Within days of announcing big settlements with JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, the SEC was forced to abandon its case against Edward Steffelin, and then lost a bid to salvage part of its case against ex-Goldman Sachs bond trader Fabrice Tourre over the notorious ABACUS CDO.

Aluminum giant Alcoa has had enough of waiting to defend itself against sensational bribery claims by a Bahraini rival while the DOJ and SEC build their own cases against the company. On Thursday Cravath's Evan Chesler travelled to Pittsburgh to make Alcoa's case for lifting a three-year-old stay in the civil suit so that it can seek dismissal, but federal prosecutors countered that allowing the case to proceed could threaten the government's investigation.