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Good morning. After a month-long trial, the jury in the Sam Bankman-Fried crypto fraud case took just over four hours to convict the FTX founder on all seven counts he faced. Plus, Elon Musk’s Quinn Emanuel team fired back at the SEC in a subpoena spat; the NCAA got hit with a new antitrust suit; and lawyers in a fee fight want a U.S. appeals court to speed things up. Let’s quickly close this week!
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FTX crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted at trial in New York federal court–a verdict in a multibillion-dollar fraud case that cemented the 31-year-old tech mogul’s fall from grace, Luc Cohen and Jody Godoy write. The panel of 12 delivered its verdict about four hours after the start of deliberations.
Bankman-Fried, an MIT graduate whose mother and father both are Stanford University law professors, could face decades in prison when he is sentenced before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He learned his fate in Manhattan federal court nearly a year after FTX declared bankruptcy. FTX’s collapse shocked cryptocurrency markets and obliterated his fortune. Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
“He lied to gain customers’ trust, to get their money, and then he decided the rules didn’t apply to him and his business,” prosecutor Danielle Sassoon told jurors. Bankman-Fried, testifying in his own defense, acknowledged he made mistakes that hurt customers while running FTX, such as not hiring a chief risk officer, but insisted he never intended to commit fraud. A lawyer for Bankman-Fried, Mark Cohen, told jurors that “business decisions made in good faith are not grounds to convict.”
>> Read more: Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction – what’s next?
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- A divided Indiana Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita for statements he made about a doctor in the state who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio.
- More than two dozen major U.S. law firms sent a letter to the deans of 14 of the nation’s top-ranked law schools, expressing concern over a wave of antisemitism and intimidation on university campuses amid the latest fighting between Israel and Hamas.
- Lawyers for Rudy Giuliani urged a disciplinary board in D.C. to reject a recommendation that would strip the former New York mayor of his law license for his work on a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results on behalf of Donald Trump.
- Three law firms fighting over how to divide more than $20 million in fees from a $784.6 million settlement with Pfizer asked the 1st Circuit to force U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock to render a ruling within 60 days. Woodlock five years ago presided over a four-day bench trial in the fee fight.
- Cooley became the latest U.S. law firm to open an office in Miami, citing an opportunity to work with technology and venture capital clients. Corporate and mergers and acquisitions partner Derek Colla will relocate from D.C. to lead the new office.
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That’s how much Uber and Lyft will pay to settle claims by New York’s attorney general that the ride-sharing companies systematically cheated drivers out of pay and benefits. Attorney General Letitia James said Uber will pay $290 million and Lyft will pay $38 million to resolve a multi-year investigation into the companies, calling it the largest wage theft settlement in her office’s history.
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A Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled on Wednesday that Rithm Capital’s $720 million bid for hedge fund Sculptor Capital Management will be probed at a preliminary injunction hearing on Nov. 14, two days before a scheduled shareholder vote on the deal. Alison Frankel has the details on Wednesday’s hearing, in which the judge noted “real concerns” about a deal between Rithm and a group led by billionaire Dan Och, after the Och group was appointed co-lead class counsel in an action opposing Rithm’s previous offer but then decided to back its sweetened bid.
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Lawmakers in the 11th Circuit’s three southern states now have broad privileges against testifying or turning over documentary evidence in race discrimination and civil rights lawsuits, following a ruling by the appeals court on Monday. The subpoena dispute arose in a suit by a group of professors challenging Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, which restricts teaching about certain race-related concepts. The appeals panel granted legislators an absolute privilege against providing evidence in civil rights cases, despite decades of contrary precedent, columnist Hassan Kanu writes. Kanu says the ruling represents the latest in a series of court-created procedural hurdles that have made it nearly impossible for plaintiffs to win civil rights cases.
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—Donald Trump Jr, who stopped to speak with Reuters courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg after he finished testifying in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial against the Trump family business. The oldest son of the former president had spent the past several hours on the witness stand, trying to distance himself from the questionable financial statements that a judge has already ruled fraudulent.
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What to catch up on this weekend
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- Appellate veteran Paul Clement will argue in the 2nd Circuit for gun manufacturers, distributors and retailers against a first-of-its-kind New York state law that expands liability for the gun industry in the wake of shootings. The National Shooting Sports Foundation and gun manufacturers contend that U.S. federal law preempts the state regulations. U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino in Albany last year rejected the industry’s request to block enforcement of the statute. Circuit Judges Raymond Lohier Jr, Dennis Jacobs and Eunice Lee will hear arguments.
- The DOJ is expected to file a brief opposing arguments by media organizations that a federal judiciary rule that would bar the broadcasting of former President Donald Trump’s election subversion trial is unconstitutional. The media organizations and press advocacy groups argue the public has a right to see an unprecedented trial of a former U.S. president. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in D.C. asked Trump’s lawyers to give their opinion by Nov. 10 on media requests to broadcast the trial, which is scheduled to begin in March 2024.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The American Hospital Association filed a lawsuit challenging a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy that bans hospitals and healthcare providers from using popular web tracking devices on their public websites and apps. HHS says the trackers risk releasing private health information from people who search health conditions on the websites, while the hospitals say they need the data to better provide services. (Reuters)
- UFC has lost its 9th Circuit bid to revoke class action status from hundreds of martial arts fighters who are suing for billions of dollars in wages, setting the stage for an April trial. The court spurned the UFC’s pretrial challenge to a ruling that said more than 1,200 fighters could sue as a group seeking upwards of $1.6 billion in damages in the Las Vegas case. (Reuters)
- Country singer Andy Stone has refiled a U.S. copyright lawsuit accusing Mariah Carey of ripping off his band Vince Vance & the Valiants’ song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with her holiday hit of the same name. Stone and his co-writer are seeking $20 million in the lawsuit, which claims that Carey’s song copies their song’s “compositional structure of an extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury” and other lyrical and musical elements. (Reuters)
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- Simpson Thacher added Gabriel Silva as a New York-based energy and infrastructure partner. Silva was previously at Vinson & Elkins. (Simpson Thacher)
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