Faced with a "battle of allegations" of "sinister intent and financial motive…that might serve well as the plot of an opera," District Judge Michael Baylson (E.D. Pa.) recently held, in denying motions to dismiss counterclaims and third-party claims, that Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 extend to "a manipulative scheme by an officer of a corporation to gain control [of] the stock’s float, artificially inflate its share price through fraud on the market, and reap substantial gains by selling off his shares while causing the corporation and its other shareholders to suffer losses." Advanced Multilevel Concepts v. Edward Bukstel, 2013 WL 200749 *1 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 25, 2013)
Acknowledging that he was presented with a "novel situation" and a "unique question," Baylson concluded that the "Supreme Court’s broad holdings" with respect to the "in connection with" and "reliance" elements of federal securities fraud claims would permit a company and its CEO to assert such claims against a third party and the plaintiff entities he allegedly controlled for "misrepresentations which induced other investors, in the general market, to buy and then sell off [the company's] stock." Id. at *11.
