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JOSIP HEIT AND GSB GERMANY REACH SETTLEMENT WITH STATE SECURITIES REGULATORS
JOSIP HEIT AND GSB GERMANY REACH SETTLEMENT WITH STATE SECURITIES REGULATORS
Josip Heit, the Chairman of GSB Gold Standard Corporation AG (GSB Germany), GSB Germany, and certain affiliated companies, brands, and platforms have reached a settlement to resolve the civil investigations of U.S. state securities regulators in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas, his lawyers announced today.
Under the terms of the settlement, Mr. Heit and the GSB entities will consent – without admitting or denying any violations of law or that any product offered by the GSB entities is a security – to cease-and-desist from offering or selling unregistered securities in the settling states.
As part of the settlement, the settling states will withdraw all prior allegations of fraud or dishonest practices, said Avi Perry and Alex Spiro, partners at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP who served as counsel for Mr. Heit and GSB Germany.
No monetary penalties will be imposed. Instead, Mr. Heit and the GSB companies have agreed to refund all eligible U.S. customers in the settling states. An independent claims administrator, AlixPartners, LLP, will accept claims from customers to determine eligibility for compensation. More information about the claims process will be publicized soon.
"We welcome this settlement," said Josip Heit, Chairman of GSB Germany. "We are committed to refunding all eligible customers through the claims process. Our customers always come first. Protecting the brand, our reputation, and our customers is our top priority."
"Since the start of this matter, our goal has been to reach a settlement that serves our customers," Mr. Heit added. "As Chairman, I am proud of this outcome. We cooperated fully with the U.S. state investigations, and we are working with our attorneys to ensure that any future U.S. business complies with all applicable legal requirements."
"This settlement—which includes no monetary penalty and withdraws all allegations of fraud—is an important milestone for Mr. Heit and his companies," said Perry and Spiro of Quinn Emanuel. "We are pleased to bring this matter to a successful close with a multistate resolution."
The settlement will become final upon conclusion of the claims process. In addition to Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas, other states will be given the opportunity to join the settlement on the same terms.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a 1000+ lawyer business litigation firm—the largest in the world devoted solely to business litigation and arbitration with 34 global office locations. Surveys of major companies around the world have named it the "most feared" law firm in the world three times. Firm lawyers have tried over 2,500 cases, winning 86% of them. When representing defendants, Quinn Emanuel's trial experience gets better settlements or defence verdicts. When representing plaintiffs, Quinn Emanuel lawyers have won nearly $80 billion in judgments and settlements. Quinn Emanuel has also obtained seven nine-figure jury verdicts, four 10-figure jury verdicts, 51 nine-figure settlements, and 20 10-figure settlements.
Quinn Emanuel has been named the No. 1 "most feared" law firm by The BTI Consulting Group three times in its annual "Most Feared Law Firms in Litigation" guide, in which in-house counsel named 46 firms they "want to steer clear of" when it comes to litigation. The American Lawyer named Quinn Emanuel the top IP litigation firm in the U.S. and the firm as one of the top six commercial litigation firms in the country. The UK legal periodical, The Lawyer, named us "International Firm of the Year." Law360 has most recently selected us as having Banking, Class Action, International Arbitration, and Trials "Practice Groups of the Year."
Managing IP twice recognized us as having the "Best ITC Litigation Practice" and honoured us with the "Patent Contentious West" award. Legal Business has named us "US Law Firm of the Year" three times, and our German offices have twice been named both "IP Litigation Firm of the Year" and "Patent Litigation Firm of the Year" by JUVE, Germany's most prestigious legal publication. Global Investigations Review, a leading legal periodical covering global white-collar investigations, named us the "Most Impressive Investigations Practice of the Year."
Global Arbitration Review named us the 3rd best arbitration practice in the world. Global Competition Review named our antitrust and competition practice among the "25 Global Elite," and has included us in their list of the world's top 10 competition litigation practices.
A.Imbrogno--INP
