On June 23, 2014, all eyes in the securities bar were fixed on the Supreme Court's opinion in Halliburton as practitioners and commentators evaluated the impact of that decision on the future of private securities class action litigation. Unnoticed that day was a bank fraud decision by the Supreme Court that could have a far greater impact on SEC enforcement actions. In Loughrin v. United States,1 the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the bank fraud statute, which makes it unlawful to ''obtain money or property . . . by means of'' false statements or omissions. The reasoning of Loughrin, if applied to the nearly identical language of Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933,2 would likewise constrict the reach of that provision.

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Originally published by Bloomberg BNA, Securities Regulation & Law Report".

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