FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com
Cohen Milstein’s Laura H. Posner Appointed ILEP President
A leading securities litigator and the former top securities regulator for New Jersey, Posner brings rare perspective on investor rights to think tank
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Laura H. Posner, a partner in Cohen Milstein’s Securities Litigation & Investor Protection and Ethics & Fiduciary Counseling practices and the former Bureau Chief for the New Jersey Bureau of Securities, was named president of the Institute for Law and Economic Policy (“ILEP”), one of the country’s leading public policy research and educational foundations on investor access to the civil justice system.
Posner’s appointment was announced at the 2023 ILEP–Penn Carey Law Journal of Business Law Symposium, November 9, 2023.
Over the course of her career, Posner has recovered billions on behalf of defrauded investors. Her notable successes include 6 of the top 100 securities fraud class action settlements of all time, including, most recently, a historic $1 billion settlement in In re Wells Fargo & Company Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) – the 17th largest securities class action settlement ever and the largest ever without a restatement or related actions by the Securities Exchange Commission or U.S. Department of Justice.
Prior to joining Cohen Milstein, Posner was the Bureau Chief for the New Jersey Bureau of Securities – the top Securities Regulator in New Jersey. Cases prosecuted under her direction resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries for New Jersey residents, as well as more than 20 criminal convictions.
“I am delighted Laura will be assuming the role of ILEP President. She has brought an important perspective to ILEP, given her unique regulatory and enforcement background and the fact that she’s actively litigating cutting-edge securities cases to address investor harm and hold corporations accountable,” said Marc Gross, ILEP’s outgoing president.
“I am very honored by this appointment. I have tremendous respect for the long history of ILEP and its incredibly talented and impressive roster of law professors whose scholarship is critical to understanding the constantly evolving areas of securities law, regulation, and litigation, as well as to the protection of investors and the markets more generally,” said Laura Posner, ILEP’s newly appointed president and a partner at Cohen Milstein. “ILEP’s importance cannot be understated given the novel innovations in securities products and trading, such as cryptocurrencies and high-frequency trading, and the current state of the global financial markets.”
In addition to ILEP, Posner is a member of the Public Policy Council of the Certified Financial Planner (“CFP”) Board, the immediate past-Chair of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s (NYC Bar) Securities Litigation Committee, and the former Chairwoman of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) Enforcement Committee.
About Cohen Milstein
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, handling high-profile and often precedent-setting litigation. With over 100 attorneys across the country, Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Philadelphia, PA, Raleigh, NC, Boston, MA and Minneapolis, MN. For more information, visit www.cohenmilstein.com or call 202.408.4600.
About the Institute for Law and Economic Policy
The Institute for Law and Economic Policy (“ILEP”) is a public policy research and educational foundation whose mission is to preserve, study, and enhance investor and consumer access to the civil justice system. ILEP organizes symposia, co-sponsored by law schools and attended by academics, jurists, and practitioners. Leading professors and law experts present papers on class actions, securities law, corporate governance, and consumer protection issues. Papers presented at these Symposia have been published in prestigious law reviews and cited by numerous courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Amgen, Halliburton and Morrison. For more information, visit www.ilep.org or call (215) 988-9546.
Lawsuit Alleges that 14 of DC’s Largest Landlords Coordinated Through RealPage’s Centralized Price-Setting Algorithm to Artificially Inflate Rent Prices
WASHINGTON, DC – Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today announced a lawsuit against RealPage, Inc. (RealPage) and 14 of the largest residential landlords in the District for colluding to illegally raise rents for tens of thousands of DC residents by collectively delegating price-setting authority to RealPage, which used a centralized pricing algorithm to inflate prices, costing renters millions of dollars.
The defendant landlords are some of the largest providers of multifamily housing in the District, and the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) investigation revealed that RealPage’s technology was used to set rents for more than 50,000 apartments across DC, in violation of the District’s Antitrust Act.
“RealPage and the defendant landlords illegally colluded to artificially raise rents by participating in a centralized, anticompetitive scheme, causing District residents to pay millions of dollars above fair market prices,” said AG Schwalb. “Defendants’ coordinated and anticompetitive conduct amounts to a District-wide housing cartel. At a time when affordable housing in DC is increasingly scarce, our office will continue to use the law to fight for fair market conditions and ensure that District residents and law-abiding businesses are protected.”
