A recent win by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in defeating a class action suit against Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer, which acknowledged global bribery allegations as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. investigators in October 2016, served as a good snapshot of the recently evolved set of challenges faced by those seeking to bring a federal class securities action in the Southern District of New York.

In Employees Retirement System of the City of Providence v. Embraer, 16-cv-06277, the plaintiffs, represented by Pomerantz, alleged the company and its top officers violated a number of securities laws and rules. The source of the violations during the class period from early January 2012 to late November 2016 centered on Embraer's violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The company would admit in October 2016 that, between 2007 and 2011, several high-level executives helped bribe government officials in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique and India to the tune of $11.5 million. In exchange, the company received contracts worth more than $83 million in profits, according to court papers.