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☆ North Carolina high court rejects voter-identification law, electoral map
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | Thomson Reuters Institute | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 16 (Reuters) - The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday knocked down a 2018 voter-identification law it said discriminated against Black voters and ordered a state Senate map be redrawn due to Republican partisan gerrymandering. The court upheld a lower court's 2021 ruling that a 2018 law requiring voters to present photo ID was unconstitutional. The majority opinion said that the lower court correctly found that the law "was motivated by a racially discriminatory purpose." In the gerrymandering case, the court found that the boundaries for state Senate districts unfairly favored Republicans and disfavored Black voters by diluting their vote. The court ordered that lower court judges redraw the state Senate maps to meet constitutional requirements.

Four former Coinbase users had sued Coinbase, claiming the company duped them into paying $100 or more to enter a sweepstakes in June 2021 for a chance to win prizes of up to $1.2 million in the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Friday's ruling came a week after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a procedural issue from that and another case that Coinbase unsuccessfully sought to force into arbitration. Business groups say arbitration is more efficient than suing in court. Plaintiffs' lawyers say arbitration favors companies and that consumers are better off in court. A judge put the proceeding in the sweepstakes case on hold pending appeal, but only after Coinbase asked the Supreme Court to hear the dispute.

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A dual citizen of Sweden and the United Kingdom pleaded guilty to U.S. fraud and money laundering charges on Friday for selling a fake cryptocurrency alongside one of the United States' most-wanted fugitives, a woman referred to as the 'Cryptoqueen.' The plea comes as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) ramp up enforcement of financial crimes related to digital assets. Prosecutors said Greenwood founded OneCoin in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2014 alongside Ruja Ignatova, a German citizen who prosecutors say is also known as the 'Cryptoqueen.' He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5 for the three counts to which he pleaded guilty. He is currently detained in The Bahamas, where FTX is based, and is contesting a U.S. request for his extradition.

The bare-bones indictment against Bankman-Fried - which could be amended with more details and co-defendants as the case progresses - suggests prosecutors have a long road ahead piecing together what they have described as one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. “A trial is probably 14 to 18 months out,” said Michael Weinstein, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan said a grand jury had indicted Bankman-Fried on wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, campaign finance law violations and conspiracy charges. The indictment came just weeks after Bankman-Fried's $32 billion crypto exchange collapsed - an extraordinarily fast turnaround for prosecutors. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday but indicated he would fight extradition to the United States.

Bayer still faces several other state lawsuits over PCBs. The company said in a statement that it did not admit liability as part of the Oregon settlement, and would continued to defend the remaining cases. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum called the settlement a "huge win" that would give the state resources to clean up PCBs. The lawsuits against Bayer stem from PCBs manufactured by U.S. seeds and pesticide company Monsanto, which Bayer acquired for $63 billion in 2018. Some of those cases have gone to trial and resulted in jury verdicts against Bayer totaling $543 million, which the company is appealing.

☆ FTX debtors file bidding procedures motion for sale of four businesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | Thomson Reuters Institute | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies FTX Japan KK FollowDec 16 (Reuters) - FTX and its affiliated debtors said on Friday the company had filed a motion with the Bankruptcy Court seeking approval of bidding procedures to sell four businesses. Debtors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange intend to conduct auctions for Embed, LedgerX, FTX Japan and FTX Europe businesses, according to the statement. The move comes after FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested on fraud charges on Monday. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware in November after traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ FTX bankruptcy judge to hear media companies' request to reveal customer names
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 16 (Reuters) - A group of media companies is set to argue on Friday to the U.S. judge overseeing the FTX bankruptcy that they should be allowed to request that the collapsed crypto exchange make public the names of its customers. In seeking to intervene in the case, the New York Times (NYT.N), Dow Jones, Bloomberg and the Financial Times said bankruptcy law demands transparency. Letting customer names remain secret could turn bankruptcy proceedings into a "farce" if creditors start fighting anonymously over how much money they should get, the media companies wrote in a Delaware bankruptcy court filing. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey said he will not rule on customer privacy issues before January. During Friday's hearing, FTX will also provide an update on its asset recovery efforts and its dispute with the Bahamas-based liquidators.

