Wharf (Holdings) Ltd. v. United Int'l Holdings, Inc., 532 U.S. 588, 10 (2001)

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Cite as: 532 U. S. 588 (2001)

Opinion of the Court

ise to sell it securities. It is a claim that Wharf sold it a security (the option) while secretly intending from the very beginning not to honor the option. And United proved that secret intent with documentary evidence that went well beyond evidence of a simple failure to perform. Moreover, Wharf has not shown us that its concern has proved serious as a practical matter in the past. Cf. Threadgill v. Black, 730 F. 2d 810, 811-812 (CADC) (per curiam) (suggesting in 1984 that contracting to sell securities with the secret reservation not to perform one's obligations under the contract violates § 10(b)). Nor does Wharf persuade us that it is likely to prove serious in the future. Cf. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-67, § 21D(b)(2), 109 Stat. 747, codified at 15 U. S. C. § 78u-4(b)(2) (1994 ed., Supp. V) (imposing, beginning in 1995, stricter pleading requirements in private securities fraud actions that, among other things, require that a complaint "state with particularity facts giving rise to a strong inference that the defendant acted with the required [fraudulent] state of mind").

For these reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is

Affirmed.

597

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