In an article in the ABA Banking Journal, Brad Rustin and Samer Roshdy of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough discuss the FDIC’s financial institutions letter FIL-19-2019, highlighting contractual deficiencies in banks’ contracts with technology service providers.

“The FDIC letter reaffirms the long-standing regulatory notion that a financial institution cannot discharge its responsibilities, which includes managing its business continuity and incident response processes, by outsourcing activities to third-party service providers,” they explain.

The authors also add that the letter serves as a reminder to the industry that federal banking regulators will continue to scrutinize relationships with technology service providers.

Read the article.

First NBC Bank’s former top lawyer was charged in federal court with conspiracy to defraud the New Orleans bank, which failed two years ago in the biggest U.S. bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis, reports The New Orleans Advocate.

“Gregory St. Angelo served as First NBC’s general counsel for a decade until 2016, and during that time, he took out loans totaling tens of millions of dollars from the bank, many of which went into default,” according to the Advocate‘s Tony McAuley.

Prosecutors alleged that St. Angelo and two other bank officers conspired to defraud the bank through various “false and fraudulent pretenses,” and that by the time of the bank’s collapse St. Angelo had obtained nearly $56 million in loans and other advances.

Read the Advocate article.

Eric D. Mulligan of Hudson Cook, LLP writes about a case that illustrates the importance of drafting a contract that will avoid questions of interpretation by making the terms clear and apparent from the face of the text.

The case involves the default on a mobile home retail installment contract. The purchaser returned the home to the vendor with $40,000 left on the contract. Then the company sold the home for $53,000 and did not return the surplus to the buyer.

The Montana Supreme Court found that the terms of the release did not end the parties’ debtor-creditor relationship, and the purchaser was allowed to retain a surplus.

Read the article.

Financial Advisor reports that a Nevada man has settled charges with the SEC that he took inside information while a guest at the home of a longtime friend — Cintas Corp.’s general counsel — and used it to generate $250,000 in illegal profits.

The SEC’s complaint in the U.S. Southern District of Florida alleges that Brian Fettner, 51, of Henderson, Nev., “surreptiously viewed documents contemplating an acquisition of G&K Services Inc. by Cintas [Corp.]” while changing his golf shoes in the den of a longtime friend who was also the general counsel of Cintas.

Raymond Fazzi of Financial Advisor writes:

Without telling his friend, whom he attended middle school and high school with as a child, Fettner then started purchasing G&K Services stock that very same day on his mobile phone, as he played golf with his friend, the SEC said. He continued buying G&K stocks in the brokerage accounts of his ex-wife and a former girlfriend, and persuaded his father and another girlfriend to purchase G&K shares, the SEC said

Read the Financial Advisor article.

Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission have come to a settlement agreement over the Tesla CEO’s errant behavior on social media: All of Musk’s communication via social media, the company’s website, press releases, and investor calls must be preapproved by an “experienced securities lawyer.”

Musk got into trouble with the SEC earlier this year when he tweeted a projection about Tesla vehicle production that the agency considered to be misleading.

Business Insider reports that Musk must “implement mandatory procedures and controls” providing oversight of all of his communications regarding the company “made in any format.”

Read the Business Insider article.

Expert Webcast will present an interactive roundtable discussion municipal restructuring on May 2, 2019, 1-2 p.m. Pacific Time, with Andy J. Dillon, executive director at Conway MacKenzie, and Karol K. Denniston, partner at Squire Patton Boggs, and moderated by Alex Kasdan, senior managing director, DelMorgan & Co.

Dillon acted as treasurer for the state of Michigan, managing 1,450 employees, where he was responsible for collecting more than $50 billion in annual revenues, tax administration, collections, bond finance, school loan programs, local government oversight, and served as the sole fiduciary of $60 billion in pension, 401K, state trust and cash assets. While treasurer, Dillon also led two state reviews of the City of Detroit’s finances, negotiated a consent agreement between the city and state and transitioned the city into receivership. Dillon also provided hands on oversight of dozens of troubled cities, counties and school districts, Expert Webcast said in a release.

Denniston, a bankruptcy and restructuring lawyer for more than 30 years, has experience representing debtors, creditors, bondholders and other parties in a wide variety of litigated bankruptcy cases and out of court transactions. Denniston has been working in the distressed municipal sector since 2009 and routinely represents cities, special districts, indenture trustees, bondholders, taxpayers and monoline insurers in a variety of municipal restructuring engagements throughout the US. She has represented clients in municipal insolvency proceedings with a focus on negotiating resolutions, including in Puerto Rico PROMESA restructurings for the Government Development Bank and COFINA.

Register for the roundtable.

Larry Waks has joined Foley Gardere as a partner in its Business Law Department and Transactions Practice Group. Waks will split his time between the firm’s Dallas, Austin and New York City offices.

The firm said Waks is a corporate transactional and intellectual property lawyer and advisor to domestic and international clients, including many in the food and beverage, energy, manufacturing, private equity, technology, and media and entertainment industries. He also represents publishing and distribution entities, computer game, software and hardware companies, and oil and gas interests. His practice experience has an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, consumer products, fashion, entertainment and intellectual property, the firm said in a release.

Waks’ transactional experience includes leading a six-attorney team that represented actor George Clooney, along with Clooney’s business partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman, in the $1 billion sale of the premium Casamigos tequila brand to global spirits giant Diageo Plc. He also handled the $1.7 billion sale of an international chemical company, the $1 billion going-private sale of a medical products company to Blackstone, and the $400 million sale of a high-tech defense company to Carlyle Group. In addition, Waks has led the acquisition and sale of more than $2 billion in businesses in the energy industry and has represented clients in a variety of lawsuits involving intellectual property issues, as well as libel and privacy matters.

Waks joins Foley from Wilson Elser, where he was head of the M&A practice. Before that, he was a partner at Jackson Walker, and previously, at Milgrim, Thomajan & Lee. He also once served as assistant general counsel of Tesoro Petroleum Corp.

Waks is a fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation, the Austin Bar Foundation, and the Texas Bar Foundation. He is also a member of the State Bar of Texas Intellectual Property Section’s Governing Committee and past chairman chair of its Copyright and Texas Entertainment & Sports Sections, and he is a former chair of the American Bar Association’s Entertainment & Sports Practice Forum’s Litigation Division. In addition, Waks is a voting member of the Grammy’s and Latin Grammy’s.