Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The defense lawyer for Quintan Cockerell says he did nothing illegal by telling doctors they should consider using the costly medications prepared by 2 pharmacies that paid Cockerell millions of dollars. The government says he was taking kickbacks for inducing doctors to send prescriptions to the pharmacies.
Kristin Najarian said her former husband, Quintan Cockerell, arranged for her to be put on the payroll of a Fort Worth pharmacy that, according to federal prosecutors, paid Cockerell millions of dollars in kickbacks. In one month alone, she said, she was paid $711,706.47 even though “I wasn’t working there.”
The co-owner of two Fort Worth pharmacies testified in federal court that Quintan Cockerell made “millions a month” by steering doctors to send in thousands of prescriptions for costly compounded medicines.
In a cease-and-desist order, state regulators bar BigWhale.io and two individuals based in the United Arab Emirates from offering unregistered, deceptive securities to Texans.
Environmental, social and governance considerations play an increasingly important role in M&A transactions. In any given deal, however, it can be challenging to qualitatively and quantitatively assess relevant ESG factors, perform appropriate levels of ESG due diligence and plan for appropriate remedial steps or capture ESG opportunities post-closing. M&A acquirers should seek experienced guidance on these considerations to enhance value, mitigate risks and better incorporate financial and non-financial measures into their deal evaluations.
An appellate panel rejects every ground raised by seven convicted defendants in one of the biggest medical fraud cases in Texas history.
Houston-based Tudor, Pickering, Holt and its owner, New York-based Perella Weinberg Partners, have agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine for violating federal securities laws’ recordkeeping provisions, according to an administrative order filed Friday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The allegations against the Texas-headquartered boutique energy banker and its parent were announced in a blitz of charges filed Friday by the SEC as the federal government comes to the end of its fiscal year and as the agency and the government face a potential shutdown.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged San Antonio-based Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. regarding actions taken by employees at a then-Chinese subsidiary to bribe Chinese government officials to obtain outdoor advertising contracts in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In a 13-page order issued Thursday, SEC officials announced that Clear Channel and its majority-owned subsidiary in China called Clear Media Limited — a subsidiary it has since sold — had “consented” to the federal agency’s findings that it violated anti-bribery, recordkeeping and internal accounting controls provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Overreach. Jurisdictional landgrab. Regulation by enforcement. These terms and expressions — and many more “colorful” turns of phrase — are used by some to describe the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approach to enforcement at the intersection of digital assets and the federal securities laws. The SEC has repeatedly rejected such claims and has yet to act upon industry calls for increased clarity and guidance.
But it is the SEC’s most recent enforcement actions — its first two cases involving nonfungible tokens — that have yet again brought forth the SEC’s critics. What should we make of these first-of-their-kind enforcement actions? Doesn’t the lack of fungibility of NFTs move these tokens outside the SEC’s jurisdictional reach, making this the latest example of overreach? Or are these matters simply the latest actions in line with the SEC’s longstanding enforcement approach?
Between 2011 and 2022, commercial real estate giant CBRE allegedly required departing employees to sign a document pledging that they had not filed any complaints with any federal agencies as a condition of severance pay. The SEC contends that requirement by the Dallas-headquartered commercial real estate investment and services firm violated federal whistleblower laws.
The fast-moving case is heading to the Fifth Circuit over the First Amendment implications of a new law requiring booksellers to rate material sold to public school libraries. Would Texan Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet be banned for sexual content?
Similar to trends seen in other industries, passenger and cargo airlines are taking steps to increase the visibility of efforts to reduce and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Their actions reflect the expansion of government regulatory initiatives and the changes in consumer preferences. But for the aviation industry, finding solutions that reduce or mitigate GHG emissions is especially difficult. It's an area that will produce deals and technological investments for years to come.
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