Opinion ID: 2598489
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Alaska Securities Law

Text: Alaska corporations created under ANCSA are exempt from the federal Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934. [7] To the extent that the shareholders' claims are not directly governed by ANCSA, then, they are controlled by Alaska law rather than federal securities law. [8] Nevertheless, as we held in Brown v. Ward , interpretations of relevant SEC and federal common law prohibitions against material falsehoods in proxy statements provide a useful guide in interpreting similar securities issues arising under state law in ANCSA cases. [9] The Alaska Securities Act prohibits misrepresentations of material fact in proxy solicitations: A person may not, in a document filed with the administrator or in a proceeding under this chapter, make or cause to be made an untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they are made, not misleading. [10] Under this provision, a two-fold analysis applies to misrepresentation issues in proxy solicitation cases, requiring courts to ask, first, whether any statements amounted to misrepresentations and, if so, whether those misrepresentations are material when considered in the light of the circumstances under which they are made. [11] The relevant definition of misrepresentation, as set forth in 3 AAC 08.315(a), includes both positive statements and omissions: [A] statement that, at the time and under the circumstances in which it is made (1) is false or misleading with respect to a material fact; (2) omits a material fact necessary in order to make a statement made in the solicitation not false or misleading; or (3) omits a material fact necessary to correct a statement, in an earlier communication regarding the solicitation of a proxy for the same meeting or subject matter, which has become false or misleading. Under these provisions, then, statements or omissions qualify as misrepresentations when they are misleading or false, and a misleading or false statement `is material if there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable shareholder would consider it important in deciding how to vote.' [12]