A former president of Baltimore-based First Mariner’s mortgage division has sued his ex-employer, seeking compensation totaling more than $1 million.

Edward Perry’s suit alleges he was fired without cause Aug. 19 and immediately escorted out of First Mariner, reports The Baltimore Business Journal. The plaintiff also claims the bank didn’t pay him 30 days’ worth of his $325,000 salary promised in a series of employment agreements he signed. The suit also claims he has been denied a full success bonus of up to $750,000.

The Business Journal reports:

In addition, Perry’s suit says he has effectively been banned from working in his field since his dismissal. His employment agreements with First Mariner included two-year, 100-mile non-compete clauses. The bank has refused to certify him able to take a new job with two other companies that offered him positions, it says.

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A Texas jury has awarded hedge-fund firm Highland Capital Management $40 million in its lawsuit against Credit Suisse over inflated appraisals of a dozen luxury properties, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The properties include golf communities and ski resorts financed during the mid-2000s.

Highland sued Credit Suisse in July 2013 in state district court in Dallas, alleging the bank improperly inflated the value of the communities to entice investors.

Highland’s Claymore Holdings LLC also is seeking another $300 million in connection with the jury’s finding that Credit Suisse committed fraud. That case is slated for trial next year, the Journal reports.

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Many large retailers remain woefully unprepared to defend against a cyber attack, according to security experts quoted in a report in The San Jose Mercury News.

Cyber thieves are smarter and more efficient at breaking into retailers’ networks and stealing consumer data, and some credit card companies are ratcheting down fraud protection to speed transactions during the shopping rush. That sets up the holidays to potentially be a whammy of a payday for criminal groups — and puts consumers at greater risk as they enter the biggest shopping season of the year.

The report says consumers can expect to pay — as retailers face mounting fines from financial regulators for data breaches, and must invest in pricey new security systems, some experts expect the costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two top ex-officers of a company that operates assisted living centers with listing fake occupants at several senior residences to meet the terms of a lease and misrepresenting in regulatory filings that the company was in compliance with the lease.

A report from the SEC says the alleged fraud orchestrated by Assisted Living Concepts Inc.’s former CEO, Laurie Bebo, and former CFO John Buono between 2009 and early 2012 even extended to directing ALC staff to falsely identify Bebo’s parents and husband as residents of facilities that the company rented from Ventas Inc. Another of the purported senior residents was just seven years old, the SEC said in a news release on Wednesday.

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Business Finance has posted a complimentary online webinar titled “Is Your Finance Department Data Driven? Conquering the Challenge of ‘Doing More with Less’.”

On its website, the magazine says today’s CFO is increasingly called upon to “do more with less.” This means providing value-added analytics to the business that help the firm improve profitability, meet ever-increasing transparency requirements from regulators and management and simultaneously maintain or reduce Finance and IT spend.

In pursuit of this goal, many leading finance departments have discovered the transformative value of a data-driven approach to managing financial and operational information and analytics, Business Finance says. This webinar details the way in which leading finance departments are using analytical capabilities to maximize reporting and analytic transparency while increasing functional efficiency.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

E-discovery systems developer CS Disco Inc. of Houston has closed a $10 million Series B fundraising round, the Houston Business Journal reported.

Bessemer Venture Partners of Menlo Park, CA, and Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners led the round of fundraising.

The Houston Business Journal reported that Trevor Jefferies, a lawyer in Arnold & Porter’s Houston office, and Stephen Wallace, former general counsel of Houston-based Westlake Chemical also invested.

The plan is to use the money to scale CS Disco to a national spotlight, versus the regional presence it has today, CEO Kiwi Camara said in a blog post.

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By Quantumquark (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

A junior banker, who had joined the company in July from the New York Fed, was fired a week after the discovery in late September along with another employee who failed to escalate the issue, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News that didn’t identify the pair.

“We have zero tolerance for improper handling of confidential information,” Goldman Sachs said in the memo. “We are reviewing our policies regarding any hiring from governmental institutions to ensure that they are appropriately effective and robust.”

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With the IPO market continuing to surge, it’s vital that companies preparing for  their IPOs rigorously examine their risk management, controls and compliance infrastructure for a successful offering and to support future growth, according to a new report by PwC US.

