Supreme Court Finds Investment Banker Following Orders Culpable

Supreme Court Finds Investment Banker Following Orders Culpable
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in Washington on March 1, 2016. Susan Walsh-Pool/Getty Images
Matthew Vadum
Matthew Vadum
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WASHINGTON—An investment banker who sent deceptive emails to prospective clean-energy investors greatly overstating a company’s financial health can’t escape responsibility for securities fraud because he was only following his supervisor’s directions, the Supreme Court ruled March 27.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the 6-to-2 majority opinion in Lorenzo v. SEC, rejecting the reasoning employed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when he was a member of the lower court panel that previously heard the case.