April 2024 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Stanford Finance Professor Anat Admati Is Making Jamie Dimon Very Nervous Again Calling His Bank Dangerous
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/04/stanford-finance-professor-anat-adma… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: April 16, 2024 ~ The Bankers' New ClothesStanford Finance Professor Anat Admati has been valiantly attempting to save the American financial system from the corrupting influence and disinformation campaigns of men like JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon for more than a decade. Her voice is gaining traction and that’s making Dimon very nervous. Dimon has admitted in his recent letter to shareholders that his federal banking regulators want the bank to raise 25 percent more capital. Making banks hold more equity capital (as opposed to debt) is an issue that Admati has made a central focus of her arguments for years. Dimon’s bank would have a lot more equity capital if Dimon had retained the bank’s earnings each year instead of tapping those earnings to boost the bank’s stock price by using $117 billion of the bank’s earnings for share buybacks over the past decade. (Retained earnings add to a bank’s equity capital.) Dimon became a billionaire as a result of the bank’s inflated share price, because his Board gave him the bulk of his annual compensation in shares of stock. (In February of this year, Dimon cashed out $150 million of that stock.) Standord Finance Professor Anat Admati In 2011, one year before Dimon called a growing financial crisis at JPMorgan Chase “a tempest in a teapot,” Admati penned an open letter to the bank’s shareholders and published it at Huffington Post. In the letter, she wrote: “Mr. Dimon claims that higher capital requirements would increase JPM’s cost, but his reasoning is flawed. “It is critical first to distinguish capital and liquidity requirements. Capital requirements are not about what banks ‘hold.’ They do not mandate that banks passively ‘set aside,’ or ‘hold in reserve’ funds, not putting them to productive uses. Banks’ investments are not constrained by capital requirements. Capital requirements refer only to how banks fund themselves. It is investors, not the banks, who hold the debt and equity (so-called ‘capital’) claims that banks issue. Liquidity requirements, by contrast, do constrain the types of assets banks hold, and they can be costly. Capital and liquidity requirements refer to different sides of the balance sheet.” Less than two years after Admati had penned her warning about how Dimon was running JPMorgan Chase, the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had concluded a nine-month investigation into how JPMorgan Chase was using deposits from its federally-insured bank to make high-risk gambles in derivatives in London. The scandal became known as the “London Whale.” The Subcommittee released a scathing 300-page report on the matter, which contained this opening paragraph: “JPMorgan Chase & Company is the largest financial holding company in the United States, with $2.4 trillion in assets. It is also the largest derivatives dealer in the world and the largest single participant in world credit derivatives markets. Its principal bank subsidiary, JPMorgan Chase Bank, is the largest U.S. bank. JPMorgan Chase has consistently portrayed itself as an expert in risk management with a ‘fortress balance sheet’ that ensures taxpayers have nothing to fear from its banking activities, including its extensive dealing in derivatives. But in early 2012, the bank’s Chief Investment Office (CIO), which is charged with managing $350 billion in excess deposits, placed a massive bet on a complex set of synthetic credit derivatives that, in 2012, lost at least $6.2 billion.” Let that sink in for a moment. Less than four years after Wall Street banks had crashed the U.S. economy in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and just two years after the Obama administration had passed and signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” legislation, JPMorgan Chase was using deposits from its federally-insured bank to gamble in risky derivatives and lose $6.2 billion of its depositors’ money. In a rational banking system, Dimon would have been immediately sacked and JPMorgan Chase’s ability to use deposits at its federally-insured bank to make high-risk bets would have been curtailed and fiercely policed by regulators. Instead, the federal regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, released a report on March 27 of this year indicating that at year end 2023, JPMorgan Chase’s federally-insured bank held $49.68 trillion (yes, trillion) in notional (face amount) derivatives. That included $3.89 trillion in stock (equity) derivatives; $880 billion in commodity derivatives; $1.05 trillion in credit derivatives, of which $238.6 billion were junk-rated; $246.8 billion in precious metals derivatives and so forth. Dimon’s Board of Directors, who the last time we looked were deeply conflicted themselves, not only kept Dimon in place as Chairman and CEO through the London Whale scandal, but also through the bank admitting to five outrageous felony counts and a rap sheet that rivals an organized crime family. Now, at the worst time possible for Dimon, as he attempts to bully regulators into scrapping their demands for higher capital at JPMorgan Chase, out comes Admati with an updated and expanded version of the highly readable, pristinely documented, seminal book on bank capital and the bankers’ disinformation campaign around it: The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It. The book is co-authored with German economist Martin Hellwig. In it, Admati and Hellwig write this: “The term ‘fortress balance sheet’ that Mr. Dimon loves to use conveys a sense of safety and security, the opposite of vulnerability and fragility. But if one examines the actual risks lurking around the size and type of the bank’s investments and debts, the strength of the fortress can be called into question. A closer look suggests that JPMorgan Chase is highly vulnerable and is imposing significant risk on the global financial system. “Some of the risks that make JPMorgan Chase dangerous cannot actually be seen by looking at its balance sheet because the positions that give rise to them are not included there. These are risks from business units that JPMorgan Chase might own in part or that it sponsors, and to which it has provided guarantees to serve as a backstop if they should have funding problems. These units might be full-flown subsidiaries, or they might be mere ‘letterhead firms,’ vehicles without any drivers, that are established for legal or tax reasons only. The bank’s commitments to these units amount to almost a trillion dollars, but these potential liabilities of the bank are left off the bank’s balance sheet. Yet they are quite relevant to the financial health of JPMorgan Chase.” The authors note that these same kind of off-balance sheet exposures bankrupted Enron in 2001 and required bailouts of mega banks in 2007 and 2008 from their off-balance sheet exposures to subprime mortgage debt. (See our 2008 article on the Rise and Fall of Citigroup.) Senator Elizabeth Warren said last month in a Senate Banking Committee hearing that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has become “weak-kneed” and is now “driving efforts inside the Fed to weaken the capital rule.” That leaves the Fed Vice Chair for Supervision, Michael Barr; FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg; and Acting Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Michael Hsu, on the frontlines of the regulators’ battle to stand firm on higher capital for the mega banks on Wall Street. The future financial health of the U.S. economy and the U.S. financial system depends on these regulators not also becoming weak-kneed. Not only do these regulators need to stick to their proposed higher capital rules, but they need to immediately push for the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act to separate federally-insured banks from the trading casinos on Wall Street.