The report, titled “Fortified for Success: Building Your Company’s Risk, Controls and Compliance Ecosystem for the IPO and Beyond,” outlines the seven critical steps businesses need to take in building a scalable risk management and compliance system to protect shareholder value post IPO.

On its website, PwC says going public is a transformational event that pushes a company into view of regulatory, investor, and analyst scrutiny. Companies that delay getting their risk management, compliance and compliance infrastructure in order until after the IPO may be jeopardizing their ability to reap the full benefits of going public. This paper lays out steps that will help companies establish a foundation and cover the company’s critical risks and controls, both pre-and-post IPO.

Download the report.

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, also known as BTMU, agreed in a settlement Nov. 18 with financial regulators to move its money laundering and sanctions compliance unit from Tokyo to New York. The agreement was part of a deal with New York’s financial regulator.

The bank also agreed to pay $315 million for misleading the regulator’s office about transactions involving countries subject to U.S. economic sanctions, reported The Wall Street Journal. The fine comes on top of a $250 million fine the bank paid in 2013 to the New York Superintendent of Financial Services.

The move will give the compliance unit supervision over all transactions involving the bank’s New York branch, including those that originate overseas.

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Any business transaction involving simple negotiations could be subject to prosecution, former Jefferies & Co. managing director Jesse Litvak warned an appeals court in an attempt to have his securities fraud conviction thrown out, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

Litvak, found guilty in March of lying to customers about the price of mortgage-backed securities, on Nov. 18 asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan to throw out the conviction, saying it could be used to turn “garden-variety statements” made in all kinds of negotiations — even car lot negotiations — into the basis for charges.

“Every car salesman who tells a customer that he cannot lower his price any further because he would earn only a minuscule profit on the sale as it is would be guilty of fraud,” Litvak’s lawyers said in a filing.

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Hispanic Executive magazine has profiled Eduardo Vidal, general counsel of IRR Strategies, who moved to the United States as a nine-year-old boy from Cuba.

The profile tells how his family moved to Chicago where he later went to the University of Chicago. After five years in Chicago, he moved to New York where he spent 22 years working in the burgeoning corporate finance space of cross-border transactions with companies in Latin America.

Eventually, when that kind of work started to dry up, he sought opportunity in Texas, where he landed with a new business process outsourcing (BPO) company, (which includes call centers, technical support, and back-office paperwork) as general counsel. The company, IRR Strategies, LLC, provides global solutions for BPO services to small and medium-sized enterprises, private equity, and venture capital.

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Stephen Shea, the former chief operating officer of brokerage firm Sky Capital LLC, has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his part in a $140 million securities-fraud scheme.

Bloomberg News reports that Shea and five others were charged in June 2009, three years after FBI agents raided the brokerage firm. Other former employees convicted in the case included founder Ross Mandell, who’s serving an 12-year prison sentence for operating a scheme that started in 1998.

“The defendants misled investors, who put cash in private investments, and then used that money to enrich themselves, pay excessive fees and commissions to brokers and pay off victims of earlier schemes, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in 2009, when the case was filed.” according to Bloomberg’s report.

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Robert Braun and Stanley Gibson, partners at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, have posted a white paper that they developed for Factors and Specialty Lenders to guide them in gaining a competitive edge by using electronic delivery methods, electronic records and electronic signatures.

The white paper is posted on RPost.

In its description of the publication, RPost says a variety of businesses have adopted electronic methods to deliver, accept and store documents and legal notices. The driving force behind the decision is generally the efficiency and lower cost of utilizing electronic, instead of physical, documentation.

“Among the industries that have been reluctant to enter into electronic transactions on a broad basis are factors, asset-based lenders and other specialized financial intermediaries,” RPost says. “Because concerns that arise when moving from paper, fax, and mail to electronic delivery and electronic signatures are real, this paper explores the issues and discusses how a reliable document delivery system with proper implementation of electronic record-keeping and electronic transactions is an effective solution.”

Read the white paper.

Financial Advisor and Ace Private Risk Services present a complimentary webinar designed to help high net worth families protect their assets from personal liability lawsuits, which can take years to litigate and result in awards and settlements well in excess of $10 million.

