Lawsuit Seeks Billions for Land Leasing

Cobell vs. Norton, reportedly the largest and longest-running class-action lawsuit against the federal government, claims that the United States cannot provide an accounting of billions of dollars held in trust for 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, reported The Arizona Republic.Earlier th...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 31, 2005

Missing Email May Cost Morgan $10M

The Securities and Exchange Commission may fine Morgan Stanley $10 million, or even more, for failing to preserve email documents that may have been relevant to SEC cases, reported The Wall Street Journal.The commission first proposed a $10 million fine in January, but the Journal reported that a...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 30, 2005

DVD Disclosures Eyed by SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry into Pixar Animation Studios regarding the DVD release of its movie “The Incredibles,” according to The Wall Street Journal.Pixar announced on June 30 that it would miss its second-quarter earnings forecast because retailers ...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 26, 2005

SEC’s Civil Injunctions ‘Unenforceable’?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruled earlier this month that the broad injunctive orders commonly sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission are “unenforceable,” reported The Wall Street Journal.A defendant who violates an injunctive order, which the SEC employs t...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 25, 2005

AOL Settles Spitzer Probe for $1.25M

Internet service provider America Online will pay $1.25 million in penalties to settle an investigation into practices that allegedly made it difficult for customers to cancel their service, according to reports.About 300 AOL customers filed complaints with the office of New York State Attorney G...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 24, 2005

SEC Sues Former Kmart CEO, CFO

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against the former chief executive officer and former chief financial officer of Kmart for allegedly misleading investors about the discounter’s financial condition in the months leading up to the company’s bankruptcy.According to the...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 23, 2005

SEC May Charge MBIA

MBIA Inc. announced late Friday night that the Securities and Exchange Commission may bring civil charges stemming from a reinsurance arrangement it made several years ago with a unit of the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health, Education, and Research Foundation (AHERF).According to the bond insure...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 22, 2005

SEC Could Sue Goodyear, Ex-Finance Execs

The Securities and Exchange Commission has served the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and two former company finance executives with Wells Notices, according to company documents and press reports. The action stems from an investigation into the company’s accounting practices and the financial re...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 17, 2005

JPMorgan-Enron Settlement: $1 Billion

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $350 million to Enron Corp. to settle “MegaClaims” litigation stemming from the energy trader’s bankruptcy. The investment bank also agreed to drop claims against the energy giant, bringing the total value of the settlement to an estimated $1 billion, ac...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 16, 2005

Senator Seeks Drug-Research Probe

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has called on regulators to launch an investigation based on a Seattle Times report that medical researchers routinely accept money to reveal secrets about drug studies to Wall Street firms, according to that paper.Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told t...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 12, 2005

Investors Press for AIG Board Overhaul

Shareholders attending the annual meeting of American International Group Inc. on Thursday seemed to be in an agreeable mood. With former chief executive officer Maurice Greenberg out of the picture, they OK’ed the insurance giant’s entire slate of 15 directors and renewed the contract of auditor...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 12, 2005

Fannie Restatement: Wait Till Next Year

Fannie Mae acknowledged that it would not complete what could amount to a $11 billion restatement until the second half of 2006. As a result, the company conceded, it would be breaching the New York Stock Exchange’s listing standards.The mortgage giant “is engaged in regular discussions with the ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2005

Smarter Insurance Shopping

Changing insurance carriers isn’t a decision most CFOs can breeze through. In a market that continues to soften, many companies can save money by switching insurers, but in doing so they can also ensnarl their borrowing resources and tie up their risk managers.A company that buys a policy includi...

By David Katz • Aug. 11, 2005

Class-action Plaintiffs Head to Court

So far this year, six securities class actions have gone to trial, according to The National Law Journal, citing data from Institutional Shareholder Services.Doesn’t sound like much?Consider, then, that only nine cases have gone to trial since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Refo...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 9, 2005

Kodak Facing SEC Probe

Eastman Kodak Co. has disclosed that the Securities and ExchangeCommission is looking into its recently announced earnings restatement.According to Kodak, which filed its second-quarter results Tuesday, the regulator informed the company in March that it had launched an informal inquiry “into the...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 9, 2005

Ruling Toughens Claims vs. Fiduciaries

A recent ruling from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could make it significantly easier for bankruptcy trustees to sue directors and officers for alleged breaches of their fiduciary duties, according to The Legal Intelligencer.The ruling stems from a lawsuit against the former officers and ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 8, 2005

Enron Investors Press Merrill Lynch

Investors trying to recover lost money from the bankruptcy of Enron Corp. are turning up the heat on Merrill Lynch & Co.William Lerach, whose law firm represents the University of California, the lead plaintiff in the class-action case, has asked the judge presiding over Enron’s bankruptcy to...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 8, 2005

Regulators Eye Berkshire Hathaway Accounting

Berkshire Hathaway has announced that regulators are looking into accounting issues related to certain reinsurance transactions.The conglomerate controlled by legendary investor Warren Buffett disclosed in its quarterly earnings filing that governmental authorities are inquiring about “the accoun...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 8, 2005

DaimlerChrysler Bribery Charges Probed

DaimlerChrysler is reportedly being investigated by several regulators in at least two countries.The U.S. Justice Department is probing charges that members of the automaker’s embattled Mercedes unit paid bribes in at least 12 countries and that senior executives may have been aware of the practi...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 5, 2005

Four More Insurance Execs Plead Guilty

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has racked up another four guilty pleas from insurance executives in his nearly two-year investigation into abuses in the insurance industry, according to published reports. Three of the executives are from Marsh & McLennan Cos. and the other is f...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 4, 2005

Cendant’s Shelton Gets 10-Year Sentence

E. Kirk Shelton, a former vice chairman of Cendant Corp., was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in an accounting scandal during the 1990s that cost investors more than $3 billion, according to the Associated Press.He was also ordered to pay $3.27 billion to Cendant, the travel company ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 3, 2005

Time Warner Reserves $3 Billion

Time Warner Inc. has reached an agreement on a settlement of class-action lawsuits stemming from its merger with AOL and a related accounting scandal and set aside $3 billion in reserves to resolve litigation.Under the proposed settlement of the class action, Time Warner will pay $2.4 billion int...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 3, 2005

Enron Settlements Hit Record $7 Billion

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s agreement late yesterday to pay $2.4 billion to settle a securities fraud class-action suit stemming from Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy brought the total amount recovered in litigation involving the company to $7.12 billion, according to William Lerach of Lerach Co...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 3, 2005

Spitzer Slapped Moody’s with Subpoenas

Moody’s Corp. has received two subpoenas from New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer seeking documents and information concerning activities going back as far as 1997, including its rating of reinsurance companies, according to the company. The credit-rating giant said in a 10-Q filed Frid...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 1, 2005

Keeping an Eye on Third Parties

Self-insuring workers’ compensation risks can be a good move if companies manage the risks well and estimate their liability accurately. Self-insurers can pay less to cover their exposures, and have a powerful incentive to prevent injuries from happening in the first place. But, experts warn, com...

By David Katz • Aug. 1, 2005