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SEC watchdog to be questioned about Madoff scandal
Breaking Legal News |
2009/01/05 09:12
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The Securities and Exchange Commission heard rumblings about Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff's investment methods nearly a decade ago.
Now a House panel wants to know how, despite those warnings, Madoff continued to operate without an agency investigation.The Financial Services Committee will question the SEC's internal watchdog Monday, as lawmakers try to learn why the regulatory agency failed to detect an alleged $50 billion investment fraud by Madoff. Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme will be a case study for a planned overhaul of laws regulating financial markets, said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who will chair the hearing. Witnesses include H. David Kotz, the SEC inspector general. He's already is looking into the agency's failure to uncover the fraud despite several warnings. Kotz previously said he will examine the relationship between a former SEC attorney and Madoff's niece, who are now married. |
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Law firm: Carter's AG, Bell, dies in Atlanta at 90
Attorneys in the News |
2009/01/04 09:15
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| Former President Jimmy Carter's attorney general, Griffin B. Bell, has died in an Atlanta hospital at age 90. Bell was being treated for complications due to pancreatic cancer, and suffered from kidney disease for years. A spokesman for Bell's law firm, Les Zucke, says Bell died at 9:40 a.m. Monday. Bell's firm, King & Spalding, is based in Atlanta. Carter's choice of Bell, a longtime friend, as attorney general was considered the most controversial of his Cabinet picks after the 1976 election. At the time, the NAACP and other civil rights groups complained Bell, as a federal judge, didn't force Southern schools to integrate quickly enough. But Carter called Bell's civil rights record superb, and many black Georgians came forward to support him. |
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Burris lawyer prods Senate Democratic leaders
Political and Legal |
2009/01/03 09:15
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A lawyer representing the man appointed to the Senate by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich has written to Senate Democratic leaders asking them to seat his client.
Attorney Timothy Wright also tells the Chicago Tribune he plans to go to court if the Senate refuses to seat Roland Burris.
Blagojevich's action has draw criticism because he faces corruption charges that accuse him of trying to profit from the appointment. He denies that. Wright's letter was dated Friday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said that anyone picked by Blagojevich will be turned away. Burris also has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to force Secretary of State Jesse White to certify the appointment. |
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12-year-old Arizona boy guilty in mom's shooting
Court Watch |
2009/01/03 09:14
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| A 12-year-old boy who fatally shot his mother after an argument over his chores was found guilty of premeditated murder. Judge James Conlogue found the boy guilty after a hearing Friday in Cochise County Superior Court in the southern Arizona town of Bisbee. The boy is not being identified because he was charged as a juvenile. Conlogue ruled that prosecutors had proved the boy acted intentionally and with premeditation when he shot Sara Madrid, 34, eight times on Aug. 1. The shooting happened after the boy had argued with his mother over his chores. Madrid had left the family home after the argument, and the boy got a .22-caliber pistol from her bedroom closet, waited for her to return and then repeatedly shot her, according to court testimony. Madrid's live-in boyfriend of 10 years, Alfonso Munoz, witnessed the shooting and said the boy gave him the empty gun afterward. Munoz, who helped raise the boy, said he had taught the child how to use the weapon for emergencies and self-defense. The boy's lawyer, Sanford Edleman, had argued that the boy did not intend to kill his mother but only wanted to get back at her for abusing him. |
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Judge rejects class-action status in trailer suits
Insurance |
2009/01/03 02:37
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| A federal judge on Monday refused to grant class-action status to lawsuits claiming that thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims were exposed to potentially toxic fumes while living in government-issued trailers. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled that a batch of lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of plaintiffs against the federal government and several trailer manufacturers can't be handled as a class action because each person's claim is unique and must be examined individually.
Government tests found elevated levels of formaldehyde in many of the trailers that housed victims of Katrina and Rita after those powerful hurricanes clobbered the Gulf Coast in 2005. Formaldehyde is a preservative that can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen.