The 14 landlords named in the lawsuit are:
- Avenue5 Residential, LLC
- AvalonBay Communities, Inc.
- Bell Partners, Inc.
- Bozzuto Management Company
- Camden Summit Partnership L.P.
- Equity Residential Management, LLC
- Gables Residential Services, Inc.
- GREP Atlantic, LLC
- Highmark Residential, LLC
- JBG Smith Properties, LP
- Mid-America Apartments, LP
- Paradigm Management II, LP
- UDR, Inc.
- William C. Smith & Co., Inc.
Background on RealPage
RealPage offers a variety of technology-based services to real estate owners and property managers including revenue management products that employ statistical models that use data—including non-public, competitively sensitive data—to estimate supply and demand for multifamily housing that is specific to particular geographic areas and unit types, and then generate a “price” to charge for renting those units that maximizes the landlord’s revenue.
In the District, well over 30% of apartments in multifamily buildings (i.e., buildings with five or more units), and approximately 60% of units in large multifamily buildings (with 50+ units), are priced using RealPage’s software.
In the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metropolitan Area, that number is even higher: over 90% of units in large buildings are priced using RealPage’s software.
This leaves many District residents with no choice but to pay RealPage’s inflated rents.
OAG’s Lawsuit
Specifically, OAG’s lawsuit alleges that:
RealPage and the defendant District landlords colluded to use RealPage’s “Revenue Management” technology, making it market-dominant. RealPage contracts with property managers and owners to provide its software and services. The company’s unparalleled access to proprietary data and significant market share have positioned it as the “Big Tech” company of rental housing.
The defendant landlords illegally coordinated to forgo competition and share sensitive company data and delegate rent-setting authority to RealPage in order to raise rents. RealPage and the defendant landlords transformed a competitive marketplace into one in which competing landlords work together for their collective benefit at the expense of renters. Their anticompetitive agreement is reflected in documents, has been publicly acknowledged by cartel members, and is closely policed by RealPage to ensure compliance. Participating landlords worked to recruit additional landlords into the illegal scheme, providing written and oral testimonials touting the benefits of using RealPage’s technology to inflate rent prices and increase revenues.
The defendants’ illegal agreement to share information and collectively set rents led to artificially inflated rental prices and caused District tenants to pay millions of dollars above market rates. RealPage widely touts the impact of its products, publicly advertising revenue increases of 2-7%. Where RealPage’s market penetration increases, price effects tend to extend beyond just the users of the price-setting software itself, potentially impacting all market participants, illustrating the significant, widespread effects of the adoption of RealPage’s algorithmic pricing.
With this lawsuit, OAG is seeking to:
Stop RealPage and the defendant landlords from engaging in anticompetitive behaviors that artificially inflate rent prices for District tenants.
Appoint a corporate monitor to ensure that RealPage and the defendant landlords do not engage in further anticompetitive misconduct.
Secure financial compensation for the District and residents whose rents were unlawfully raised.
This matter is being handled by Assistant Attorney General Amanda Hamilton and Section Chief Adam Gitlin of the Antitrust and Nonprofit Enforcement Section.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com
American Antitrust Institute and Cohen Milstein Announce Winner of Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship – Best Student Antitrust Article
Inaugural recognition of outstanding law student contributions to antitrust scholarship
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In recognition of her outstanding contribution to antitrust scholarship, Eileen Li, J.D. a 2023 graduate of Columbia Law School, has been selected as the winner of the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award – Best Student Antitrust Article of 2022 – for her article Merger Review 2.0: Infusing CFIUS’s “Critical Technologies” Approach Into Antitrust Oversight Of Nascent Tech Acquisitions, 122 Colum. L. Rev. 1691.
