By: Alexandria E. Kane
On May 22, 2020, Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Southern District of New York, in Kirschner v. JPMorgan Chase, reaffirmed that syndicated bank loans are not securities. In Kirschner, the plaintiff alleged that a $1.77 billion syndicated bank loan made to Millennium Laboratories LLC (Millennium), a California-based urine testing company and subsequently sold to 70 institutional investors was, in fact, a security — affording it additional protections under the certain state “blue sky” securities laws. The plaintiff alleged that defendants J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citibank, N.A., Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., Bank of Montreal, BMO Capital Markets Corp., SunTrust Bank and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., sold debt obligations to the investors but “misrepresented or omitted…material facts in the offering materials they provided and communications they made to Investors regarding the legality of [Millennium’s] sales, marketing, and billing practices” and “the known risks posed by a pending government investigation into the illegality of such practices.” Shortly after the closing of the loan transaction, Millennium lost an important litigation matter that resulted in a $500 million decrease to its valuation and, in addition, entered into a $256 million settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over claims related to alleged healthcare law violations. Within a month of finalizing the DOJ settlement, Millennium defaulted on the loan and filed for bankruptcy. (more…)
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