The U.S. Justice Department has launched an expansive criminal investigation into short selling by hedge funds and research firms, scrutinizing their symbiotic relationships and hunting for signs that they improperly coordinated trades or broke other laws to profit, according to people familiar with the matter.
The probe, run by the department’s fraud section with federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, is digging into how hedge funds tap into research and set up their bets, especially in the run-up to publication of reports that move stocks.
Authorities are prying into financial relationships between hedge funds and researchers, and hunting for signs that money managers sought to engineer startling stock drops or engaged in other abuses, such as insider trading, said two of the people, asking not to be named because the inquiries are confidential.
Underscoring the inquiry’s sweep, federal investigators are examining trading in at least several dozen stocks, including well-known short targets such as Luckin Coffee Inc., Banc of California Inc., Mallinckrodt Plc and GSX Techedu Inc. And they’re scrutinizing the involvement of about a dozen or more firms -- though it’s not clear which ones, if any, may emerge as targets of the probe. Toronto-based Anson Funds and anonymous researcher Marcus Aurelius Value are among firms involved in the inquiry, the people said. Other prominent firms that circulated research on stocks under scrutiny include Carson Block’s Muddy Waters Capital and Andrew Left’s Citron Research.
The U.S. probe opens yet another front in an already treacherous era for those who try to profit on stock drops. Some bearish funds threw in the towel as government stimulus buoyed prices during the pandemic. That pressure intensified as retail investors organized counterattacks on popular short targets, bidding up shares to inflict losses on hedge funds this year. By late January, Citron vowed to give up short-selling research and focus on long bets.
*Click the link for more…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/hedge-funds-ensnared-in-expansive-doj-probe-into-short-selling
Holy shit I’m so surprised how much I love working at the small law firm I’m at. Been here six months now and I’ve been waiting for it to get bad but even when it’s busy it’s just not. It’s a reaallly small firm of five attorneys and everyone has such a good vibe. Straight to the point, no games, let’s get this shit done team. No weekends, averaging ~8.5 hrs/day, interesting transactional work. I’m not being paid Big Law (tm) money but I’m still compensated handsomely for what is a pretty chill gig. I feel so lucky to be here. It’s teaching me a lot of stuff I will use in my personal life, like company formation services for my friends and family. My boss is dope. Such a nice dude. We are totally on the same wavelength. He is my Mr. Miyagi. Is this just a honeymoon phase?!?!? Or did I hit the jackpot here?!?!? Am I going to realize it’s all a facade???
Skilled and unskilled professions like doctors and retail workers receive overtime yet lawyers do not. Why?
I graduated law school this last May and currently work as an attorney for a local government agency. During law school I worked for county attorneys and a state attorney general. Throughout my entire legal experience so far I have had access to unlimited legal research because it has all been public interest.
I am looking to transition into the private sector but one thing that I have anxiety about it is how the private sector deals with legal research fees.
I am good at legal research and a good writer, but I fear my skills are based on having unlimited access to Lexis and Westlaw.
Am I overhyping these fears and anxiety? How do you conduct cost-conscious and effective legal research at your firm?
TL;DR: GME & meme stock holders were happy some time back that law firm Labaton Sucharow was helping them in arbitration against Robinhood. Turns out SAVA called them out in an SEC filing for representing anonymous clients that were "short" SAVA. Labaton also asked the FDA to rescind SAVA's drug designation citing clinical data manipulation, to which the Journal of Neuroscience openly called out as bullshit.
https://preview.redd.it/d4tert7fj3c81.png?width=2614&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c1e3cf0231b8bd2ba1cd950863d4042c2f0b7ea
A few days ago, ComplianceWeek (CW) wrote about the Department of Justice’s probe into short selling schemes by Anson Fund, Muddy Waters (like the singer?) Research, & Citron ($20, wE UnDeRsTaNd ShOrT iNtErEsT bEtTeR tHaN YoU).
An honest to God text between fuckers from SHF Anson Fund. Courtesy of DOJ. Thanks to for the find.
