April 2024 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Linda A. Lacewell
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

Subject: Linda A. Lacewell https://new.mta.info/people/linda-lacewell Recommended by: Governor Appointed on: June 20, 2019 Term expired: January 1, 2023 Committee assignments: B&T (Chair), NYCT-MTA Bus, Finance, Corporate Governance, Diversity Linda A. Lacewell currently serves as Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. Lacewell previously served as Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Governor. In that role, she oversaw Executive Chamber operations, as well as ethics and law enforcement matters. Before that, Lacewell was Executive Director of a cancer foundation initiative in Culver City, California. Lacewell also served as Chief Risk Officer and Counselor to Gov. Cuomo, where she built and implemented the first statewide system for ethics, risk, and compliance in agencies and authorities. Lacewell was formerly Special Counsel to the Governor, as well as the architect of OpenNY, a state-of-the-art open data initiative. She also served as special counsel to Attorney General Cuomo, where she oversaw the public pension fund pay-to-play investigation and the out-of-network health insurance investigation, both of which led to nationwide systemic reform. Lacewell spent nine years as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, including two years on the Enron Task Force, and received the Henry L. Stimson Medal and the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service. Lacewell earned her B.A. from New College of the University of South Florida and her J.D. with honors from the University of Miami School of Law. She clerked for a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida. Lacewell serves as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, teaching ethics in government, and previously served as an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, teaching international criminal law.

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RNC Funding of Trump's Legal Campaign Undermines GOP State AGs' Attack on Litigation Funding - Litigation Finance Journal
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

I wrote this LitigationFinanceJournal.com article back in 2022, now I am on the other side of it all. 14 states attorneys general, if you are listening, there is something not kosher happening in New York right now. They are saying Gunnar Larson is trying to use Donald Trump arguments against the Attorney General's office and that is simply not true. Gunnar --- https://litigationfinancejournal.com/rnc-funding-of-trumps-legal-campaign-u… Litigation Finance Journal recently reported on a group of 14 state attorneys general that have called for action from the Department of Justice to review potential threats to U.S. national security from foreign adversaries’ engagement of litigation investment. Litigation funders and industry advocates have new ammo in response to the AGs’ claims, given recent news of the RNC funding former President Donald Trump’s various legal entanglements. According to ABC News, RNC leaders earmarked $1.6M in legal funding to support President Donald Trump’s defense over lawsuits brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Meanwhile, the United States Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform’s research has prompted 14 state attorneys general to ask for the Justice Department to assess national security risks of adversaries ‘undermining’ the United States by engaging litigation funding and third party investment vehicles. The group of 14 state attorneys general are concerned about foreign adversaries ‘weaponizing’ United States legal frameworks via litigation investment, to attack critical national industry and infrastructure, such as energy sectors. The group of 14 seeks the Department of Justice to detail how a network of federal agencies could engage a blueprint for defending United States independence from international litigation investors, hostile groups, agencies or governments such as Russia and China. This latest attack on the industry, prompted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is simply another attempt to undermine the nascent and growing litigation funding sector. It is ironic, given that in the case of Consumer Legal Funding–which the Chamber specifically targets–the funding in question does not go to support legal fees, but rather to finance claimants’ livelihoods while they remain injured and unable to work. While the RNC’s funding of Trump’s legal battles does not constitute foreign investment, it illustrates the acceptance of third party legal funding across political lines, and should be noted by industry advocates looking to respond to the negative publicity put forth by the U.S. Chamber.

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Republicans Warn CFPB Against Pursuing Arbitration Rule 2.0
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Republicans Warn CFPB Against Pursuing Arbitration Rule 2.0 <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1824913?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill Two Republican lawmakers are cautioning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against heeding calls for another rulemaking to restrict arbitration provisions in consumer financial contracts, warning that such an effort would be a "significant abuse" of the agency's authority. Letter attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1824913?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1824913?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Post-Moelis Del. Corp. Law Proposal Would Hurt Stockholders
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Post-Moelis Del. Corp. Law Proposal Would Hurt Stockholders <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1824746?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> The proposed Delaware General Corporation Law amendment in response to the Court of Chancery's recent opinion in West Palm Beach Firefighters' Pension Fund v. Moelis would upend the foundational principle of corporate law holding that directors govern corporations in the interest of stockholders — and the potential harm would be substantial, say attorneys at Block & Leviton. Decision attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1824746?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1824746?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…>

