White Collar Alert

This guest post was authored by our colleague Rimma Tsvasman, an associate in the firm’s Litigation Department in New York. Rimma concentrates her practice on corporate and securities transactions, investment management and commercial litigation. She can be reached at rtsvasman@mmwr.com or 212-867-9500. 

In a highly anticipated move following a denied request for a rehearing, the Government has petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari requesting the high court to overturn the Second Circuit’s landmark insider trading decision in U.S. v. Newman.

Although the Newman decision has not reached far beyond New York’s borders, as noted by MMWR partner Lathrop Nelson in this recent Bloomberg article, there is no denying that the decision is a prominent one coming from what Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun has called the “Mother Court” for securities law.  Indeed, if the Supreme Court decides not to hear the case or if the decision is left to stand, it would represent a big change to the securities law landscape – both in New York and in other jurisdictions which historically have deferred to the Second Circuit on securities law matters – and a blow to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s legacy in aggressively policing Wall Street in the area of insider trading.

The Government itself has conceded that the Newman decision will dramatically limit its ability to prosecute some of the most common forms of insider trading which involves downstream tipping to individuals two or three steps removed from the so-called insider.  As noted by MMWR partner Mark Sheppard in an earlier post reporting on the Newman decision, many of the Government’s highest profile cases have been built upon the cooperation of those “downstream” traders who would be more empowered to resist the government’s efforts to secure that cooperation.  And although Newman is a criminal case, the Second Circuit did not limit its holding to such cases.  Therefore, civil enforcement cases stand to be impacted as well.

Already, the change caused by Newman is palpable as industry professionals hold their breath to see what the Supreme Court will do.  In just several months following the decision, defendants – including S.A.C. Capital Advisors’s Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg – have begun to file appeals to overturn their convictions in reliance on Newman.    And some defendants have already had their guilty pleas vacated.  Just over a month after the Newman case was decided, the District Court for the Southern District of New York applied the case to vacate four guilty pleas in an insider trading action involving tips about a 2009 acquisition by IBM.  In that case, United States v. Conradt, No. 12 CR 887 (ALC), 2015 WL 480419 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 22, 2015), the court expanded Newman’s application to cases based on the misappropriation theory, which imposes liability on third parties – such as lawyers – who are entrusted with confidential information as part of their work and break that trust by divulging the confidential information to others.

Decided on December 10, 2014, the Newman court put the brakes on aggressive insider trading prosecutions by holding that the Government must prove that the defendant knew the insiders disclosed confidential information in exchange for a personal benefit, and that the benefit was consequential and represented at least a potential gain of a pecuniary nature.  In other words, under Newman, friendly tips are no longer actionable.

In its petition to the Supreme Court, the Government argues that the Newman decision is at odds with the Supreme Court’s decision in Dirks v. SEC, which sets forth the personal-benefit standard, as well as other appeals court rulings, and has troubling implications for the Government’s ability to police insider trading.

The Supreme Court begins its new term in October, and will likely decide this Fall whether to consider the Government’s appeal.  We will be sure to keep you posted.