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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled Apr. 10, 2025

Western Energy Opportunities II, LLC v. Finalis Securities, LLC

Judge
Edgardo Ramos
Docket
1:24-cv-02565
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
15
Civil ProcedureIntellectual PropertyMotion to Dismiss
In one sentence

In Western Energy Opportunities II v. Finalis Securities, Judge Ramos directed Finalis to respond to the plaintiff’s reconsideration-or-amendment motion by May 1, 2025.

Who this affects

Western Energy Opportunities II, LLC and Finalis Securities, LLC were affected by the court’s scheduling directive: Finalis was required to respond to Western Energy’s motion by May 1, 2025. The provided text does not resolve the motion.

What happened

Western Energy Opportunities II, LLC sued Finalis Securities, LLC and others. In the filing, Western Energy asked the court to reconsider its March 26, 2025 dismissal of its federal trade-secret and racketeering claims against Finalis, or alternatively allow an amended complaint.

Western Energy argued that Finalis knowingly helped others use Western Energy’s confidential business information to create a competing EB-5 oil-and-gas offering. Western Energy said Finalis signed an agreement requiring confidentiality, provided its brokerage platform, continued working with the competing venture after learning of the alleged misuse, and benefited through fees. These were the plaintiff’s arguments, not findings by the court in this document.

Judge Edgardo Ramos did not decide the reconsideration or amendment requests in the provided text. The court directed Finalis Securities, LLC to respond by May 1, 2025.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Western Energy Opportunities II, LLC v. Finalis Securities, LLC · No. 1:24-cv-02565
Judge
Edgardo Ramos
Date
Apr. 10, 2025

What the court did

The provided document includes an order directing Defendant Finalis Securities, LLC to respond by May 1, 2025. It does not state that the court granted or denied Western Energy’s motion for reconsideration or its alternative request for leave to amend. The document is principally Western Energy’s memorandum supporting those requests.

Background

Western Energy Opportunities II, LLC, doing business as Western Energy Regional Center, alleged claims against Finalis Securities, LLC and other defendants involving trade-secret misappropriation under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and other claims. The memorandum states that Western Energy filed a First Amended Complaint and that Finalis moved to dismiss it.

According to the memorandum, on March 26, 2025, the court granted Finalis’s motion to dismiss Western Energy’s federal racketeering and Defend Trade Secrets Act claims against Finalis. The memorandum says the court found that the complaint did not adequately allege Finalis’s participation in a racketeering enterprise or predicate acts and did not show that Finalis itself misappropriated trade secrets. The memorandum also states that the court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims.

Plaintiff’s arguments

Western Energy argued that the court overlooked allegations showing Finalis’s active involvement in the alleged misuse of confidential information. The alleged information included financial models, investor contacts, marketing plans, and due-diligence protocols connected to Western Energy’s $79.2 million EB-5 oil-and-gas offering.

Western Energy contended that Finalis signed a Placement Agent Agreement, agreed to confidentiality obligations, introduced or enabled access by other defendants, and later served as broker-dealer for a competing offering. Western Energy alleged that the competing offering used its protected materials and that Finalis continued participating after learning of the alleged misuse, while receiving transaction-related fees.

Western Energy argued that the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act can cover a defendant that knowingly acquires, uses, or discloses trade secrets obtained through improper means, even if the defendant did not personally carry out the original theft. It asked the court to reconsider the dismissal. Alternatively, it asked for permission to file another amended complaint to provide more detail about Finalis’s alleged role.

Disposition

Judge Edgardo Ramos directed Finalis Securities, LLC to respond by May 1, 2025. The provided text does not report a ruling on the substance of the reconsideration motion or on leave to amend.

The authoritative version

Read the full 15-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
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