Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A small technology firm in McKinney with 22 employees, Servergy came into public view last week when a Collin County grand jury announced the indictment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton related to a deal he had made to sell the company’s stock. But the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been investigating the company before Paxton's name surfaced. The Dallas Morning News takes an in-depth look at Servergy.
Criminal charges probably should never have been brought against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, but now that they have been, he could be at serious risk of going to prison, according to legal experts following the case. More than a dozen former prosecutors and former judges interviewed by The Texas Lawbook say there is little to no evidence that the charges against Paxton are the result of political motivations and they believe there’s a significant chance that the case will go to trial.
The criminal securities fraud case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is only getting started, but it already features some of the best lawyers in the state. At the same time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has conducted its own inquiry into Servergy. The two cases have attracted A-list white-collar lawyers, including former federal judge Joe Kendall, Houston criminal defense lawyers Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice, SEC enforcement attorneys Samantha Cox Martin and Matthew Gulde, and securities litigators Jason Lewis and Kit Addleman. We have all the details.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is in its final stages of searching for a new regional director. The finalists include two current SEC officials, a former federal prosecutor and a corporate general counsel. A selection is expected by the end of August. The two front-runners are SEC Associate Director Marshall Gandy and former federal prosecutor Shamoil Shipchandler, who is now a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani in Dallas. “There are some great candidates on the list – no bad options,” says Xerox Senior VP and Group Counsel Clay Scheitzach.
An administrative law judge for the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission has exonerated Houston-based Robare Group and two of its executives of all charges the agency brought against them last September.
Texas justices, in its recent opinion in Shell Oil v. Writt, provide comfort that information shared with the government will not form the basis of a defamation claim by an individual identified in that information (at least in Texas), thus alleviating the potentially untenable position faced by companies that ostensibly had to choose between seeking cooperation credit and defending related defamation claims. The opinion also serves as an important reminder that concrete steps should be taken to preserve claims of privilege during the course of the FCPA investigation.
Information provided voluntarily by businesses to federal prosecutors as part of a foreign corruption investigation is covered by absolute privilege – even if those details contain false allegations that would otherwise be considered defamatory, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Josh Romero, a partner in Jackson Walker’s Austin office, said the case is significant because it is aligned with the national surge in False Claims Act litigation.
David Woodcock, the director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional office, said Tuesday that “now is the right time to leave.” In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Woodcock said he has made no career plans regarding his future.
An administrative law judge ruled Thursday that two Colleyville financial executives did little-to-nothing wrong in their leadership positions at Dallas-based Penson Financial, a now-defunct clearing service for U.S. brokerage houses dealing in stock trades. The case is a significant win for Haynes and Boone, which led the defense team and a major loss for the SEC, which lost only one of the 23 cases it filed with ALJs. By comparison, the agency lost one-third of the cases it brought in federal court during the same time period.
Investors are going after the law firms, insurance brokers and financial advisors that worked with Allen Stanford during his infamous Ponzi Scheme, claiming they played heavy roles in Stanford’s ability to defraud billions of dollars from roughly 20,000 investors.
A federal trial is underway in Dallas in which Ralph Janvey seeks to force several political officials to return millions of dollars in fees they were paid as advisers. “This is such an important case, really out of proportion to the dollars involved,” said Kevin Sadler, who represents Janvey. Lawrence Bowman, lawyer for Peter Romero, the former ambassador to Ecuador said his client is an honorable man who did nothing wrong."
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