Recently in Securities & Antitrust Category

The Wall Street Journal calls Mark Hayes a lobbyist for Humana, an insurance company that makes much of it's revenue off of Medicare. Bloomberg calls him a lobbyist for Greenberg Traurig. He's also a consultant for an investment research firm, Height Securities. The parties' intertwined relationships are starting to sound like a Mississippi family tree.

Greenberg Traurig represented both Height and Humana. The Journal published an email from an analyst at Height to a Humana lobbyist, which was met with an "out of office" email auto responder, that stated "You guys seem to have done everything you can. I wish you the best with rates this evening."

Walmart is not pleased with the Visa/MasterCard settlement and they're not keeping it to themselves. The company is urging other retailers to reject the multi-billion dollar proposed settlement.

Visa and MasterCard reached a $7.25 billion agreement with retailers earlier this month for damages in a price-fixing claim involving credit card swipe fees. The deal repays retailers for unfair fees and also lowers swipe fees for the next few months.

As part of the settlement, retailers now have the option to charge credit card users more for their purchases.

That's all well and good but the real issue for Walmart and other retailers is what the agreement doesn't do.

Visa and MasterCard have reached a settlement with plaintiffs in what is reportedly the largest antitrust case to date.

The suit dates back to 2005 when merchants began filing price-fixing lawsuits against the credit card giants and the banks who issue the cards. It grew into a class-action claim that Visa and MasterCard were working together on how much to charge merchants for each credit card transaction.

The final settlement represents a significant change in credit card swipe regulations and a sizable chunk of cash flowing from Visa and MasterCard to individual merchants.

As U.S. regulators continue to investigate antitrust allegations against Google, EU regulators are getting down to business. The European Commission has publicly released a letter that gives Google only a few weeks to come up with remedies to its antitrust concerns.

However, Google has remained steadfast in its belief that these concerns are unfounded. Chairman Eric Schmidt has even gone so far as to reject suggestions that the company will need to alter the way it handles search results in the EU.

Facebook may have just set a record. In the seven days since the company went public, it's managed to become the subject of two congressional investigations and at least three lawsuits.

One Facebook IPO lawsuit wouldn't have been a surprise -- with an offering this large, there was bound to be a disgruntled investor or two. But between the 2-hour NASDAQ delay and the falling stock prices, few can say they are shocked about the current state of Facebook's legal affairs.

History repeats itself, or so they say. And it looks like it might be repeating itself with none other than Microsoft.

Microsoft has been working on Windows RT, which is a version of Windows 8 made for ARM-based touch screen tablets and laptops. As ZDNet explains it, Windows RT has two interfaces: Metro and a Windows 7-style desktop. The desktop interface has been designed to run only Microsoft applications, including Internet Explorer.

Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, and Google, which owns Chrome, have raised concerns about this limitation.

Initial reports suggested that the joint U.S.-EU e-book antitrust investigation was close to settlement. But it seems Apple and two of the five publishers accused of conspiring to fix e-book prices are now refusing to sign.

The refusal comes just a month after the Justice Department warned that it was prepared to file suit against the six companies. If the government makes good on its threat, it will be the second time in recent months Apple has been sued for this very issue.

A financial adviser's alleged LinkedIn fraud is calling attention to the growing use of social media for securities scams. General Counsel for who deal in securities matters may want to take note.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accuses Anthony Fields of Lyons, Ill., of trying to hawk more than $500 billion in fraudulent securities via posts on LinkedIn and other social media sites, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The SEC's action against Fields coincided with two investor alerts released back in Jan. The alerts warn that criminals are increasingly using social-media sites like LinkedIn to commit fraud, and suggest that financial professionals should set strict guidelines for social-media use.

Let's face it: you'd rather have your employees report securities violations to you first before they tell the SEC.

Internal reporting has its advantages. You'll be better prepared. You also won't get suddenly drawn into a SEC investigation without prior warning.

But how do you get your employees to report violations to you first? Below are a few tips to help:

It's no secret that Philip Falcone's hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both it and the Justice Department are looking into a $113 million loan Falcone took from his funds to pay his 2009 personal taxes. There are also allegations of market manipulation in 2006 and 2008.

But a regulatory filing made public last week included some new information. Falcone, along with fund president Omar Asali, are the not-so-happy recipients of Wells Notices.

A third person at the company also received a Wells Notice: general counsel Robin Roger.