The award will be presented during the American Antitrust Institute’s 17th Annual Private Antitrust Enforcement Conference on Thursday, November 2, 2023, recognizing outstanding achievements in the antitrust community across a variety of contributions and categories at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Li’s article, Merger Review 2.0: Infusing CFIUS’s “Critical Technologies” Approach Into Antitrust Oversight Of Nascent Tech Acquisitions, addresses the subject of nascent tech acquisitions, which have been the subject of renewed regulatory and antitrust scrutiny in recent years. These acquisitions can often be very small—hundreds of tech deals have occurred in the past decade below the current reporting threshold of $101 million—and the current merger review process of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) often fails to capture the harms unique to these early-stage deals.
Li’s article argues that the FTC should look to another government agency—the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—and learn from their experience reviewing very small but sensitive tech deals. CFIUS examines all foreign investment into companies that control technologies that may be sensitive for U.S. national security, focusing over the past few years on Chinese investment into U.S. start-ups as an area of concern. The article examines the resources and renewed mission CFIUS received from Congress through the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) and argues that the FTC merger process can undergo a similar overhaul. Specifically, the article lays out the arguments for the creation of a CFIUS-style critical technologies pilot program run by the FTC, which would allow the antitrust enforcement agency to orient its mission toward addressing emerging technological markets.
About the Award
The Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award was created through a trust established in memory of Jerry S. Cohen, an outstanding trial lawyer and antitrust scholar. The award is administered by the law firm he founded, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
The award honors the best antitrust writing published during the prior year that is consistent with the values that animated Jerry S. Cohen’s professional life – a genuine concern for economic justice, the dispersal of economic power, effective limitations upon economic power, and the vigorous enforcement of the antitrust laws.
About Cohen Milstein
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, handling high-profile and often precedent-setting litigation. With over 100 attorneys across the country, Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Philadelphia, PA, Raleigh, NC, Boston, MA and Minneapolis, MN. For more information, visit www.cohenmilstein.com or call 202.408.4600.
About the American Antitrust Institute
The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) is an independent, nonprofit organization devoted to promoting competition that protects consumers, businesses, and society. AAI serves the public through research, education, and advocacy on the benefits of competition and the use of antitrust enforcement as a vital component of national and international competition policy. For more information, visit www.antitrustinstitute.org or call (202) 828-1226.
Litigation related to Abbott’s manufacture, sale, and recall of contaminated infant formula, leading to nationwide infant formula shortage.
Chicago, IL – Court-appointed Lead Counsel Cohen Milstein and Scott & Scott filed a consolidated complaint in In re Abbott Laboratories Infant Formula Shareholder Derivative Litigation, a massive shareholder derivative lawsuit brought against Abbott Laboratories’ Board of Directors for breaching their fiduciary duties related to the Company’s manufacture and sale of infant formula products, prompting a major recall and nationwide infant formula shortages and allegedly causing billions of dollars of damage to Abbott.
Plaintiffs also allege claims for insider trading, corporate waste, and unjust enrichment, as well as violations of the federal securities laws.
“Abbott’s Board breached its main duty to the Company: to oversee mission-critical risks in connection with the highly regulated manufacturing and sale of infant formula. The result was tragic for our nation’s families, resulting in a nationwide formula shortage and the deaths of multiple infants allegedly due to consuming Abbott’s tainted baby formula, and it has been catastrophic for Abbott’s business, leading to a DOJ consent decree and billions of dollars in damages. Cohen Milstein and Scott & Scott are proud to represent shareholders as lead counsel in this important shareholder derivative lawsuit to hold Abbott’s board of directors accountable,” said Carol V. Gilden, co-lead counsel in the lawsuit and partner at Cohen Milstein.
Abbott, an Illinois corporation, is one of the primary manufacturers of infant formula products in the U.S., previously producing 40% of all infant formula products consumed in the U.S. It is also the nation’s leading provider of infant formula to low-income families through the U.S. government’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (“WIC”) program. On February 15, 2022, Abbott closed its Sturgis, Michigan infant formula manufacturing facility due to the FDA’s concerns about contaminated baby formula. Two days later, on February 17, 2022, Abbott announced a “voluntary” recall of infant formula products manufactured at the Sturgis plant.
