foundation for tactics like Greenmail, were: Cases United States v. Charnay, 537 F.2d 341 (1976) Legal Precedent The United States v. Charnay, 577 F.2d 81 (1978) Legal Precedent United States v. Wolfson, 405 F.2d 779 (2d Cir.1968) illegal, Conviction Gilette and Revlon New World and Four Star Significant pre-20th century precedents of stock manipulation, which set the foundation for tactics like Greenmail, were: Historic Examples Grant and Ward J.P. Morgan William Vanderbilt William Duer Prevention tactics Greenmail is a financially sophisticated corporate business tactic, and many counter-tactics have been applied to defend against and to financially engineer the reception of a greenmail. There is a legal requirement in some jurisdictions for companies to impose limits for launching formal bids. United States Federal tax treatment of greenmail gains (a 50% excise tax), legal restrictions, as well as counter-tactics have all made greenmail far less common since the early 1990s (see 26 U.S.C. § 5881, and 26 C.F.R. Part 156, notably § 156.5881-1 ff.). See also Insider trading Watered stock Stock dilution Pump and dump Stock bashing Notes References David Manry & David Stangeland, 'Greenmail: A Brief History' (2001) 6 Stanford Journal of Law, Business and Finance 217 (not free) External links Dawn Raid at Investopedia Mergers and acquisitions Corporate finance