☆ Bankman-Fried makes new bail application after losing first request: source
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | Thomson Reuters Institute | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has made a bail application before The Bahamas Supreme Court, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, after a magistrate judge on Tuesday rejected the former crypto mogul's request for bail. The source, who asked not to be identified, said the application was made on Thursday. Bahamas broadcaster Eyewitness News on Thursday reported that the Supreme Court would hear the bail application on Jan. 17, without citing sources. Bankman-Fried amassed a fortune valued over $20 billion as he rode a cryptocurrency boom to build FTX into one of the world's largest exchanges before it abruptly collapsed this year. Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington, editing by Deepa BabingtonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog on Thursday appointed a committee to represent FTX accountholders and other junior creditors in the collapsed crypto exchange's bankruptcy case. The nine-member committee includes three individual creditors, Genesis affiliate GGC International Ltd, crypto trader Wintermute Asia PTE, Coincident Capital International, Pulsar Global Ltd, Octopus Information Ltd and Wincent Investment Fund. Crypto firms that went bankrupt earlier this year, including Voyager Digital and Celsius Network, have classified most of their customers, particularly those with interest-bearing accounts, as unsecured creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey, who is overseeing FTX's Chapter 11 case, said during a Wednesday court hearing that he expects the creditors' committee to weigh in on issues related to customer privacy at a hearing scheduled in early January. FTX has argued that customer names should be kept secret to protect them from scams and to preserve the business value of FTX's customer list for potential buyers.

At trial, Milton was convicted on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. In court papers on Thursday, Milton said that one juror had said during jury selection that she did not use social media and got her news via YouTube. But a review of what Milton said were her social media accounts implied that she read many news sources and showed that she had posted about income inequality, Milton said. If the judge does not grant a new trial, he should hold a hearing to question the juror about whether she lied in court, Milton wrote. Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Rudy Giuliani violated at least one attorney ethics rule in his work on a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results on behalf of then-U.S. President Donald Trump and should be disciplined, a District of Columbia attorney ethics committee said Thursday. The committee of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility will recommend a specific penalty later for Giuliani, who faces accusations that he breached ethics rules against bringing frivolous lawsuits and harming the administration of justice. The panel could recommend disbarring him, suspending his D.C. law license or formally censuring him. The committee convened last week to hear allegations that Giuliani, 78, violated legal ethics rules in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes in Pennsylvania. Giuliani was one several lawyers allied with the Republican president who pressed debunked claims of rampant election fraud.

Ahmad Abouammo had been found guilty by a jury in August following a trial in federal court in San Francisco. Abouammo's attorneys had asked U.S. District Judge Edward Chen for a probationary sentence at his home in Seattle with no prison time. The case focused on Abouammo's efforts to look up information on two Twitter users, a $42,000 watch he received from a Saudi official and a pair of $100,000 wire transfers. Twitter, recently acquired by Elon Musk, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The attorneys also said Abouammo's actions paled in comparison to those of Ali Alzabarah, another ex-Twitter employee, who was accused of accessing thousands of Twitter accounts on behalf of Saudi Arabia.

Now, with the fraud charges filed earlier this week against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt FTX exchange, Williams has further solidified his office's growing role in prosecuting financial crimes involving cryptocurrency, according to interviews with a half-dozen former prosecutors. Bankman-Fried, 30, has acknowledged risk management failures at FTX but said he does not believe he has criminal liability. In the wake of Bankman-Fried's arrest, Williams has made clear he would plow on with cryptocurrency enforcement. On Wednesday, he announced wire fraud conspiracy charges against the founders of two separate cryptocurrency mining and trading companies he called Ponzi schemes. On Tuesday, Williams told reporters more charges in the FTX probe were possible.

REUTERS/Mike BlakeDec 13 (Reuters) - Fox Corp (FOXA.O) Chairman Rupert Murdoch is set to be questioned under oath on Tuesday in a defamation lawsuit over his network’s coverage of unfounded vote-rigging claims during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The deposition comes as special committees of the boards of directors for News Corp (NWSA.O) and Murdoch-controlled Fox Corp consider a proposal from Murdoch to re-combine, nearly a decade after the companies split. Murdoch will be questioned via videoconference on Tuesday and Wednesday by lawyers for Dominion, according to a filing in Delaware Superior Court. On Dec. 5, Murdoch’s eldest son and executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp (FOXA.O), Lachlan, sat for a deposition in Los Angeles. Murdoch’s other son, James Murdoch, was questioned in October.