The consequences were devastating. A nationwide shortage of baby formula ensued as the facility remained shut down for several months. Additionally, Abbott’s business suffered hundreds of millions in lost sales and profits and costs to remediate the facility and upgrade food safety compliance, risk management systems, and internal controls. The Company’s business and reputation were badly tarnished as it came under regulatory, criminal, and Congressional scrutiny. Abbott is now exposed to numerous lawsuits, including wrongful death, personal injury, and whistleblower actions, as well as consumer and investor class actions.
The consolidated shareholder derivative lawsuit was filed on behalf of court-appointed Lead Plaintiffs, pension funds, Teamsters Local No. 710 Pension Fund and SEPTA.
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About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, with over 100 attorneys handling high-profile and precedent-setting litigation. Through creative and tenacious advocacy, Cohen Milstein has recovered billions of dollars for defrauded investors. For more information visit www.cohenmilstein.com.
Naval Architects & Marine Engineers File Wage-Suppression Suit Against Nation’s Largest Military Shipbuilders
Defendants allegedly engaged in “no poach” conspiracy in highly skilled, niche industry for decades. Recruiting agency facilitated information exchange and aided the conspiracy.
Washington, DC – A trio of premier plaintiffs’ class action law firms filed an antitrust class action on behalf of naval architects and marine engineers employed by the nation’s largest military shipbuilders and naval engineering consultancy firms, including General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries, and Gibbs & Cox, against those defendants and Faststream Recruitment, a recruiting firm that served the companies and aided in their anticompetitive behavior.
Plaintiffs, who are highly skilled and specialized professionals responsible for the architectural and engineering design of all manner of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels and onboard ship systems, allege that starting in at least 2000, the shipbuilders and consultancy firms adhered to an informal “gentlemen’s agreement” among themselves not to recruit each other’s naval engineers. As a result, the companies effectively suppressed the compensation of naval architects and marine engineers in violation of antitrust law.
“We’re proud to represent the men and women who work to design and build the strongest naval fleet in the world in their fight for fair compensation,” said Robert W. Cobbs, a partner at Cohen Milstein. “For decades, defense contractors have profited from their labor while allegedly suppressing their wages below competitive levels.”
“It’s frustrating to see industry leaders deprive their highly skilled and specialized workers of their due compensation,” said Shana E. Scarlett, a partner at Hagens Berman. “Defendants’ alleged no-poach arrangement not only suppressed wages but caused a persistent shortage of qualified naval engineers in the marketplace.”
“This is a compelling class action. Defendants’ no-poach agreement is a classic per se unlawful restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act,” said George Farah, a partner at Handley Farah & Anderson. “These highly skilled naval engineers are due hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.”
Impacted Individuals: Naval engineers consist of naval architects and marine engineers, who design and build the nation’s warships and other “public fleet” vessels. While some naval engineers work directly for the federal government, most are employed by a group of private contractors and consulting firms who are hired by the Navy, the Coast Guard, and other federal and state entities.
Numbering fewer than 10,000 naval engineers nationwide, they frequently work together on the same projects, and are geographically concentrated—primarily in the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia metro area and the Norfolk/Newport News area.
Join the Case: Impacted individuals can learn more about the class action and whether they qualify to join it by contacting Robert W. Cobbs at Cohen Milstein at: (202) 408-4600, Shana E. Scarlett at Hagens Berman at (510) 725-3000 or George Farah at Handley Farah & Anderson at 212-477-8090.
The name of the case is Scharpf, et al. v. General Dynamics Corp., et al., Case No. 1:23-cv-013272, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
About Cohen Milstein
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is a premier class action law firm, handling high-profile and often precedent-setting cases on behalf of plaintiffs. We have more than 100 attorneys practicing out of eight offices across the United States. In 2022, Cohen Milstein was named Law360’s “Competition Practice Group of the Year.” For additional information, please visit https://www.cohenmilstein.com or call (202) 408-4600.
About Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
Hagens Berman is an international class-action and complex plaintiffs’ litigation law firm taking on the world’s largest corporations and entities and fighting for the rights of plaintiffs, including consumers, whistleblowers, employees, investors and others. For additional information, please visit https://www.hbsslaw.com or call (510) 725-3000.