On its website, Financial Advisor says this course explores the liability exposures of high net worth (HNW) families and presents a five-step plan for addressing them. It compares the perceptions HNW individuals have about liability risk with the realities they face. It reviews how wealth and a wealthy lifestyle lead to increased liability risk, and how jury composition and widespread legal doctrines such as joint and several liability further increase this risk. The course will detail these families’ growing concerns, which include financial loss, stress of protracted legal proceedings, and damage to their reputations and earning power.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Fortune has posted a detailed examination of how former Home Depot CEO Frank Blake took ownership of the company’s customer data breach in the latter days of his tenure and, in the process, cemented his reputation as a straight-shooter.

According to Fortune‘s report, “Blake’s response to the breakdown matches his approach to running Home Depot—an approach few foresaw when the board abruptly named him to replace Bob Nardelli in 2007. He tackled the hack with the same forthrightness, humor, and humility that he has displayed in reviving Home Depot.”

Some other companies have suffered greatly after similar disasters, but “Home Depot has shown no public signs of a decline. That is in part because it was the first of several hacking episodes to occur in rapid succession. But it is also because of Blake’s forthright approach,” the article says.

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A webinar hosted by Financial Recovery Technologies, LLC (FRT), emphasized that institutions have a strong fiduciary duty to actively track securities litigation.

The webinar is now available for on-demand viewing.

A panel comprised of past and present legal representatives from several leading U.S. pension funds discussed how institutions have a strong fiduciary duty to actively track securities litigation, in the U.S. and across the globe. The expert panelists shared their funds’ experiences in being active participants in securities litigation.

The discussion also addressed how funds should assess damages in order to make informed decisions about becoming active, what funds should consider before becoming active, and what impact being an active participant may have on an institution.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a senior Deutsche Bank lawyer, Calogero Gambino, has died of an apparent suicide in New York.

Gambino was an associate general counsel, a managing director and the German bank for 11 years.

Police says his wife found him on Oct. 20 hanging by the neck from a stairway banister. New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said the cause of death is hanging and manner of death is suicide.

On behalf of Deutsche, Gambino had been negotiating in an investigation into manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, as well as in investigations into manipulation of currencies markets.

Read the story.

Haynes and Boone has posted the audio of a recent webinar on investing in real estate in Mexico.

The topics covered include CKDs (Capital Development Certificates) and Mexican REITs (FIBRAS) and how they have fueled the real estate market in Mexico; opportunities that these investment vehicles represent for domestic and international investors; legal developments impacting the real estate industry including constitutional reform on restrictions on foreign ownerships of land; and impact of structural reforms and government infrastructure plans on the real estate industry in Mexico (energy reform), including its impact on land ownership and on Agrarian laws (Ejido).

The moderator is Haynes and Boone partner Michael McCarthy. Panelists are Luis F. Moreno Trevino and Antonio Diez de Bonilla Martinez.

Listen to the recorded discussion.

The Praticising Law Institute offers a free on-demand webinar designed to help practitioners improve their ability to counsel homeowners in financial distress.

The webinar, lasting 3.25 hours, provides an overview of the financial issues homeowners may face after a foreclosure, short sale or loan modification, including including tax and credit consequences.

On its website, PLI says tax experts explain the fundamentals of how cancelled mortgage debt is treated under state and federal tax law, and provide insights into changes in tax law that may take effect soon.  Practitioners will discuss what types of personal liability homeowners may still face following a foreclosure, short sale or deed-in-lieu, and will use case examples to illustrate the credit impact of various forms of mortgage delinquency resolution.

Panelists also outline legal strategies for addressing these issues through bankruptcy, fair debt collections and fair credit reporting claims, PLI says.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has posted a white paper on fossil fuel divestment, “a concept that can reflect various societal or practical considerations. Environmental concerns, moral and ethical stances, concerns about asset stranding, and portfolio diversification are all potential rationales.”

On its website, Bloomberg New Energy Finance says the white paper “explores the motivations behind fossil fuel divestment, the scale of existing fossil fuel investments, and potential alternatives for investment re-allocated from oil, gas, and coal stocks.”

Divesting from fossil fuels does not equate to investing in renewables, according to the white paper. “Clean energy will attract $5.5trn in investment between now and 2030, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, but not every dollar will be suitable for every institution. Projects, public equities, YieldCos and green bonds offer stability, growth, and yield, but not all in one package,” it says.

Read the white paper.