanked Weinstein for inviting her and her husband to a pre-Oscars party. Siebel Newsom responded that she was afraid of Weinstein and felt a need to be nice to him. He was extradited from New York to a Los Angeles prison in July 2021.

Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued Musk and the board in 2018 and hopes to prove that Musk used his dominance over the electric vehicle maker's board to dictate terms of the package, which did not require him to work at Tesla full-time. In one clip, Musk dismissed the idea that the board should have discussed requiring that he spend more time with Tesla. He apologized from the stand to a British diver who he called "pedo guy" in a tweet and who sued Musk for defamation. The disputed Tesla package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla's stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met. The Musk case survived a motion to dismiss because it was determined he might be considered a controlling shareholder, which means stricter rules apply.

Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former chief financial officer, spoke about the savings during testimony as the prosecution's star witness. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to avoiding taxes on $1.76 million in income and helping engineer tax fraud. He said if the Trump Organization gave him a raise to cover those expenses, it would have cost the company twice as much to account for his resulting taxes. They have also sought to blame Mazars, which for many years prepared Trump Organization tax returns. The trial's first witness, Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, testified that he did not know whether executives' rent payments were taxable income.

Cohen, now a vocal Trump critic, said the real estate company stopped paying his bills after he began cooperating with several investigations. In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division in Manhattan said a trial judge erred in dismissing Cohen's lawsuit. The court said it was unclear whether Cohen's legal fees mounted because he had been a Trump Organization employee, which would entitle him to reimbursement. The fees kept growing, and the Trump Organization has paid some of them, court papers show. Michael Cohen and Justice Cohen are not related.

DePape pleaded not guilty on Nov. 2 to state charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse, false imprisonment and threatening a public official. He is accused of gaining entry to the home of Paul and Nancy Pelosi on Oct. 28 and striking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, leaving him hospitalized with a skull fracture and injuries to his hand and arm. Paul Pelosi has since been released from a San Francisco area hospital. DePape faces a maximum sentence of up to 50 years in prison if found guilty of the federal charges, although sentencing guidelines typically call for less time behind bars. The state charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 13 years to life.

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled that a COVID-19-era order used to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants to Mexico was unlawful, a ruling that could have major implications for U.S. border management. In a 49-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Emmit Sullivan said the policy was "arbitrary and capricious" and violated federal regulatory law. The order, known as Title 42, was put in place under then-President Donald Trump's administration in March 2020 early in the COVID pandemic. However, a Louisiana-based federal judge ruled in May that the Biden administration could not end it. Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Companies Trump Organization Inc FollowNEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Allen Weisselberg, a longtime senior executive at former U.S. President Donald Trump's family business, took the stand on Tuesday as the prosecution's star witness at the Trump Organization's tax fraud trial in New York state court. Weisselberg, 75, pleaded guilty in August to avoiding taxes on $1.76 million in personal income and helping Trump's real estate company engineer the tax fraud scheme. During questioning by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger on Tuesday, Weisselberg said he began working as an accountant for Trump's father, the real estate developer Fred Trump, in 1973. Weisselberg said the Trump Organization's business portfolio grew more diversified since he began working there, branching out into hotels, golf courses and commercial properties. Weisselberg is the third witness to take the stand in the trial, which began with jury selection on Oct. 24.

[1/2] Darrell Brooks, charged with killing five people and injuring nearly 50 after plowing through a Christmas parade with his sport utility vehicle on November 21, appears in Waukesha County Court in Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S. November 23, 2021. Mark Hoffman/Pool via REUTERS/File PhotoNov 15 (Reuters) - Grieving relatives of those injured and killed when a man drove through a Christmas parade near Milwaukee last year will have a chance to confront the driver during a two-day sentencing hearing beginning on Tuesday. The driver, Darrell Brooks, 40, faces life in prison after a circuit court jury in Waukesha, Wisconsin, found him guilty on Oct. 26 of 76 criminal charges, including six counts of intentional homicide. On numerous occasions during the proceedings, Dorow admonished Brooks for failing to follow court rules and arguing with her. She removed Brooks from the courtroom several times, sending him to another room where he watched the proceedings.

NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Donald Trump defeated his niece Mary Trump in a lawsuit where she accused the former U.S. president and two of his siblings of defrauding her out of a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Mary Trump's case had its roots in the 1981 death of her father Fred Trump Jr., Donald Trump's older brother, who left Mary, then 16, a profitable real estate portfolio. Now a 57-year-old psychologist, Mary Trump claimed that her uncles Donald and Robert Trump and aunt Maryanne Trump Barry were supposed to protect her interests but instead "squeezed" her out of tens of millions of dollars. The cases are Mary L. Trump v Donald J. Trump et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 654698/2020, and Donald J. Trump v Mary L. Trump et al in the same court, No.

SummarySummary CompaniesCompanies Law firms Frost Brown Todd and AlvaradoSmith to merge effective Jan. 1Combined firm will have more than 575 lawyers in 17 offices(Reuters) - Frost Brown Todd is set to combine with California law firm AlvaradoSmith as the Cincinnati-founded firm continues to branch out to new regions. The combination will give Frost Brown Todd 23 additional attorneys and three California offices in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco. Frost Brown Todd, founded in 1919 as Frost & Jacobs before merging in 2000 with Louisville-founded Brown, Todd and Heyburn in 2000, has roots in the middle of America, with offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and other states. The AlvaradoSmith attorneys are joining the larger firm under the name Frost Brown Todd AlvaradoSmith in California through 2023, before reverting to the Frost Brown Todd name the next year. Law firm mergers dropped as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020, and activity stayed at lower levels throughout 2021.

When she arrived, Weinstein had no interest in discussing her projects, Siebel Newsom said. Siebel Newsom said Weinstein got her onto a bed, though she cannot recall if he carried or dragged her there. Siebel Newsom's attorney confirmed in October that Siebel Newsom would testify in the case. At the time of the meeting with Siebel Newsom, she had not met her future husband, current California Gov. In cross-examination, Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman questioned Siebel Newsom about why her husband had accepted campaign donations from the producer.

[1/3] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks outside a polling station during midterm election in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. November 8, 2022. REUTERS/Ricardo ArduengoNEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen accusing Trump, former Attorney General William Barr and others of abruptly returning him to prison in retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir. Authorities returned Cohen to prison amid a dispute over whether he could speak with the media about his forthcoming book while under home confinement. His book "Disloyal: A Memoir" topped the New York Times' hardcover nonfiction bestseller list in September 2020. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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