About Handley Farah & Anderson
We sue giant corporations and other powerful interests that harm people. We pursue cases—both class actions and individual claims—to halt unjust practices, hold wrongdoers accountable and recover financial damages for victims. We fight for those who need our help: workers, consumers, tenants, persons with disabilities, families, farmers, small businesses, investors, whistleblowers, women and communities of color. For additional information, please visit https://www.hfajustice.com or call 212-477-8090.
COHEN MILSTEIN AND SUSMAN GODFREY HELP CAPE FEAR RIVER RESIDENTS WIN CLASS CERTIFICATION IN PFAS TOXIC TORT CLASS ACTION AGAINST CHEMOURS AND DUPONT
More than 770,000 North Carolinians were exposed to toxic “forever chemicals” in their drinking water while Chemours and DuPont misled officials about toxic material disposal
Cape Fear, N.C. – A federal judge granted class certification to over 100,000 North Carolina residents who allege that The Chemours Company (Chemours) and DuPont Chemical (DuPont) illegally discharged toxic wastewater containing PFAS and GenX chemicals, aka “forever chemicals,” from its Fayetteville Works plant into the Cape Fear River, failed to inform residents, failed to inform government officials after learning of its damaging impacts, and continued these harmful practices for decades. The plaintiffs claim that they unknowingly consumed drinking water contaminated with these chemicals, that they now suffer from and face the risk of serious health problems, and that Chemours and DuPont should pay the cost of eliminating the contamination of these PFAS chemicals from their homes.
Since 1980, DuPont and Chemours have discharged massive quantities of toxic PFAS chemicals into the air and water from the 2,000-acre Fayetteville Works plant into the Cape Fear River. Despite internal documents showing it had conducted multiple internal tests that confirmed the toxicity of PFAS and GenX chemicals, DuPont publicly dismissed its own findings, continued dumping, and never disclosed the existence of the toxic waste or the related test results to residents or local utility companies.
“For decades Chemours and Dupont have knowingly endangered the health of hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians and caused widespread property damage,” said Ted Leopold, partner at Cohen Milstein and co-lead counsel in the lawsuit. “We are very happy with Judge Dever’s decision to grant class certification to residents along the Cape Fear River impacted by the gross negligence of these chemical companies.”
“Chemours and Dupont have brought enormous damage to people throughout the communities along Cape Fear River by subjecting them to these dangerous PFAS chemicals without notice or consent,” said Steve Morrissey, a partner at Susman Godfrey, who co-leads the case with Mr. Leopold. “Chemours and DuPont sat on this information for years and have continued to shirk full responsibility for their wrongdoing even after it was exposed. We look forward to trial and pursuing justice for the greater Cape Fear River community.”
The Cape Fear River serves as the main source of water for over 100,000 homes in the southeast area of North Carolina, including the City of Wilmington. The affected counties include New Hanover, Bladen, Brunswick, Cumberland, and Pender, and residents of those counties who are served by utilities that use the Cape Fear River as a water source or rely on groundwater contaminated with PFAS are included in the class.
Chemours admitted publicly to discharging GenX, an allegedly “safer” version of PFAS it developed in 2009, into the North Carolina public water supply in June 2017, after a team of researchers from North Carolina State University detected the chemical downriver from the Fayetteville Works plant. In September 2017, the North Carolina Division of Water Resources sought to suspend Chemours’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, citing the company’s years-long misrepresentation and failure to disclose the dumping of PFAS-related chemicals. In 2019, Chemours entered into a consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) relating to its PFAS discharges from Fayetteville Works.
The class action was first brought in 2017 in the Eastern District of North Carolina. In 2018, Cohen Milstein and Susman Godfrey were court appointed Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel. Since filing the case, Cohen Milstein and Susman Godfrey have provided information to DEQ in support of the development and enforcement of the consent order while seeking additional relief through the class action.
See more information about the case.
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About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, handling high-profile and often precedent-setting litigation, including environmental toxic tort litigation. With over 100 attorneys across the country, Cohen Milstein has offices in Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Minneapolis, MN, New York, NY, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Philadelphia, PA, Raleigh, NC, Washington, DC. For additional information please visit www.cohenmilstein.com or call (202) 408-4600.
