There’s a growing consensus in the defense bar that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission can be defeated in an insider trading case, so long as your client is willing to roll the dice on a trial. A trio of Manhattan based defenses lawyers—Joel Cohen of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Mark Cohen of Cohen & Gresser; and Roland Riopelle of Sercarz & Riopelle—drove that message home on May 30 with a long-awaited defense verdict.
A federal jury in Manhattan found that 67-year-old Nelson Obus, the leader of the hedge fund Wynnefield Capital, didn’t trade stock based on insider information. The jury also cleared two younger codefendants, Peter Black and T. Bradley Strickland, who were accused of passing a tip to Obus. Joel Cohen represented Obus, Mark Cohen represented Black, and Riopelle represented Strickland.