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Taro Inks $36M Investor Deal Over Generics Price-Fixing
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

Taro Inks $36M Investor Deal Over Generics Price-Fixing <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825670?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Lauren Berg Taro Pharmaceutical Industries shareholders asked a New York federal judge Monday to greenlight a $36 million settlement resolving proposed class claims that the company misled investors about alleged generic drug price-fixing that led to a drop in stock price upon news of a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust investigation. Motion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825670?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825670?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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Attys In Google Maps Case Chided For Wordy Footnotes
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

Attys In Google Maps Case Chided For Wordy Footnotes <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825324?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Rose Krebs A California federal judge has flagged attorneys representing Google Maps customers in an antitrust action for submitting a filing with "numerous excessively long footnotes," and threatening sanctions if they don't provide a reasonable explanation to the court. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825324?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825324?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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BREAKING: Justices Decline To Limit Army Vet's Education Benefits
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

BREAKING: Justices Decline To Limit Army Vet's Education Benefits <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1794876?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> By Kellie Mejdrich An Army veteran who sought additional education benefits to attend Yale Divinity School is owed more federal assistance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, upending an en banc Federal Circuit ruling that took a narrower view of what he is entitled to based on his multiple tours of duty. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1794876?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1794876?nl_pk=4126fe73-…>

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An NYDFS-Regulated Bank's Guide To Proper Internal Audits
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

An NYDFS-Regulated Bank's Guide To Proper Internal Audits <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1819909?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> As certification deadlines for compliance with the New York State Department of Financial Services’ transaction monitoring and cybersecurity regulations loom, lawyers should remember that the NYDFS offers no leeway for best efforts — and should ensure robust auditing and recordkeeping processes for clients, say attorneys at Arnall Golden. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1819909?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1819909?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…>

