The Second Circuit today denied the request by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York for panel or en banc rehearing of the landmark U.S. v. Newman decision, which overturned insider-trading convictions of two remote tippees by (i) holding that a tippee must know that the insider tipper received a personal benefit for providing the tip and (ii) clarifying or narrowing (depending on one’s interpretation) the definition of what constitutes an actionable personal benefit. As we have previously blogged, the Newman decision has changed the landscape for insider trading cases. We will be closely watching to see whether the Department of Justice petitions the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari and whether Congress steps into the fray. Our prior blog posts described three pending bills (see links below), and additional ones could be proposed.
