A month ago, we found ourselves shocked to hear someone claiming religious discrimination and thinking it rang sorta true. The alleged victim, who divides his time between his twin callings of priest and hedge fund manager with a gift for prophecy (albeit an incomplete one), produced noted that his persecutors, Ligard Pharmaceuticals—whose shares Emmanuel Lemelson had shorted and then trashed—insisted he needed to be “silenced for good” and played up his God-bothering in lobbying the SEC for action, which it finally gave into back in 2018.
The only problem was, we weren’t supposed to know any of that just yet.
After hearing on the SEC’s Motion pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37, I find that Defendants are in contempt of this Court’s Protective Orders. Defendant Lemelson concedes that he violated this order by giving a journalist at Barron’s copies of materials deemed confidential under the Protective Orders…. Defendants shall not take any position in Ligand stock, or its derivatives, for the duration of this action, including appeals…. Defendants shall pay a penalty of $100 per page of the confidential discovery materials disclosed in violation of this Court’s Protective Orders within 30 days.
Render unto Caesar, Father Lemelson.
Hedge Fund Priest Sanctioned Over Press Leaks in SEC Case [Bloomberg Law]