Although bitcoin’s meteoric rise in price and prominence has some people wondering if it’s a bubble, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and CBOE Futures Exchange agreed to start trading in the digital currency in December. Just a few months later, the first criminal lawsuit over bitcoin was filed against a Chicago…
Sometimes things happen outside a business owner’s control that affects the business. It’s understandable, but that does not justify failing to reveal to investors if the company is suffering financially as a result. In fact, executives and board directors of publicly traded companies are required to disclose the financial state…
Persons convicted of federal financial crimes who are ordered to pay restitution cannot expect their retirement funds to be off-limits to the government. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a defendant who committed mail fraud could be required to pay court-ordered restitution out of his retirement account…
Despite stepping down as CEO of Uber, the ride-sharing start-up he founded, Trevor Kalanick’s troubles are far from over. On top of allegations that the company mistreats its drivers, discriminates against and sexually harasses women at work, and stole trade secrets from another ride-sharing service, Kalanick is now being sued…
If someone leaves their employer to start their own company (which then gets bought by a competitor of their former employer), can it be a coincidence when that person just happens to end up working for a competitor a few months later on the same material he had been helping…
Getting taken to the cleaners by a dishonest employee or contractor is headache enough for any business, but having no fraud coverage insurance coverage is a world of hurt. Businesses are well advised to analyze their policies carefully to make sure they have proper coverage. In the case of an…
A recent shareholder suit challenging the sale of a Chicago-based company to IBM was dismissed by a Delaware chancery court because the merger was supported by an informed and uncoerced vote of 80% of stockholders. When IBM acquired healthcare software developer Merge Healthcare, Inc., in 2015 for $1 billion, a…
Because stock trading is full of opportunities for traders to take advantage of their positions, the law takes accusations of fraud very seriously, but it works the other way, too. Traders have to work hard to protect their reputations because their livelihood depends on it. As a result, stock traders…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently held that client victims of a lawyer’s fraud take precedence over a commercial lender in being paid out of funds owed to the lawyer’s firm. Attorney William C. of Indiana-based Conour Law Firm, LLC is serving a 10-year prison term…
A plaintiff seeking to recover on a breach of fiduciary duty claim against a business partner must be able to show more than just evidence of his partner’s bad conduct, but must also demonstrate that he suffered measurable damages as a result of the conduct. For almost a decade, JAP,…