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Office of Public Affairs | Delaware Woman Arrested for International Sextortion and Money Laundering Scheme | United States Department of Justice
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/delaware-woman-arrested-international-sextor… A Delaware woman was arrested today in Delaware on criminal charges related to her role in an international sextortion scheme that targeted thousands of victims throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. According to an indictment unsealed today, from May 2020 through December 2022, Hadja Kone, 28, of Wilmington, and Siaka Ouattara, 22, of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and other co-conspirators allegedly operated an international, financially motivated sextortion and money laundering scheme in which the conspirators engaged in cyberstalking, interstate threats, money laundering, and wire fraud. Through the scheme, Kone, Outtara, and others attempted to extort approximately $6 million from thousands of potential victims and successfully extorted approximately $1.7 million from those victims, using CashApp and ApplePay accounts alone. As alleged in the indictment, Ouattara and others posed as young, attractive females online and initiated communications with thousands of potential victims, who were primarily young men and included minors from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Ouattara and others allegedly offered to provide and/or provided victims with sexual photographs, video recordings, and/or “web cam” or “live video chat” sessions of what they falsely portrayed to be an attractive young female, when in fact they were the ones operating the accounts. Unbeknownst to the victims, during the web cam/live video chats, Ouattara and others surreptitiously recorded the victims as they exposed their genitals and/or engaged in sexual activity. Ouattara and others sent the victims copies of the victims’ fraudulently obtained sexual images and threatened to distribute the victims’ sexual images to the victims’ friends, family members, significant others, employers, and co-workers and to publish the victims’ sexual images widely online, unless the victims transferred funds to designated recipients. Ouattara, Kone, and others also operated infrastructure to transfer the funds illegally obtained from the victims to Ouattara and others located in Côte d’Ivoire and elsewhere overseas. On Feb. 24, Ivoirian authorities separately arrested Ouattara in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Ivoirian charges stemming from the same scheme. Kone and Ouattara are each charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and to send interstate threats, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, money laundering, and wire fraud. If convicted, Kone and Ouattara each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each conspiracy count and money laundering count, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss for the District of Delaware; and Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement. The FBI is investigating the case, with assistance from the government of Cote d’Ivoire. Trial Attorney Austin Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Briana Knox for the District of Delaware are prosecuting the case.

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Do New Yorkers need earthquake insurance?
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