Featuring the BAMF Wes Christian & his endless rabbit hat of on-point metaphors for crime (“I believe [illegal short selling] is the largest commercial fraud in U.S. history. It makes the Bernie Madoff scheme look like a gnat on an elephant’s behind…”), the CW reporter seemed to agree that naked short selling has been “a massive embezzlement scheme” that’s gone ignored for years. A scheme that chief compliance officers and in-house counsel (like the ones who read ComplianceWeek) shouldn’t ignore.
For the legal arms of public companies digging into abusive short selling, apart from a standard toolkit–-tracking false market rumors (how about that NFT marketplace “announcement” from WedBush’s research into GME…and al Qaeda?), social media (pump and dumps on W Ess Bee?)--they were reminded to pursue any and all legal options. One such example was Farmland Partner’s lawsuit against Quinton Mathews. Quinton got paid $100K by hedge fund Sabrepoint Capital to shit talk Farmland in 2018 on SeekingAlpha under the name “Rita Fortunae”, helping to drive down their stock ~40% soon after he clicked “Publish”.
Another example? SAVA.
https://preview.redd.it/alw7n011k3c81.png?width=2304&format=png&auto=webp&s=a296c29e5aec249baa822c08603e7fc6b2fdcbb0
Cassava Sciences (SAVA) was a biopharm company that squeezed up a few days after the meme stock sneeze in January. Michael Burry (from “The Big Short”) has commented often on SAVA’s overlap between its
... keep reading on reddit ➡I am sure everyone by now has seen the Twitter attack from Kerrisdale Capital that was directed at Meta Materials Inc and George Palikaras. Kerrisdale Capital came right out and declared their short position on MMAT, and then proceeded to smear Meta Materials Inc with false accusations in a Tweet storm much like they did to Camber Energy CEI. Kerrisdale Capital had a short position on CEI back in early October when they did a “hit piece” of false accusations, causing the price of CEI to lose 50% the day their “hit piece” came out. Later, after the damage was already done to CEI, Kerrisdale Capital admitted their “report” on CEI was wrong and misleading. They are trying to do the same to MMAT.
Rosen Law Firm. Some of you may have seen the posts about Rosen Law Firm representing MMAT investors with financial losses to take part in a class action law suit against Meta Materials Inc. In their Announcement, Rosen states that this law suit is a result of the “hit piece” put out by Kerrisdale Capital. See picture below.
https://preview.redd.it/i5ro7vbzvl581.jpg?width=1620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbf7ce4e963e830ec005dbb2a0ae792c03bfbd6d
Notice the highlighted section “What is this about”. See Kerrisdale Capital. The was a coordinated attack on Meta Materials Inc and George Palikaras between Kerrisdale and Rosen. The DOJ announced last week that they were investigating illegal short selling. Tactics like putting out a “hit piece” against a company that they have a short position in with the intentions of dropping the share price of the targeted company. Sounds a lot like what Kerrisdale Capital did to CEI, and what they are currently trying to do to MMAT. Make no mistake, this is an attempt by Kerrisdale and their money hungry friends at Rosen to try to bring a lawsuit against MMAT for their own crimes.
With that being said, this frivolous lawsuit by Rosen Law Firm (orchestrated by Kerrisdale Capital) is just trying to trick you, MMAT investors into helping them get away with all the short selling (stealing from MMAT and YOU the past 7 months) by joining their team. This Lawsuit has zero merit, and the real class action will be coming soon against Kerrisdale Capital and all other nefarious parties involved in stealing from retail investors through market manipulation tactics.
📢TLDR: ANYONE POSTING or trying to spread this lawsuit from Rosen Law Firm IS A SHILL ACCOUNT & will be permabanned with extreme prejudice.
I have no idea how most ottawa lawfirms retain staff or not fall apart with the constant turnover.
My pay ranged from 31k to 44k and that included being a law clerk billing 5x my salary annually. This was at a top 3 national firm by the way.
I moved out of Ottawa and was shocked that smaller cities in Ontario with less than half the population pay way more. In hindsight I feel stupid for not leaving way sooner after graduating college.
I managed to land a 40 percent increase with one interview.