FTX attorney James Bromley told Dorsey that the Bahamian government has previously obtained information from FTX Digital Market's liquidators and used it to siphon digital assets away from FTX. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) has previously disputed FTX's "misstatements" about the Bahamian government's response to FTX's collapse. Chris Shore, an attorney for the Bahamas-based liquidators, told Dorsey that the liquidators were not working at the direction of the Bahamian government. Dorsey began the hearing by asking whether FTX and the Bahamas liquidators could reach a compromise on data sharing before Bromley shot that suggestion down. "Unlike the Chapter 11 process, there is no transparency in the process in the Bahamas," Ray said.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court on Wednesday, pressuring the U.S. government to sanction Mexico for failing to protect the critically endangered vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise, according to court documents. The lawsuit seeks to pressure the U.S. government to sanction Mexico under a fisheries law called the "Pelly Amendment" to the Fishermen's Protective Act, which authorizes the U.S. President to embargo imports of wildlife products, including fish, from another country. The vaquita porpoise, found in Mexico's upper Gulf of California, has over the last five years seen its population devastated to the point that it is now considered in "serious danger of extinction." The other organizations that joined the lawsuit are the Animal Welfare Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In mid-November, CITES - an international convention to protect endangered species - told Mexico it must protect the vaquita or face sanctions early next year.

REUTERS/Dante Carrer/File PhotoNASSAU, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Cordoned-off roads, a sweltering courtroom and numerous delays marked Sam Bankman-Fried's first in-person public appearance since his crypto company collapsed. The Bahamas courtroom hearing, conducted over the course of six hours, saw Bankman-Fried, dressed in a suit rather than his typical t-shirt attire, seeking bail to dispute his extradition to the U.S. "I'm not waiving," Bankman-Fried said when asked if he would seek to waive his right to an extradition hearing. At the start of the proceedings, Bankman-Fried asked to change an Emsam patch, a medical strip applied to the skin that is used to treat adult depression. Bankman-Fried's defense counsel pointed out that Bankman-Fried had spent weeks in The Bahamas after his business collapsed without attempting to leave the country.

[1/2] The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2021. "Securities fraud victimizes innocent investors and undermines the integrity of our public markets,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. His attorney did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Rybarczyk and Deel did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Reporting by Chris Prentice and Nate Raymond; Editing by Mark Porter and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler told a Los Angeles federal judge they will dismiss their 2017 case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled. In "Shake It Off," Swift sings: "the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." "Playas Gon' Play," written by Hall and Butler, included the phrases "playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate." Swift told the court in August that she had never heard 3LW's song before writing "Shake It Off." She said she had heard the phrases "players gonna play" and "haters gonna hate" used commonly to "express the idea that one can or should shrug off negativity."

☆ U.S. Justice Dept asks judge to hold Trump team in contempt in documents probe -report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | Thomson Reuters Institute | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell has not yet held a hearing or ruled on the request, the newspaper reported. The Justice Department declined to comment on the report. A Trump spokesman told Reuters that the former president's lawyers "continue to cooperate and be transparent," while describing the probe as "a political witch hunt." The Justice Department is investigating whether Trump broke the law by retaining U.S. government records, some marked as top secret, after leaving office in January 2021. The Department of Justice is also investigating his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

☆ U.S. FTC settles with Weber grills over 'right to repair'
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-07 | by ( Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | Thomson Reuters Institute | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - Weber-Stephen Products LLC (WEBR.N), the maker of Weber grills, has agreed to scrap some warranty rules as part of a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over consumers' right to repair products that they purchase, the agency said on Thursday. Under the settlement, Weber will no longer require consumers to use Weber parts as a condition of remaining under warranty and will add language to its warranty to that effect, the FTC said in a statement. The FTC has pressed companies to drop rules that void warranties or otherwise punish customers who use independent repair shops or third-party parts to repair a wide range of products. "Companies that use their warranties to illegally restrict consumers' right to repair should fix them now," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement. Weber, according to its website, is the "world's leading barbecue brand" and sells charcoal, gas and electric grills as well as smokers.

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