It was years in the making, but in declining to dismiss an insider trading indictment Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York brought a coda to his bicoastal efforts confronting the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s contorted insider trading case law of recent years.

The motion to dismiss was just one of a number of actions by the defendants in United States v. Pinto-Thomaz, 18-cr-00579. Sebastian Pinto-Thomaz, according to an indictment, allegedly provided insider information about paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams’ intent to acquire a rival company, Valspar, to two acquaintances, neither of whom had previously traded in either of the companies’ stocks.