SEC

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Wednesday are: Sally Beauty, Sandridge Energy, Ruby Tuesday, Resolute Energy, Teekay Tankers, Yingli Green, Zale Corp, CapitalSource and Southwestern Energy.

LinkedIn, the network service for professionals is planning to go public and discussing about a possible IPO, sources informed Reuters.

The companies that reported news on Wednesday after the market close are: Cisco Systems, CenturyLink, Qwest Communications, Delta Air Lines, Massey Energy, AMR, American Airlines, Ruby Tuesday, Resources Connection, Mindspeed Technologies, Quidel, Lacrosse Footwear, and Daqo New Energy.

Facebook shares are hot, but they're starting to behave like publicly-traded shares, which has attracted the scrutiny of the SEC.

US market regulator Security and Exchange Commission began examining disclosure rules for privately held companies and whether they need to be rewritten following the recent deals that allowed investors to buy shares in Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter.

A California-based former consultant for an expert networking and an investment advisory firm, Primary Global Research LLC, has been arrested by the federal authorities on charges related to her involvement in an insider trading scheme and has been detained for the New Year weekend.

Steven Rattner, former head of the U.S. government's Automotive Task Force, has agreed to pay $10 million in restitution to settle kickback allegations involving the roughly $132.8 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund and resolves the two lawsuits filed by the Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

King & Spalding has appointed Ross W. Nadel, a veteran Bay Area federal prosecutor, as a partner of its special matters and government investigations practice.

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, has accused Bank of America (BofA) and its lending unit, Countrywide Financial, of misrepresenting the risk associated with mortgage-backed securities it bought from them beginning 2005, and is suing them for more than $700 million.

Paris-based telecoms equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent SA and three of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay a combined $92 million penalty to settle a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation into the global sales practice of Alcatel S.A. prior to its 2006 merger with Lucent Technologies Inc.

Groupon, the social buying website which recently rejected a $6- billion takeover offer from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has attracted the interest of some large institutional investors and is seeking to go public by the end of next year, according to a report in the New York Times.

A former head of a talent agency has sued Jonathan Bristol, a former law firm partner of Winston & Strawn LLP, and the law firm, and is holding them accountable for the $2 million allegedly misappropriated from his investment account.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Jonathan Bristol, a former law firm partner, with aiding and abetting Kenneth Ira Starr's Ponzi scheme by allowing Starr to use his attorney trust accounts as conduits for transferring the funds stolen from Starr's clients to Starr and his two companies for personal use.

Shares of Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) are climbing today following the filing of an SEC document last night which revealed the company had entered into a new change-in-control (CIC) agreement with several top executives.

Synology America Corp. has released its new Network Attached Storage (NAS) server -- DS1511+, a successor to their popular DS1010+ server model.

Four people, including an executive from an expert networking firm, have been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in an operation seen as part of a widening probe into insider trading.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the departure of Mark Hurd as the chief Executive officer from Hewlett-Packard Co. (NASDAQ:HPQ) as part of its broad inquiry in to various claims, including insider trading by the former executive.

Chesapeake Energy jumped 6.95 percent at 12:09 p.m. on news that billionaire investor Carl Icahn increased his equity ownership of it from 2.5 percent to more than 5 percent.

Hundreds of investors rioted in the commercial district of Dhaka, Bangladesh on Sunday after the local stock market suffered its sharpest one-day decline in its history.

Four men were arrested for taking part in an insider trading scheme in which details of Apple's iPhone and iPad were leaked to hedge fund managers.

Howrey's litigation practice co-chair Gary Bendinger has defected with two other partners to Sidley Austin.