Liquidnet Rule 605 Violations 2018-2024 TL;DR Liquidnet, Inc., a Wall Street trading firm, published 74 fraudulent monthly reports from February 2018 through March 2024, covering 67 million orders. The firm misclassified orders requiring special handling as standard covered orders, corruptingβ¦
Coffey v. Fast Easy Offer TL;DR The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court dismissal in Coffey v. Fast Easy Offer, LLC, ruling that vague real estate text messages can constitute illegal “telephone solicitations” under the TCPA. Defendantsβ¦
TL;DR From January 2020 through December 2023, Chicago brokerage tastytrade systematically failed to report at least 71 written customer complaints to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). FINRA Rule 4530(d) requires quarterly reporting of customer grievances. tastytrade received the complaintsβ¦
Cumulus vs. Nielsen: The Data Monopoly TL;DR Nielsen, the sole provider of national radio ratings data, forced broadcasters to buy its expensive local data products to access the national report. The Second Circuit Court affirmed a preliminary injunction blocking thisβ¦
Infinity Financial Services FINRA Annuity Fraud Settlement TL;DR Infinity Financial Services operated without any system to monitor how often its advisors were churning client retirement accounts through variable annuity exchanges from June 2019 to present. Between June 2019 and Februaryβ¦
Debra Pratt v. Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry: The Cost of Reporting Harassment TL;DR Debra Pratt, the Human Resources Manager at Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry (WAF), was fired after reporting rampant sexual harassment and discrimination by senior executives. The 7th Circuit Court ofβ¦
Quest Education SEC Fraud Investigation TL;DR The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Quest Education L.L.C. and three individuals with operating an unregistered broker-dealer scheme. Between October 2020 and at least March 2023, Quest received approximately $1.6 million in commissions fromβ¦
Wage Theft at Grand Wailea: The Per-Hour Victory TL;DR The HawaiΚ»i Supreme Court ruled that minimum wage must be paid for each individual hour worked, rejecting the federal “workweek averaging” loophole. Grand Wailea (Waldorf Astoria) was accused of paying spaβ¦
Smithfield Fresh Meats Corp. Ammonia Safety Violations TL;DR Smithfield Fresh Meats Corp. operated a massive ammonia refrigeration system in Tar Heel, North Carolina, with nearly 370,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. EPA inspectors found severe safety failures including corroded pipes, damagedβ¦
Ventura Coastal LLC Consent Agreement TL;DR Ventura Coastal, LLC operates a citrus processing plant in Tipton, California that stores over 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. An EPA inspection on October 24, 2023, uncovered five distinct violations of the Clean Airβ¦