About Susman Godfrey
Susman Godfrey is a nationwide law firm of 150 trial lawyers. It handles high-stakes litigation in a broad range of practice areas and industries, for both plaintiffs and defendants. Susman’s attorneys are creative in finding the fee arrangement—contingent, flat, hourly, or hybrid—that best suits a client’s case. With a relentless focus on winning at trial, Susman Godfrey has been ranked by Vault as the #1 litigation boutique in America for 12 consecutive years. Visit www.susmangodfrey.com to learn more about our unique approach to winning cases.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 25, 2023
Contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com
PHUNWARE FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST UBS SECURITIES FOR MARKET MANIPULATION
NEW YORK, NY – Today, Phunware, Inc. (NASDAQ: PHUN) filed a lawsuit against UBS Securities, LLC, one of the largest and most influential broker-dealers in the world, alleging repeated manipulation of the company’s stock over a two-year period.
Phunware is a publicly traded technology company and pioneer of Multiscreen-as-a-Service, a fully integrated enterprise cloud platform for mobile that provides companies the products, solutions, data, and services necessary to engage, manage and monetize their mobile application portfolios and audiences globally at scale.
The company alleges that UBS engaged in a deceptive market manipulation tactic known as spoofing, in which UBS placed huge quantities of sell orders to fool the market into devaluing the company’s stock so that it could then buy the company’s stock at a lower price. UBS then immediately cancelled the sell orders, so it could reap profits at the expense of Phunware and its investors.
“UBS deceptively engaged in stock spoofing, an abuse of our financial system, which had and continues to have lasting negative impacts on Phunware,” said Laura Posner, partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. “We look forward to holding UBS accountable for the damage it has caused to the company, its shareholders and the markets at large.”
The spoofing episodes against UBS are alleged to have taken place repeatedly over a two-year stretch, sometimes multiple times a day. Phunware alleges that by repeatedly and brazenly manipulating the market through spoofing, UBS artificially and negatively impacted the price of Phunware’s stock in the market, causing Phunware to suffer significant losses when it sold over 34 million shares at manipulated and devalued prices.
Analysts consistently recommended Phunware to investors throughout this two-year period, with all four of the firms following PHUN assigning it “Buy” ratings at price targets that were typically over $2 and reached as high as $6 – levels considerably higher than the actual prices at which PHUN traded. This discrepancy persists to this day, with analysts’ current price targets exceeding PHUN’s share price by over 300%.
In the complaint, Phunware demonstrates through de-anonymized Nasdaq market information that UBS placed over 82 million Baiting Orders and purchased over 640,000 shares in over 1,000 executed orders at manipulated prices in the two-year period. UBS’s ratio of sell-side orders per spoofed executing purchase was more than 4 times that of non-spoofed executed purchases.
Phunware, Inc. is represented by national law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
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Phunware, Inc. (NASDAQ: PHUN) is a publicly traded technology company providing companies the products, solutions, data, and services necessary to engage, manage and monetize their mobile application portfolios and audiences globally at scale.
About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is recognized as one of the premier law firms in the country handling major, complex plaintiff-side litigation. With more than 100 attorneys, Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, DC; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL.; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Palm Beach Gardens, FL.; Philadelphia, PA.; and Raleigh, NC.
NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James, Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed a complaint against Fresenius Vascular Care, Inc. (FVC), one of its New York-based executives, Gregg Miller, M.D., and several of their affiliates for subjecting Medicaid recipients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to unnecessary surgeries and defrauding the New York state Medicaid program. The defendants allegedly scheduled ESRD patients for appointments every three to four months purportedly to preserve their dialysis access sites. At these appointments, the defendants sedated the patients and performed invasive procedures on their veins and arteries, putting already vulnerable patients at a heightened risk of grave complications. In reality, most of these patients had no problems receiving dialysis and did not need these surgeries. Moreover, FVC’s parent company’s own research showed that the so-called “monitoring” surgeries they performed do not benefit ESRD patients and in fact can damage their ability to receive life-saving dialysis treatment.
“Patients should be able to trust that their wellbeing will be the top priority for the health care providers they visit,” said Attorney General James. “Our complaint alleges that Fresenius Vascular Care not only spent years endangering vulnerable patients with unnecessary invasive surgeries, they used those procedures to defraud taxpayer-funded programs that provide health care for low-income and elderly Americans. Today we’re taking action to stop these abusive practices and ensure New Yorkers can trust that they will be properly cared for when they walk into a doctor’s office.”