Lawyers for the storm victims accuse trailer makers of using shoddy materials and building methods in a rush to meet the government's demand for emergency housing for the displaced. The attorneys had argued that a class-action lawsuit would efficiently resolve all the cases from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama that Engelhardt is presiding over in New Orleans. But the judge said the cases involve hundreds of trailer models made by dozens of companies and occupied by people with varying medical histories and symptoms. "Each plaintiffs' claims and alleged injuries will require an examination of individual evidence," Engelhardt wrote in a 50-page ruling. Tony Buzbee, one of the lead lawyers for plaintiffs, said he respects the judge's decision but hasn't ruled out an appeal. |
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Madoff Spinoffs - Another Investment Class Action
Class Action |
2009/01/02 09:22
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A class action in Manhattan Federal Court claims Tremont Market Neutral Fund was grossly negligent in handing over 27% of its money to Bernard Madoff for his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Here are the defendants in the Tremont Funds case: Tremont Market Neutral Fund LP, Tremont Partners Inc., Tremont Group Holdings Inc., Oppenheimer Acquisition Corp., Oppenheimer Funds Inc., Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., and Ernst & Young LLP.
A class action in Manhattan Federal Court claims these defendants handed over investments in the Rye Select Broad Market Fund to Bernard Madoff for his alleged Ponzi scheme: Rye Select Broad Market Fund LP, Tremont Partners Inc., Tremont Group Holdings Inc., Rye Investment Management, Jim Mitchell, and Robert Schulman.
Three members of the Sciremammano family sued Bernard Madoff, saying he took more than $2 million from them, in Manhattan Federal Court. |
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CA Sues to stop Bush's Butchering of Endagered Species Act
Environmental |
2009/01/02 09:16
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California's Attorney General went into Federal Court Tuesday in an effort to stop a midnight regulation by the Bush Administration that would exempt federal agencies from a key requirement of the Endangered Species Act, saying the move in the waning days of Bush's presidency usurps the power of Congress and is the most significant change to the act in 20 years.
"The Bush Administration is unlawfully trying to make major substantive and procedural revisions to the statute through the regulatory process. This is not something executive agencies are authorized to do. Only Congress can amend the statute" says Abraham Arredondo, a lawyer for the California Attorney General's Office.
The ESA mandated that federal agencies seek independent reviews from scientists on projects that might negatively affect endangered or threatened species.
The Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce, however, proposed to eliminate this provision and on December 16th it was removed.
Federal agencies now decide for themselves whether mining, logging, and other projects will negatively affect threatened or endangered species. Attorney General Edmund Brown claims these agencies generally lack biological expertise and that they usually have incentive to conclude their projects won't hurt listed species.
Also, the Act no longer mandates that the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on listed species be considered in federal projects. Federal agencies no longer need to consider potential negative affects on species like the polar bear when approving coal-burning power plants or projects which contribute to greenhouse gasses.
Of the 1,327 plant and animal species on the national endangered and threatened species list, 310 of them are in California. The federal government owns millions of acres of land in California in the form of military bases, public lands, and federal water projects, among other things.
California has its own list of endangered species and the federal government must still follow the California Endangered Species Act when operating on California land.
The lawsuit draws attention to the increasing stagnancy of the federal Endangered Species Act. Robert Wayne, a Biology professor at UCLA, explained that it is now very difficult to add species to the federal endangered species list, which results in many species becoming extinct while still being considered for listing.
In 2004, the Washington Post wrote an article detailing the influence of the Bush administration on the ESA. It reported that 9.5 species a year were added to the endangered list under President Bush, compared with 65 a year under President Bill Clinton and 59 a year under President George H.W. Bush. The Paper also reported that the administration recalculated the economic costs of protecting critical habitats and also noted increased difficulty in listing new species.
The Federal ESA understands endangered species to be in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened species are animals and plants likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges.
Megan Acevedo is the Deputy Attorney General representing California. |
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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