Ottawa law firm pay is so offensive. I feel bad for my coworkers trapped in ottawa. They truly make the firms thrive but are taken advantage of with pay.
If you also feel the same way but cant move, try looking outside of law firms for big companies headquartered in Ottawa. They often have in house legal support staff. Pays way better, less stress and billables dissapear. Dont feel trapped by your specialty in law. I made the jump from the most niche law (trademarks).
A Houston law firm is demanding $10 billion for the resolution of more than 1,500 cases it has filed on behalf of victims of the Astroworld Festival tragedy at NRG Park in Houston on Nov. 5 that resulted in 10 people dead and hundreds of injuries.
Attorney Brent Coon, founder of Brent Coon & Associates announced the massive lawsuit Monday against rapper and headliner Travis Scott and other defendants. The firm currently represents 1,547 concert goers, more than any other group seeking damages to date, according to a news release. In addition to litigating high profile mass tragedies across the county for the last 35 years, Coon said he has also run a promotion company for 20 years and is familiar with how events like Astroworld are supposed to be planned.
Coon's firm is demanding legislative action to include crowd control planning specialists to certify events, mandated training programs for event preparation and criminal liability for any wrongdoing, according to the release. He is also working with Dr. G. Keith Still, a world-renowned crowd surge stampede expert, who will serve as part of the legal team and provide advice on steps public officials should take to ensure what happened at Astroworld never happens again.
Still is also serving in an advisory and consulting role to governmental investigative panels looking into the tragedy, including the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety Panel Gov. Greg Abbott announced in response to the deadly events at Astroworld.
"What happened at Astroworld was an unconscionable tragedy and it is important that justice is served for all those impacted," Coon said in the release. "I believe our firm is best suited to help lead this case, not only because of the number of victims who have selected our firm to represent them in this action, but due the fact that we possess the extensive legal experience as demonstrated by our lead counsel work on many plant explosions, product recalls and other mass tort actions."
"We will roll over every rock in this matter," Coon said. "Everyone associated with these types of events has the power to halt conduct that is resulting in injury to attendees. It has been terribly disappointing that some defendants have already gone public misstating and down-playing their responsibilities that attach to events such as this."
https://web.archive.org/web/20211208131506/https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Travis-Scott-Astroworld-Houston-lawsuit-10-billion-16681620.php
... keep reading on reddit ➡I know every firm to some degree is sensitive to GPA but just curious if there are some that happen to be on the lower end of GPA sensitive. (Assume T30 in a major market if that helps)
I am a first year associate at an AmLaw 100 law firm and I’m trying to figure out how my benefits work and/or if they are comparable to other firms.
For context, I did not grow up in the United States and therefore am not super familiar with how “employer provided health insurance” works.
I pay $696.30 per month for health insurance coverage for myself and my spouse. If it was just me, I would have to pay $323.90. The amount comes out of my pay check. Is this normal? Or do other firms actually pay the monthly premiums for their associates?
This is my first professional job in the states, and I guess I thought that “employer provided health insurance” meant that my employer (the firm) would literally provide, aka pay for, my health insurance. I didn’t realize it meant that my employer provided me with the chance to pay for my own health insurance.
Would love to know if associates at other firms have a similar arrangement or if your firm actually covers the monthly premiums.
I am a recent LPC graduate. I have volunteered at a council in London where I assisted the solicitors who provided free legal advice to people from the community. I also worked for a company where I was a project assistant (project was valued at £130m but was not legal).
Now hear this: small law firm that specialises in immigration and employment law tells me I have no experience so they can’t offer me work but instead they can offer me an UNPAID legal internship working 1-2 days per week for 1-2 months and if I perform well they will hire me. The audacity? The irony? Unpaid internships are illegal they know this. Also I’m not worthless. I don’t have a lot of experience but they can’t seriously tell me I have none plus I completed the LPC and funded it myself. I’m so angry that a law firm specialising in employment law would be willing to abuse young struggling graduated. Unbelievable. Or am I in the wrong here and missing something? Is this normal???
