Fed's Cook Slams 'Pretextual' Mortgage Fraud Accusations

By Lauren Berg

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook on Monday hit back at federal officials' allegations she committed mortgage fraud, criticizing the "baseless" accusations as "pretextual justifications" for President Donald Trump and his allies "to investigate anyone whom they view as an obstacle to the administration's political and economic agenda."

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Citi Investors Can't Have New Shot At Suit Over $400M Fine

By Jon Hill

A New York federal judge has declined to revive a proposed securities fraud class action that accused Citigroup of concealing risk-management failures that led to a $400 million fine, ruling that investors' revamped complaint remains too thin to sustain the case.

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BNP Asks Judge To Overturn $21M Sudan Refugee Verdict

By Katryna Perera

BNP Paribas has asked a New York federal judge to reverse a recent $21 million bellwether verdict won by three Sudanese refugees who claim that the French bank contributed to longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir's atrocities, arguing that the jury's verdict and damages awards are inconsistent with Swiss law, which governs the suit.

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Kansas City Bank Can't Nix Cert. Over Inmate Debit Card Fees

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge has denied the Central Bank of Kansas City's bid to decertify a nationwide class in a suit accusing it of charging former jail inmates unfair fees on prepaid debit cards, billing the motion as "premature" on Friday while leaving room for the bank to raise the issue again later.

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Ill. OKs Next Step For LevelField's Crypto-Focused Bank Bid

By Aislinn Keely

LevelField Financial Inc. announced Monday that an Illinois regulator has given it the green light for the next step of its planned acquisition of Burling Bank, furthering its plan to launch an insured bank that offers crypto services with the help of its acquisition counsel Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.

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Ex-Russian Gas CFO Resentenced To 6 Years For Tax Crimes

By Kat Lucero

A Florida federal judge handed a nearly six-year prison term to a Russian gas company's former chief financial officer, who was convicted for tax evasion after the Eleventh Circuit vacated a prior sentence earlier this year.

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Russia-Tied Payments Co. Escapes Investor Suit For Good

By Emilie Ruscoe

Payments company Qiwi PLC no longer faces investor claims it hid its noncompliance with Russian financial regulation and hurt investors when the company disclosed that a Russian central bank audit had led to a fine and certain payments restrictions.

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Chase Gets 2nd Shot At Pushing Bias Suit To Arbitration

By Ben Adlin

JPMorgan Chase Bank NA will have another chance to force a family's racial discrimination lawsuit into arbitration, a Seattle federal judge has ruled, modifying her earlier order that rejected the bank's arbitration effort.

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Judge Pauses $3B Bond Enforcement Amid Citgo Auction

By Caroline Simson

A New York federal judge has paused enforcement of nearly $3 billion in defaulted Venezuelan-issued bonds until a winning bidder for the country's most important seizable asset — the parent company of the oil giant Citgo — is chosen in parallel proceedings in Delaware.

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WilmerHale Taps SEC's Former Investment Management Exec

By Jack Rodgers

WilmerHale has hired a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who most recently was director of the agency's Division of Investment Management, to lead the firm's investment management practice.

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Where Crypto Mixing Enforcement Is Headed From Here

Recent developments involving crypto mixers, particularly the Tornado Cash verdict, demonstrate that the Justice Department's shift away from regulation by prosecution does not mean total immunity, rather reflecting an approach that prioritizes both innovation and accountability, says David Tarras at Tarras Defense.

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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Dynamic Databases

Several recent federal court decisions illustrate how parties continue to grapple with the discovery of data in dynamic databases, so counsel involved in these disputes must consider how structured data should be produced consistent with the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Bonus Spotlight

Cravath Unveils Associate Bonuses, Multiple Firms Follow

By Aebra Coe

Multiple firms swiftly fell in line Tuesday evening just hours after Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP announced associate bonuses in line with those offered last year, continuing a long tradition of BigLaw firms following Cravath's lead on compensation.

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Pillsbury Winthrop Latest Firm Targeted By Data Breach Suit

By Hailey Konnath

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on Tuesday was hit with a proposed class action stemming from a data breach the firm says happened in April, adding to the growing litigation firms are facing in the aftermath of cyberattacks.

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Analysis

Perkins Coie's Trump Fight Doesn't Scare Off UK Suitor

By Chris Villani

Perkins Coie LLP's ongoing fight with the Trump administration did not deter a proposed combination with British law firm Ashurst, signaling that the legal community is not worried about fallout from the president's suspension of the firm's security clearances.

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Republican Senators Seek Judge Boasberg's Suspension

By Courtney Bublé

Six Republican senators, three of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are asking that Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia be administratively suspended while Congress considers his impeachment.

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Sanctioned Atty Convinces Mo. Court Errors Not Caused By AI

By Emily Sawicki

A Missouri federal judge sanctioned former counsel for Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Co. Monday for including citation errors in a motion this fall, finding that, although the attorney likely inserted the errors herself without the use of AI software, "such carelessness, exacerbated by a lack of internal guardrails, is entirely unacceptable."

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Brief

Conn. Atty Fined $500 For AI-Generated Errors In Wage Suit

By Emily Sawicki

In an order that noted an attorney's remorse, a Connecticut federal judge sanctioned a solo practitioner $500 this week for submitting a brief packed with false, AI-generated case citations, finding the fake authorities wasted court resources, risked misleading a pro se litigant and undermined trust in the judicial system.

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Disbarred NC Atty Must Pay $5.2M For Escrow Fund Misuse

By Abigail Harrison

A disbarred attorney was ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution and serve four years of probation during a Tuesday sentencing hearing in North Carolina federal court, after he pled guilty to a criminal wire fraud charge related to the misuse of escrow funds.

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Judge Upholds NY Law Blocking ICE Courthouse Arrests

By Andrea Keckley

New York beat back a federal lawsuit challenging the state's policy barring immigration officials from arresting people near its courthouses, after a federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's preemption claims.

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NY AG James Blasts 'Outrageous Conduct' Behind Indictment

By Adrian Cruz

New York Attorney General Letitia A. James has told a Virginia federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's indictment of her, calling it "patently unconstitutional" and "outrageous conduct."

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McGuireWoods Is Delaying Defamation Case, NC Justices Told

By Hayley Fowler

The former CEO of a managed care organization who alleges McGuireWoods and one of its ex-partners defamed him during a press conference more than seven years ago has told North Carolina's top court not to take up the case, panning their petition as yet another stalling tactic.

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Brief

Missouri Federal Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool of the Western District of Missouri has given notice he will take senior status upon the confirmation of state Judge Megan Benton, whose nomination to the federal bench President Donald Trump announced Friday.

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CFPB's Gradler Takes Deputy Post Amid Agency Uncertainty

By Jon Hill

Geof Gradler, a former industry lobbyist who recently joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's front office, said that he is taking over as the agency's deputy director, a job that positions him as a potential successor to acting director Russell Vought.

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