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JPMorgan Analyst's Acquittal Sinks Stock Tip Case, Man Says
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

JPMorgan Analyst's Acquittal Sinks Stock Tip Case, Man Says <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1824426?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> By Elliot Weld A Los Angeles man is planning a Ninth Circuit appeal after he was found guilty of trading on privileged information supplied by a childhood friend who was an analyst at JPMorgan Securities LLC, reasoning that he could not be guilty because the friend was acquitted at a separate trial. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1824426?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1824426?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…>

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Ex-Amazon Engineer Gets 3 Years For $12M Crypto Hacks
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Ex-Amazon Engineer Gets 3 Years For $12M Crypto Hacks <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1824840?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> By Rachel Scharf The former technical lead of Amazon's "bug bounty" program was sentenced in Manhattan federal court Friday to three years in prison for using his specialized computer engineering skills to steal more than $12 million from two decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1824840?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1824840?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…>

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Apple Loses Bid To Toss $1B App Maker Charges Case
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Apple Loses Bid To Toss $1B App Maker Charges Case <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1824686?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Joanne Faulkner The Competition Appeal Tribunal refused on Friday to toss a £785 million ($996 million) proposed class action by app developers against Apple over commission payments after finding that the claimants had a real shot at showing that the case was governed by U.K. law. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1824686?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1824686?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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Jamie Dimon Dumped $150 Million of His JPMorgan Stock in February; Now He Says His Regulators Want 25 Percent More Capital at his Bank
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/04/jamie-dimon-dumped-150-million-of-hi… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: April 15, 2024 ~ Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase On October 27 of last year, JPMorgan Chase filed an 8K form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) advising that, for the first time ever, its long-tenured Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, and his family, intended to “sell 1 million shares” of his common stock holdings in the bank in 2024. The news made headlines because an insider selling a large amount of stock in any company – and particularly a bank with JPMorgan Chase’s serial history of running afoul of the law – can be a harbinger of bad news ahead for other shareholders. Dimon didn’t wait long into 2024 to start dumping stock. JPMorgan Chase filed another SEC form this past February showing that Dimon had sold 821,778 shares of the bank’s common stock for $150,167,222.52, or an average share price of $182.73 – which was suspiciously close to the stock’s all-time high at that point. Dimon has acquired the bulk of his shares in the same fashion as his former mentor, Sandy Weill, acquired his shares in Citigroup – through stock grants from his hear no evil, see no evil Board of Directors. (Dimon had, in his earlier years, been Weill’s first lieutenant at Citigroup.) Weill stepped down as CEO of Citigroup in 2003. Just one day after stepping down as CEO, Citigroup’s obliging Board of Directors allowed Weill to sell back to the corporation 5.6 million shares of his Citigroup stock for $264 million. This eliminated Weill’s risk that his big share sale would drive down his own share prices as he was selling. The Board negotiated the price at $47.14 for Weill’s shares. Six years later, in the spring of 2009, Citigroup was a 99-cent stock and receiving the largest taxpayer and Federal Reserve bailout in U.S. history. Between December 2007 and July 2010, Citigroup received the following bailouts to keep it afloat: The U.S. Treasury injected $45 billion of capital into Citigroup; there was a government guarantee of over $300 billion on certain of its assets; the FDIC provided a guarantee of $5.75 billion on its senior unsecured debt and $26 billion on its commercial paper and interbank deposits; and secret revolving loans from the Federal Reserve sluiced a cumulative $2.5 trillion in below-market-rate loans to Citigroup according to an audit released by the Government Accountability Office in 2011. On May 9, 2011, Citigroup did a 1 for 10 reverse stock split to dress up the disaster of its share price history. For each 100 shares the shareholder held previously, he or she now owned just 10 shares. Citigroup investors who have held onto their shares since Weill’s stock sale in 2003 are down 87 percent at yesterday’s closing price of $59.68 – which is actually $5.97 adjusted for the reverse stock split. In spin that is similar to Weill’s tactics, Jamie Dimon has, for more than a decade, attempted to brainwash