Scottrade, Inc. v. Broco Investments, Inc., Valery Maltsev, and Genesis Investments, LLC, 10 Civ. 3537 (RJH)

Lax & Neville LLP successfully defended Genesis Investments, LLC, in a case in which Plaintiff Scottrade, Inc. ("Scottrade"), a securities broker-dealer, attempted to hold Genesis responsible for the actions of other individuals and entities, which "hacked" into Scottrade's computer systems and executed a series of purchases and/or sales in the accounts of Scottrade customers to "pump" up and/or "dump" thinly traded securities for a profit. On March 31, 2011, the Honorable Judge Holwell of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Genesis's motion to dismiss in its entirety and stated that this case presented a question of first impression, i.e., " does a securities broker, whose customers have been defrauded, and who reimburses his customers-but to whom the customers have not assigned their claims, and who other than the reimbursements alleges no damages whatsoever-have standing to sue the alleged fraudsters for violations of [various securities laws]?" The Court held that since Scottrade was not an "actual purchaser or seller of securities," it lacked standing to pursue most of its claims against Genesis, and also dismissed Scottrade's remaining claims.