I am currently going back and forth with a law firm who put me in collections over a very small amount that I wasn’t aware of until it popped up on my credit. I called and they agreed to remove it from my credit if I pay the full $500. I agreed and asked for it to be put in writing before I paid. They never did.
A month later (a few days ago), I received a letter in the mail demanding payment. I was going to call them tomorrow and talk. Here’s the thing, last night while texting a friend for my boyfriend from his phone, I scrolled up a bit and found a photo of the letter I was receiving, a week before being sent. Apparently his friends girlfriend is a paralegal at the law firm and took a photo of the letter and sent it to him. I’m furious and want to call the law firm tomorrow and tell them, without mentioning names. I also want to take legal action.
The paralegal is nice, but I feel violated. I also don’t want to get fired so I won’t say her name.
What will happen if I call tomorrow and tell them what happened?
I'll try to keep it short and simple - I was offered a Summer Associate position for this summer at a personal injury firm's pre-litigation department and they only gave me a week and a half to accept or decline. This is not the type of law I want to do nor the type of work I want to do, but I figured I would apply/interview just in case I had no other offer. Now I only have this offer and they gave me such a short time frame to accept/decline and I have no other offer besides this. I dont know what to do. I dont want to decline and have nothing else lined up for this summer, and I don't want to accept only to decline later on and burn a bridge with them. Im so mad that they would give me such a short timeframe to decide. Not sure what to do. Thoughts?
Background: I have been a paralegal for over a decade and I currently work in litigation. My firm did WFH for a couple of months in 2020 and holy wow, I loved it. I am pretty introverted and am most productive when there are no other humans in my immediate vicinity, which has never been a possibility in my open plan office. I would go in when something needed to be printed or mailed but that was mostly it and I was the happiest I’ve ever been with my job and my life in general, pandemic notwithstanding. Then we got called back to the office and since then I’ve been working there and looking for a new job that is remote.
However, there seem to be sooooo few remote paralegal jobs and I can’t sort out why. I’ve talked to recruiters and the only semi-reasonable thing I’ve heard is that the need someone who can come in for trial prep, etc (seems fine) but mostly I just hear “well, they really want someone in the office” and that’s that. And this is right after being told that firms are having trouble finding staff.
I’ve done my job remotely, I know how possible it is. I did my job better remotely. I’m also not where a lot of these jobs are so even if I wanted to work in office I wouldn’t be able to. So what’s the deal? Why do so many law firms seemingly insist on in person staff? What am I missing?
[First time seeing Soliz Law Firm. Video + Article]
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/new-images-from-the-stage-of-astroworld-attorney-believes-travis-scott-could-see-what-was-going-on
HOUSTON - A Houston attorney shared new images with FOX 26 from a recent site inspection at Astroworld.
"Immediately when you walk on, you get a really dark, eerie feeling like death occurred," said attorney Miriah Soliz from the Soliz Law Firm. "I felt like I was at a funeral standing on top of what was a gravesite for many."
The Soliz Law Firm represents more than 100 Astroworld concertgoers who are now seeking legal action against Apple, Live Nation, Travis Scott, and others.
Soliz shared with us images taken during the recent 3-day site inspection at the concert venue. In one of the videos provided from the stage, you can see from a vantage point similar to what the performers at Astroworld might have seen.
"When I was on the stage initially and looked out, I could tell immediately Travis Scott could see what was going on in the crowd," said Soliz. "You have a very good visual of the scene and all of the barricades and the exits on every side as long as you’re on top of that stage. It was very clear to me, very apparent immediately, he could see everything going on. There’s no way he couldn’t."
More than 50,000 people were at the festival almost two weeks ago. As Travis Scott performed, the crowd surged towards the stage out of control. 10 people were killed and dozens were injured.
According to preliminary findings from The Soliz Law Firm, the "pit" area in front of stage 1 was too small. Medical treatment areas weren’t easily accessible for those closest to the stage. In addition, they claim the festival didn’t have enough security or medical personnel.
"The biggest thing I noticed was 1, the amount of people that couldn’t fit in that small space.," said Soliz. "And 2, the [insufficient] amount of medical personnel, medical tents, and security."
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