SEC, Former Dewey & LeBoeuf CFO Appear to Settle Civil Case
Papers filed on Dec. 28 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that the regulator has resolved its proceedings against Joel Sanders. A similar agreement was unable to be reached with former Dewey & LeBoeuf executive director Stephen DiCarmine.
December 29, 2017 at 03:13 PM
4 minute read
A legal odyssey for Joel Sanders that began in March 2014 could finally be coming to an end after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed papers on Dec. 28 indicating that it had reached a settlement with the ex-financial chief of now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf.
SEC senior trial counsel Howard Fischer, in a two-page letter to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York, wrote that the regulator has “reached a settlement” with Sanders and plans on submitting that agreement shortly for approval.
In September, Caproni had ordered the SEC and defense lawyers to update her on settlement talks by Dec. 1. Earlier this month, Fischer informed Caproni that both sides had made progress in their efforts to resolve the case, but he also asked the judge to set a hearing to discuss a timeline for discovery issues and other matters.
Fischer's Dec. 28 letter to Caproni noted that “the parties were not able to reach a consensual resolution” with former Dewey & LeBoeuf executive director Stephen DiCarmine. As a result, the SEC plans to move forward on discovery with DiCarmine, while preparing to abandon any further proceedings against Sanders pending the finalization of a deal resolving the civil charges against him.
In October, Sanders avoided jail time after a New York state judge ordered him to pay a $1 million fine and perform 750 hours of community service following his criminal conviction in May on securities fraud and conspiracy charges. A jury cleared DiCarmine—represented in a retrial that began in February by Seward & Kissel government enforcement and internal investigations co-head Rita Glavin—of any wrongdoing.
A previous criminal trial ended with a mistrial in October 2015 after a deadlocked jury was unable to convict or exonerate the Dewey & LeBoeuf defendants, which at the time also included Steven Davis, a former chairman of the Am Law 100 firm that collapsed into bankruptcy in May 2012. In January 2016, Davis accepted a deferred prosecution deal offered by the New York County District Attorney's Office and settled a parallel SEC suit filed against him, although the issue of monetary sanctions in that matter remains unresolved.
Akerman securities litigation chair Brian Miller and commercial disputes partner Scott Kessler, who have represented Sanders in the SEC case, did not return requests for comment about the settlement deal. Nor did another civil lawyer for Sanders, Christopher Oprison, a former special assistant and associate White House counsel during the George W. Bush administration who left Akerman in August to join DLA Piper in Miami. (Andrew Frisch, who runs his own two-lawyer firm in New York, has long served as Sanders' criminal defense lawyer.)
Greenspoon Marder, a fast-growing, Florida-based Am Law 200 firm that hired Sanders as its COO in 2012 after the demise of Dewey & LeBoeuf, declined to comment on the SEC's potential settlement with Sanders. A Greenspoon Marder spokeswoman confirmed that Sanders now serves as a consultant to the firm, which saw various lawyers and staffers submit character reference letters to a Manhattan court earlier this year seeking leniency in a criminal sentence for Sanders, who has MBA and law degrees from Baruch College and St. John's University, respectively.
The New York Law Journal reported in July on the possibility of a settlement in the SEC's case against Sanders and DiCarmine, which focused on a $150 million bond offering by Dewey & LeBoeuf—the firm initially put the total at $125 million—in 2010. In late October, former Dewey & LeBoeuf finance director Francis Canellas, a key witness in the criminal case against DiCarmine and Sanders, received a sentence of no jail time and 250 hours of community service as a result of his cooperation agreement with prosecutors.
Locke Lord complex commercial litigation of counsel Michael King in Chicago and partner R.J. De Rose in New York, both of whom were retained by DiCarmine earlier this year to replace Bryan Cave as his counsel in the SEC case, did not respond to requests for comment about the status of settlement talks. Nor did Seward & Kissel's Glavin, who was also hired by DiCarmine in 2016 to replace Bryan Cave as his counsel in the criminal case.
Caproni has scheduled a pretrial conference in the SEC case for Jan. 5.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAmid Ripple of Marketing Moves, Paul Hastings Hires 2 Pros From Skadden
2 minute read'Rampant Piracy': US Record Labels File Copyright Suit Against French Distributor Believe
5 minute readUS Judge Rejects Morgan Stanley Reconsideration Bid in Deferred Compensation Litigation
US Bankruptcy Filings Rise 16.2% as Interest Rates, Inflation, and End of COVID Relief Hit Hard
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Will the 9th Circuit Still be Center Stage in Trump Policy Challenges?
- 2Obtaining Reimbursement from Medicaid
- 3NY Requiring Lawyers to Report Out-of-State Admissions, Public Discipline
- 4Man Hits Cow in Case That Tests 'Unrealistic Delivery Times'
- 5DC Judge, Applying 'Loper Bright,' Dismisses Complaint in Medicare Drug-Classification Dispute
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250