https://www.brickunderground.com/live/ask-an-expert-new-yorkers-earthquake-… Do New Yorkers need earthquake insurance? Earthquake insurance is a supplemental policy that kicks in after building damage exceeds your deductible Deductibles range from 2 to 20 percent of your building's value, depending on location, age, and condition BY JENNIFER WHITE KARP | APRIL 15, 2024 - 3:45PM Lower Manhattan skyline and Chinatown The recent quake in New Jersey that rattled NYC should be a wake-up call to learn about the insurance coverage your building has and what it may be missing, our experts said. I never really thought about an earthquake happening in the NYC area, so the recent quake in New Jersey shook me up for multiple reasons! What do New Yorkers need for earthquake insurance? Major earthquakes are rare for New York City, but small ones do occur and some researchers think NYC is due for a magnitude 5 or higher. It’s important to know that earthquakes are not covered by standard insurance policies. For that reason, the recent quake in New Jersey that rattled NYC should be a wake-up call to learn about your building's insurance coverage and what may be missing, our experts said. Earthquake insurance covers damage from shaking and cracking and coverage is usually done as a supplemental policy that kicks in after damage to a building exceeds your policy’s deductible. These policies often have high deductibles, said Loretta L. Worters, vice president of media relations for the Insurance Information Institute. She said deductibles range from 2 percent to as high as 20 percent of the value of your building, depending on its location, age, and condition. A property may have to be inspected and upgraded before qualifying for earthquake insurance, for example, the structure may need to be bolted to its foundation, chimneys and walls braced, or other improvements. Unreinforced masonry buildings are most vulnerable Worters pointed to a 2003 report from The New York City Area Consortium for Earthquake Loss Mitigation that said unreinforced masonry buildings, which are predominant in NYC, are the most vulnerable to an earthquake because the material is brittle and does not absorb motion, making the walls likely to collapse out (among the many fearsome scenarios outlined). NYC has some of the toughest building codes in the country, but there are also older buildings that went up before the codes were enacted. If you live in a building that went up in the late 1800s and has not undergone a major renovation, it can be vulnerable. Co-op and condo boards should read their policies The recent earthquake is a reminder for co-op and condo boards to read their master insurance policies, said Philip Maltaghati, co-CEO of United Public Adjusters & Appraisers, which helps buildings file insurance claims. Most New Yorkers are not very familiar or don’t understand insurance terminology and most apartment buildings are “grossly under-insured,” he said. “Conversations about earthquake insurance should be happening without a doubt,” he told Brick. And they should be part of a larger discussion about how NYC residential buildings can be protected when significant damage occurs. Following the earthquake, Maltaghati did a random survey of some New York building insurance policies. He found a wide range of coverage and deductibles, and even where there was additional coverage for earthquakes, it was not adequate. He said that one Manhattan condo building had a master policy with a $100,000 deductible for earthquakes under the "earth movement" category, without explicitly excluding earthquake damages—meaning owners would have to eat the cost of the first $100,000 for damaged property. He also found policies for co-op buildings with earthquake coverage that had significant deductibles relative to the properties’ value. At the same time, NYC buildings are grappling with rising premiums, so a higher premium or deductible is not an easy case to make to a board. Another area where cutting costs can hurt: Maltaghati pointed out that many management companies don’t hire risk managers who can spot gaps in insurance coverage. “It’s expensive,” he said. Code upgrade and replacement cost coverage Here are some solutions that he highly recommends to condo and co-op boards: Maltaghati recommends buildings have ordinance or law coverage, also known as code upgrade coverage. This pays for expenses that occur when you have to bring your building up to code after a claim. He also recommends buildings have replacement cost coverage to reimburse the cost of rebuilding “if God forbid something terrible happens.” If you don’t know how to determine the replacement value of your building, he said to hire an experienced commercial appraiser—that may set you back $10,000 or more—then give that cost to the insurance broker. “You want to be able to say, ‘we did an appraisal and it said we should be insured for this amount,’” he said. His firm will review your building’s insurance policy for free to identify gaps in coverage, he added. What property owners can do about insurance Your concern can be put to good use if it prompts you to investigate what sort of insurance coverage you have, said Dawn David, a broker at Corcoran. Even though the earthquake shook up a lot of New Yorkers, “many have already forgotten about it,” she said. “When you’re living in NYC, you’re not thinking about earthquakes the way Californians do,” she said. Standard owners and renters insurance policies do not cover earthquake damage, as this Forbes article explains. One exception is if there is a fire sparked by an earthquake, your policy will cover fire-related damage. David said another event changed her approach to insurance. When she was part of the management team for a condo building, a flood occurred in one of the units. That prompted her to start collecting insurance information from other unit owners to make sure that owners were adequately insured as required by the building. She found out something interesting: Owners who live in their apartments were carrying more coverage for personal items compared to owners who used their units as a pied-à-terre or rented them out—a curious approach since leaks and fires can happen whether you’re in town or not. To keep track of owners and renters’ insurance documents, she uses BuildingLink’s property management portal, which last year added an insurance compliance module. Residents can use the site to submit their policy information to management for approval, and management can keep track of when a policy is going to expire, for example.

