Morrison Cohen Defeats SEC’s Attempt to Obtain Summary Judgment

On September 23, in a long-litigated securities fraud action against Morrison Cohen clients Anatoly Hurgin and Alexander Aurovsky, co-founders of Israeli government communications contractor Ability Inc., Federal District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil denied the SEC’s motion for summary judgment. Partners Edward Gilbert, Jason Gottlieb, and Daniel Isaacs, and Associate Collin Rose secured this significant victory for their clients.

The SEC initially filed claims in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Hurgin and Aurovsky in June 2019 following the 2015 merger between the executives’ private Israeli company with the publicly-held Cambridge Capital Acquisition Corp. The SEC alleged that the executives violated the federal securities laws leading up to the deal.

In the Court’s 27-page order, Judge Vyskocil emphatically denied the SEC’s motion for summary judgment, writing, "Based on the court's searching examination of the record, the SEC's evidence falls well short of its arguments. Indeed, a jury might conclude the SEC's evidence is so underwhelming — especially in contrast to its pitched accusations — that the jury finds that neither Hurgin nor Aurovsky is liable for any of the violations alleged in the complaint.”

Law360 covered the ruling in a September 26 article entitled “SEC's Fraud Fight with Israeli Contractor Execs to Go to Jury.”