Congress, the media, and the public at large by referring to his bank as the “Fortress Balance sheet.” His latest letter to shareholders uses the phrase five times – at one point phrasing it as an “unquestionable fortress balance sheet.” And yet, in the same letter to shareholders, Dimon concedes that his bank’s federal regulators don’t have the same level of confidence in this so-called “Fortress.” Dimon writes that if the capital rules proposed by the FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve are implemented, they “would increase our firm’s required capital by 25%.” Another reasonable way to read that is that federal banking regulators, whose bank examiners have intensely examined the books of the bank, believe that JPMorgan Chase is undercapitalized by 25 percent and thus poses a potential systemic risk to the U.S. financial system until it bulks up its capital. This capital battle is officially known as the proposed Basel III rules and Dimon is leading the charge to stop federal bank regulators from implementing the rules. Internal government documents show that Dimon and his Chief of Staff, Judith Miller, met separately with the following Fed Governors on December 15 to argue against the proposed rules: Fed Governor Adriana Kugler; Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson; and Fed Governor Christopher Waller. According to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s daily calendar, he met personally with Jamie Dimon on January 26, 2024 from 4:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. Financial Times reporters Joshua Franklin and James Politi report that in mid March, Dimon met in a one-on-one meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and separately with President Biden’s Chief of Staff, Jeff Zients. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing on March 7, Senator Elizabeth Warren said that the 37 largest banks that would be impacted by the higher capital rules have “spent tens of millions of dollars running ads during Sunday night football and millions more for an army of lobbyists to try to twist arms here in Congress.” The TV ads have been grossly misleading, making it sound as if the higher capital requirements at just 37 banks would hurt working families and farmers – ignoring that inadequate capital levels collapsed giant Wall Street banks in 2008 and put millions of innocent Americans out of work and in foreclosure as the U.S. economy collapsed along with the toxic debt bombs exploding at the banks. Fed Chair Powell was the sole witness at the March 7 Senate Banking hearing. Warren told Powell this: “Despite all you said last year when the banks failed about supporting Vice Chair Barr’s recommendations to strengthen rules for big banks, public reporting now says that you are driving efforts inside the Fed to weaken the capital rule. You even told the House Financial Services Committee representatives yesterday that you think it’s ‘very plausible’ that you withdraw the rule.” Warren concluded with this zinger to Powell: “You are the leader of the Fed and when the heat was on last year, you talked a lot about getting tougher on the banks. But now the giant banks are unhappy about that and you’ve gone weak-kneed on this. The American people need a leader at the Fed who has the courage to stand up to these banks and protect our financial system.” For more key background on the Basel III capital proposal, see our reports below: The Fed Has a Dirty Little Secret: It’s Been Allowing the Wall Street Mega Banks to Calculate their Own Capital Requirements Jamie Dimon Hires Dodd-Frank Hatchet Man to Weigh Suing the Fed Over Proposed Capital Rules Wall Street CEOs Want the Line Between a Federally-Insured Bank and a Wall Street Trading Casino Erased; Regulators Want Higher Capital to Prevent That

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Much More Is Coming': Experts See Wave Of AI-Related Suits
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Much More Is Coming': Experts See Wave Of AI-Related Suits <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1822380?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> By Dorothy Atkins Legal experts speaking Friday at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law's symposium on artificial intelligence and evidence in civil litigation warned that broadening usage and increased regulation will lead to a wave of litigation over the technology, leaving courts to analyze the "black box" of corporate AI algorithms to determine liability. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1822380?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1822380?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…>

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Justices Could Limit Bribery Law Used In Ill. Corruption Cases
by Gunnar Larson 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Justices Could Limit Bribery Law Used In Ill. Corruption Cases <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1824295?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> By Celeste Bott The nation's top court will hear arguments Monday in a case that could narrow the scope of federal bribery law, and potentially upend major Chicago cases, if justices follow what experts say is their recent pattern of raising the bar for prosecuting corruption. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1824295?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1824295?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…>

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