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and may share according to the priority SIPA gives its claim if the trustees recover from Holmes. Pp. 270-275. (d) SIPC's claim that it is entitled to recover under a SIPA provision, 15 U. S. C. § 78eee(d), fails because, on its face, that section simply qualifies SIPC as a proper party in interest in any "matter arising in a liquidation proceeding" as to which it "shall be deemed to have intervened," and gives SIPC no independent right to sue Holmes for money damages. Pp. 275-276. (e) This Court declines to decide whether every RICO plaintiff who sues under § 1964(c) and claims securities fraud as a predicate offense must have purchased or sold a security. In light of the foregoing, discussion of that issue is unnecessary to resolve this case. Nor will leaving the question unanswered deprive the lower courts of much-needed guidance. A review of those courts' conflicting cases shows that all could have been resolved on proximate-causation grounds, and that none involved litigants like those in Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723, who decided to forgo securities transactions in reliance on misrepresentations. P. 276. 908 F. 2d 1461, reversed and remanded.
Souter, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Blackmun, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined, and in all but Part IV of which White, Stevens, and O'Connor, JJ., joined. O'Connor, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which White and Stevens, JJ., joined, post, p. 276. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 286.
Jack I. Samet argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Jovina R. Hargis and Stephen K. Lubega. G. Robert Blakey argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief for respondent Securities Investor Protection Corporation were Stephen C. Taylor, Mark Riera, Theodore H. Focht, and Kevin H. Bell.*
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants by Louis A. Craco and John J. Halloran, Jr.; and for Arthur Andersen & Co. et al. by Kathryn A. Oberly, Carl D. Liggio, Jon N. Ekdahl, Harris J. Amhowitz, Howard J. Krongard, Leonard P. Novello, and Eldon Olson.
Kevin P. Roddy and William S. Lerach filed a brief for the National Association of Securities and Commercial Law Attorneys (NASCAT) as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
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