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Scienter
Scienter is a legal term that refers to intent or knowledge of wrongdoing. This means that an offending party has knowledge of the "wrongness" of an act or event prior to committing it. For example, if a man sells a car with brakes that don't work to his friend, and he doesn't know about the problem, then the man has no scienter. If he sells the car and knew of the problem before he sold, he has scienter. The origin of the word is the same as science -- that is, knowledge or mind.
More on scienter
Kevin LaCroix has an interesting (albeit late) account of New Jersey Carpenters Pension & Annuity Fund v. Biogen Idec which we covered here.
CA1: what is enough of a risk under the PSLRA to show scienter
New Jersey Carpenter v. Biogen Idec Inc., No. 07-2626 affirms the dismissal of a Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA"), Pub...
In re Centerline Holdings Co., Sec. Litig. and Scienter
In In re Centerline Holdings Co., Securities Litigation, No. 08 Civ. 505 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 12, 2009) the court granted Centerline’s motion to dismiss because the plaintiffs failed to argue particularized facts sufficient to demonstrate scienter...
SEC v. Tambone: Specificity, Scienter, and 10b-5 violations
In a previous post this blog covered SEC v. Tambone, the case against James R. Tambone and Robert Hussey, executives of Columbia Funds Distributor, Inc...
Second Circuit Rejects Collective Scienter Theory
In a recent decision, the Second Circuit rejected a shareholder-plaintiff’s theory of collective scienter in a securities fraud suit brought against a financial services company...
Scienter and the 8th Circuit: In re Ceridian Corp. Sec. Litig.
This post examines how the 8th Circuit applied the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (?PSLRA?) in the case of In re Ceridian Corp...
















