Key Takeaways:
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) have brought the first-ever insider trading actions involving cryptocurrency against a former manager of Coinbase, one of the largest U.S. crypto asset trading platforms, and two tippees for sharing or trading upon confidential information relating to the planned listing of various cryptocurrencies on Coinbase.
- The SEC’s securities fraud charges are based on its longstanding position that certain cryptocurrencies are investment contracts and therefore “securities” subject to the SEC’s jurisdiction.…
Yesterday, the full House of Representatives approved H.R. 2534, otherwise known as the Insider Trading Prohibition Act. If passed by the Senate and signed by the President, this legislation would mark an important milestone in insider trading jurisprudence. For decades, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) have pursued insider trading violations through general anti-fraud provisions, which has resulted in extensive judge-made law and ambiguity as to when actors will be held liable for insider trading. … 
Some regulators and investors are expressing concerns about abuse of Rule 10b5-1 plans. Last July, Representative Maxine Waters introduced the “
Schultz “Jason” Chan, former director of biostatistics at Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKBA), was sentenced to three years in prison following his conviction for insider trading. Chan was convicted of providing material non-public information about Akebia to former Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MACK) employee Songjiang Wang. Wang was also convicted of insider trading based on providing material non-public information about Merrimack to Chan; Wang is set to be sentenced on November 13,…