Today’s complaint, jointly filed in federal court in Brooklyn with the attorneys general of Georgia and New Jersey, alleges that FVC knowingly subjected ESRD patients — including elderly people, people of color, and low-income individuals — to unnecessary and invasive procedures to increase its revenues. As alleged in the complaint, “Medical Directors were trained on the FVC philosophy: ‘simply increase revenue and decrease expense.’” FVC allegedly falsified patient referrals, ignored relevant medical records, and falsified diagnostic reports to justify billing for repeated diagnostic and surgical procedures. These procedures included fistulagrams, which are radiological procedures in which dye is injected into the patient’s vein or artery to visualize the port and surrounding blood vessels, and angioplasties, in which wires and balloons are inserted into veins or arteries that have narrowed to restore the patient’s blood flow.
As alleged in the complaint, due to FVC’s scheme, a 41-year-old ESRD patient in New York underwent at least 27 unnecessary angioplasties from December 2012 to May 2018 at a Fresenius Vascular Access Center in the Bronx and an 80-year-old ESRD patient in Brooklyn underwent at least 15 unnecessary angioplasties during the same time period.
The complaint further alleges that FVC knowingly operated a scheme to trap patients in a cycle of “clinically timed evaluations” that subjected them to these procedures every three to four months. The procedures carried grave risks such as over-sedation, infection, ruptured blood vessels, and internal or external bleeding. The complaint alleges that FVC pressured its providers to adopt this scheme, by creating contests to incentivize its staff to maximize the number of procedures done on dialysis patients and pushing doctors who questioned the scheme to quit. At one point, Dr. Miller allegedly told a physician who questioned whether the repeated procedures were necessary, “How can you expect to make money if you are sending 80% of the patients home?”
This lawsuit, which seeks damages and penalties under the New York False Claims Act and other state laws, is the result of a joint investigation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units. The case was initiated by two doctors, who are pursuing claims on behalf of 16 additional states pursuant to those states’ false claims acts. The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam provisions of the federal and state false claims acts, which allow average citizens to file civil actions on behalf of the government and to share in the proceeds of any recovered funds.
The case is being handled by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) including Special Assistant Attorneys General Logan J. Gowdicott and Jill D. Brenner under the supervision of MFCU Civil Enforcement Division Chief Alee N. Scott. The case was investigated by Principal Auditor-Investigator Karin Flynn under the supervision of Regional Chief Auditor Stacey Millis, Detective Stanislav Tabakov under the supervision of Detective Supervisor Dominic DiGennaro, Acting Executive Officer Ronald Lynch, and Commanding Officer Chief William Falk, and Legal Assistant Alexandra Schmidt. The MFCU is part of the Division of Criminal Justice and is led by Director Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. The Division of Criminal Justice is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General José Maldonado and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.
The MFCU’s total funding for federal fiscal year (FY) 2023 is $65,717,936. Of that total, 75 percent, or $49,288,452, is awarded under a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $16,429,484 for FY 2023, is funded by New York state. Through MFCU’s recoveries in law enforcement actions, it regularly returns more to the state than it receives in state funding.
Reporting Medicaid Provider Fraud: MFCU defends the public by addressing Medicaid provider fraud and protecting nursing home residents from abuse and neglect. If an individual believes they have information about Medicaid provider fraud or about an incident of abuse or neglect of a nursing home resident, they can file a confidential complaint online or call the MFCU hotline at (800) 771-7755. If the situation is an emergency, please call 911.
Press Contact
Office of the New York State Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany NY 12224-0341
Phone: 1-800-771-7755
MORGAN STANLEY, GOLDMAN SACHS, JP MORGAN, AND UBS AGREE TO PAY NEARLY HALF A BILLION DOLLARS TO SETTLE STOCK LENDNG ANTITRUST LAWSUIT
Joint Venture EquiLend to Implement Landmark Governance Reforms Aimed at Limiting Future Anticompetitive Misconduct
NEW YORK, NY – After six years of litigation, a class of investors led by the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement System, the Orange County Employees Retirement System, the Sonoma County Employees Retirement Association, and Torus Capital LLC reached a historic partial settlement with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, JP Morgan, and EquiLend in a case that alleged that these banks, along with Credit Suisse and Bank of America, engaged in a group boycott to thwart the modernization of the stock lending market in violation of the antitrust laws.
