Securities Enforcement and Litigation

Hecker Fink represents some of the country’s leading financial institutions and commercial businesses – as well as their senior executives – in securities enforcement proceedings and complex securities litigation matters. We have a track record of success representing clients before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among numerous other governmental and regulatory enforcement agencies, as well as conducting sensitive internal investigations, and working with clients to strengthen compliance measures to help avoid those challenges in the first place.

Our team includes eleven former federal prosecutors with substantial experience both overseeing the prosecution of securities fraud cases and representing financial institutions in complex securities litigation matters, including WorldCom, Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), regulatory investigations, and a variety of civil lawsuits concerning municipal bond transactions, research reports, market timing, bid rigging and brokerage practices, and accounting and reinsurance transactions.

Hecker Fink’s securities enforcement and litigation practice is widely recognized for excellence. Both Legal 500 and Best Law Firms rank Hecker Fink among the nation’s top firms in securities litigation. Benchmark Litigation names Sean Hecker a National Practice Area Star in securities litigation, while Legal 500 further recognizes Sean, along with Shawn Crowley, Jenna Dabbs, Kate Doniger, Mike Ferrara, and David Gopstein as leading litigators in this field.

Select Representative Securities Enforcement and Litigation Matters

• Representation of a large multinational bank based in another country, serving as the independent compliance consultant in connection with an SEC/Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) resolution relating to off channel communications at the bank.
• Representation of a former executive of a Dubai private equity firm in a securities and wire fraud case in the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The indictment alleged executives lied to investors about the performance of the firm’s funds, inflating the funds’ values by more than $500 million.
• Representation of John Patrick Gorman III in an action brought by the CFTC for allegedly manipulating the prices of U.S. dollar interest-rate swap spreads, and for certain alleged misstatements, while working as the head of non-yen rate trading for a global financial services company in Japan. In a victory for our client, we secured a motion to dismiss in multiple respects, trimming the CFTC’s claims in count one of the complaint.
• Representation of one of five defendants in an SEC enforcement action alleging the accumulation of company stocks using various nominee entities in order to conceal the full ownership interest resulting in a no admit/no deny settlement with the SEC.
• Representation of a former officer of a Fortune 500 company in connection with a Department of Justice (DOJ) and SEC accounting fraud investigation which resulted in both agencies declining to bring charges.
• Representation of a French financial institution in a $1 billion residential mortgage-backed securities repurchase case, engineering a highly favorable resolution that resulted in voluntary dismissal of all claims against the institution.
• Representation of a large financial institution, serving as the SEC-approved compliance consultant, in connection with a resolution regarding the institution’s failure to maintain and preserve all written communications in violation of federal securities laws.
• Representation of multiple individuals in connection with an ongoing SEC investigation of a financial technology company, related to the cutting-edge and pressing question of whether cryptocurrency issued by the company qualify as “securities” under federal securities laws.
• Fended off an investigation of potential insider trading and violation of SEC rules related to trading in non-firm trading accounts by our client. Both the DOJ and the SEC declined to bring any charges.
• Representation of numerous individuals in connection with DOJ and SEC investigations of alleged accounting improprieties, resulting in both agencies declining to charge in one recent representation.
• Representation of the owner of a Swiss-based asset management firm in connection with a criminal investigation by the SDNY of potential stock manipulation schemes.
• Representation of one of the key individuals involved in a CFTC and SDNY investigation of a major foreign financial services organization in connection with certain bond issuances and related swaps trading.
• Representation of the former CFO of an institution under investigation by the SEC in relation to earnings reporting. Our client was interviewed by the SEC, but the investigation concluded without charges being filed against any individuals, including our client.
• Representation of individuals involved in SDNY and SEC investigations of alleged accounting improprieties.
• Representation of multiple individuals in connection with an SEC investigation of a cryptocurrency business.
• Representation of multiple individuals in connection with a CFTC investigation of an offshore cryptocurrency trading exchange.
• Representation of multiple individuals and an entity in connection with various federal and state criminal investigations relating to cryptocurrency businesses and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) issuances.