Cite as: 503 U. S. 258 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
and that this decline caused the broker-dealers' financial difficulties resulting in their eventual liquidation and SIPC's advance of nearly $13 million to cover their customers' claims. The complaint described Holmes' participation in the scheme by alleging that he made false statements about the prospects of one of the six companies, Aero Systems, Inc., of which he was an officer, director, and major shareholder; and that over an extended period he sold small amounts of stock in one of the other six companies, the Bunnington Corporation, to simulate a liquid market. The conspirators were said to have violated § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U. S. C. § 78j(b), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-5, 17 CFR § 240.10b-5 (1991), and the mail and wire fraud statutes, 18 U. S. C. §§ 1341, 1343 (1988 ed., Supp. II). Finally, the complaint concluded that their acts amounted to a "pattern of racketeering activity" within the meaning of the RICO statute, 18 U. S. C. §§ 1962, 1961(1), and (5) (1988 ed. and Supp. II), so as to entitle the plaintiffs to recover treble damages, § 1964(c).
After some five years of litigation over other issues,4 the District Court entered summary judgment for Holmes on the RICO claims, ruling that SIPC "does not meet the 'purchaser-seller' requirements for standing to assert RICO claims which are predicated upon violation of Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5," App. to Pet. for Cert. 45a,5 and that neither
4 See generally Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Vigman, 803 F. 2d 1513 (CA9 1986) (Vigman II); Securities Investor Protection Corporation v. Vigman, 764 F. 2d 1309 (CA9 1985) (Vigman I).
5 Two years earlier, the District Court had dismissed SIPC's non-RICO securities action on the ground that SIPC's claim to have been subrogated to the rights only of those customers who did not purchase any of the manipulated securities rendered the action a failure under the so-called Birnbaum test, which requires a plaintiff to be a purchaser or seller of a security. See Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U. S. 723 (1975); Birnbaum v. Newport Steel Corp., 193 F. 2d 461 (CA2), cert. denied, 343 U. S. 956 (1952). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed
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