Sullivan & Cromwell won an important victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a putative securities-fraud class action brought by a purchaser of 144A bonds against S&C client Volkswagen AG, a U.S. subsidiary and employees. The plaintiff accused Volkswagen of violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 because the Offering Memoranda for $8.3 billion in unregistered Rule 144A bonds issued by the U.S. subsidiary stated that Volkswagen was researching emissions-control technologies, and that its vehicles were subject to emissions-control laws, while omitting to disclose the existence of emissions-control “defeat devices” in certain diesel vehicles.