The settlement with these defendants provides that they will pay approximately half a billion dollars in cash, adding to the $81 million settlement previously signed with Credit Suisse for a total of $580 million in cash payments to the class. While Defendants have denied any wrongdoing and that any reforms were necessary, Plaintiffs believe that the equitable relief they designed and negotiated for will help align EquiLend to the best practices and guidelines for anti-cartel and collaborations among competitors.
These reforms include the mandatory rotation of outside antitrust counsel and EquiLend board members, limitations on who can access commercially sensitive information, and a robust compliance, training, and monitoring program at EquiLend.
“We’re very pleased to have partially settled this case and had such an impact on how EquiLend operates. We are looking forward to continuing to hold Bank of America accountable as the case progresses,” said Michael Eisenkraft, partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
In this antitrust class action, the plaintiffs alleged collusion among six of the world’s largest investment banks, including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and their joint venture, EquiLend, to prevent the modernization of the antiquated, inefficient, and opaque over-the-counter stock loan market in order to preserve their market dominance and role as privileged intermediaries between borrowers and lenders of stock.
Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that when new entrants tried to modernize the stock loan market, the banks conspired to boycott them, shut them down, and eliminate them as threats. This harmed the class by trapping them in an antiquated market structure and forced them to pay supracompetitive “spreads” to the defendant banks for their role as intermediaries in the stock loan market.
The plaintiffs are represented by Co-Lead Counsel Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.
Press contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com
Palm Beach Gardens, FL – As the new school year begins, Cohen Milstein encourages students to take control of their identity and person to avoid becoming a target of cyberbullying, cyberstalking or sexual exploitation.
“As technology has become more advanced, cyberbullying and cyberstalking have become easier,” said Takisha Richardson, leader of Cohen Milstein’s Sexual Abuse & Sex Trafficking practice and author of “Be Cool. Be Confident. Return to School with a Plan.”
Richardson, the former Assistant State Attorney and Chief of the Special Victims Unit of the State Attorney’s Office for Palm Beach County, Florida, is a highly respected advocate of victims’ rights and trial attorney with significant experience navigating the judicial system.
Richardson points to a recent study conducted by Pew Research showing 46% of students reported experiencing some form of cyberbullying – higher than the 40% total in the 2020 Pew Research survey.
According to the study, older teen girls have consistently experienced the most cyberbullying.
Richardson also points to social media and gaming apps as means to make cyberbullying and cyberstalking easier.
“Kids are technologically savvy and many spend a good deal of time on social media and gaming apps. But that doesn’t mean they are mature enough to recognize when someone’s apparently good intentions are bad, know how to stop an offensive person, or have the confidence to talk to an adult when they have been hurt by the harmful behavior of a bully or stalker.”
Richardson also points to the dangers of devices which were created to track valuables like keys and luggage.
“Tracking devices, such as AirTag, SmartTag, Tile, and Chipolo are, unfortunately, making cyberstalking easier for perpetrators who want to scare or harm unsuspecting targets,” Richardson said. “Devices like the AirTag and Chipolo ONE are the size of a quarter, so they are easy to slip into a backpack, coat, car, or other personal belongings. This means kids must not only monitor their gear more closely, but also know what to do if they find one of these devices on their person.”
Richardson offers kids and their parents some practical information on how to identify cyberbullying and cyberstalking, how to recognize key emotional and psychological indicators of what a child might experience if they are a target, and how to stop the harmful behavior. “It’s also important to remember that some cyberbullying and cyberstalking can cross the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.”
About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is recognized as one of the premier law firms in the country handling major, complex plaintiff-side litigation. With more than 100 attorneys, Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, DC; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL.; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Palm Beach Gardens, FL.; Philadelphia, PA.; and Raleigh, NC. For additional information, visit www.cohenmilstein.com or call 202.408.4600.