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Your Freedom of Information Law Request FOIL-2023-096828-022052 - (LendingClub.com September 11 Board of Directors resignation)
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <Carmen.Garrett(a)dfs.ny.gov> Date: Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 12:40 PM Subject: Your Freedom of Information Law Request FOIL-2023-096828-022052 To: <G(a)xny.io> Good afternoon: Attached, please find correspondence from the New York State Department of Financial Services pertaining to your FOIL request. Thank you. Tracking Number:FOIL-2023-096828-022052 SENT VIA EMAIL G(a)xny.io April 16, 2024 Mr. Gunnar D Larson xNY.io - Bank.org 406 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001 Re: Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) Tracking No. 2023-096828 Dear Mr. Gunnar D Larson: I write in response to the FOIL request that you submitted to The New York State Department of Financial Services (“Department”), which has been assigned tracking number 2023-096828. The Department requires additional time to respond to your FOIL request because we are still working on your request. The Department intends to provide its determination of your request by May 15, 2024. Thank you. 2024-096828: 3/13/24: Please submit any and all records related to the LendingClub.com September 11 Board of Directors resignation below. The date of the resignation is in question. You may understand the sensitive nature of the date of the resignation Gunnar Larson Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 5:06 PM to Anuj, Investor, Press Hello there: Thank you very much for the reply. Gunnar On Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 11:36 AM Anuj Nayar wrote: Hi Gunnar On September 11, 2021, in connection with her nomination to serve as superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, Adrienne Harris notified us of her resignation, effective September 12, 2021, from the Company’s Board. Details can be found in the 8k filed on 9/15/21 (below) https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK- 0001409970/bbc437e4-2920-4d5d-8e0d-86bca622f0ca.pdf From: Gunnar Larson Date: Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 9:37 AM To: Investor Relations , Press Cc: Gunnar Larson Subject: [EXT] LendingClub: Current Board of Directors CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dear Madam or Sir: Good day to you. Surveying market research, I was wondering if you can kindly confirm, from LendingClub's July 15, 2021 press release: Is Ms. Adrienne Harris currently a member of LendingClub's board of directors? https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lendingclub-appoints-adrienne-harr… board-of-directors-301335198.html#financial-modal [prnewswire.com] Reviewing your website, Ms. Harris is not referenced: https://www.lendingclub.com/company/leadership Bloomberg and other sources do not reference Ms. Harris as a LendingClub board member: https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/LC:US [bloomberg.com] Sending you the very best regards. Thank you, Gunnar -- Gunnar Larson - xNY.io [xny.io] | Bank.org [bank.org] MSc [unic.ac.cy] - Digital Currency MBA [unic.ac.cy] - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454- 9107 New York, New York 10001

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Your Freedom of Information Law Request FOIL-2023-096848-022051 - (2022 New York City Pension/Investment Management Asset Performance)
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <Carmen.Garrett(a)dfs.ny.gov> Date: Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 12:33 PM Subject: Your Freedom of Information Law Request FOIL-2023-096848-022051 To: <G(a)xny.io> Good afternoon: Attached, please find correspondence from the New York State Department of Financial Services pertaining to your FOIL request. Thank you. Tracking Number:FOIL-2023-096848-022051 SENT VIA EMAIL G(a)xny.io April 16, 2024 Mr. Gunnar D Larson xNY.io - Bank.org 406 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001 Re: Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) Tracking No. 2023-096848 Dear Mr. Gunnar D Larson: I write in response to the FOIL request that you submitted to The New York State Department of Financial Services (“Department”), which has been assigned tracking number 2023-096848. The Department requires additional time to respond to your FOIL request because we are still working on your request. The Department intends to provide its determination of your request by May 15, 2024. Thank you. 2024-096848: 3/13/24: While surveying 2022 New York City Pension/Investment Management Asset Performance, xNY.io - Bank.org noticed an overall negative return for the five systems referenced here: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/financial-matters/pension/asset-perfor…. xNY.io - Bank.org seeks access to any and all records explaing 2022 New York City Pension/Investment Management Asset Performance as a loss for all five funds. Comprehensively, the mechanisms for garnering public equity are easily understood and easy to execute. An advantage for public equity is its liquidity as most publicly traded stocks are available and easily traded daily through public market exchanges. Related to New York City Pension/Investment Management Asset Performance, public equity investments do not include individual stocks under "asset type" and "asset name." xNY.io - Bank.org would like to receive record if the five systems owned PayPal (PYPL) as an individual investment as part of fund investment across the systems between FY 2020 and 2022. Additionally, xNY.io - Bank.org seeks trading history ststements of PYPL across the five systems between FY 2020 and 2022.

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Justice Thomas Misses Monday's Supreme Court Arguments
by Gunnar Larson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

Justice Thomas Misses Monday's Supreme Court Arguments <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825327?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Katie Buehler U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was absent Monday for oral arguments examining disputes over whether accepting illegal gratuities without a quid pro quo is prohibited under a federal bribery statute and what test courts should apply when determining whether malicious prosecution claims can proceed. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825327?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1825327?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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