John Buretta Authors U.S. Sanctions Chapter in Global Investigations Review’s “The Guide to Sanctions”

On September 30, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed, with prejudice, a consolidated class action complaint alleging a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act as to Cravath client Nomura International plc (“Nomura”) and several other defendants (together with Nomura, “Defendants”) for lack of personal jurisdiction. Plaintiffs Iron Workers Pension Plan of Western Pennsylvania, Alaska Department of Revenue and Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation—seeking to represent a putative class of purchasers of U.S. dollar‑denominated supranational, sovereign and agency (“USD SSA”) bonds between January 2009 and December 2015—alleged that Defendants conspired to restrain trade and fix prices of USD SSA bonds through anticompetitive activities. This decision concluded the second round of briefing in the matter.

On August 24, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a consolidated putative class action lawsuit brought by plaintiffs led by the Iron Workers Pension Plan of Western Pennsylvania and the Sheet Metal Workers Pension Plan of Northern California against several defendants, including Cravath client Nomura International plc, alleging collusion and price fixing among numerous financial institutions of supranational, sub‑sovereign and agency bonds. In the opinion, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos granted the defendants’ December 2017 motion to dismiss the complaint for failure plausibly to allege antitrust injury, noting that the injury alleged by plaintiffs was “too implausible to state an antitrust claim.”

On November 29, 2017, Cravath client SBM Offshore N.V. (“SBM”), a Netherlands-based provider of floating production solutions to the offshore energy industry, reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice relating to legacy bribery issues in Brazil, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and elsewhere. The settlement includes a deferred prosecution agreement for the parent company, no monitorship, a guilty plea by SBM’s U.S. subsidiary and a financial sanction of $238 million. SBM received a substantial reduction in penalty based on its cooperation and remediation.