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S.Korean tycoon arrested, taken to jail
International | 2007/05/12 04:24

A South Korean business tycoon was behind bars Saturday after his arrest for allegedly beating up bar workers in retaliation for an attack on his 22-year old son.

Police planned to question Hanwha Group chairman and CEO Kim Seung-youn, who is suspected of kicking, punching and using a steel pipe to attack staff allegedly involved in a scuffle with his son on March 8 at a karaoke club.

Late Friday, the Seoul District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kim, making him the first tycoon to be arrested for assault, according to local media.

"I feel calm," Kim told reporters as police officers took him to Namdaemun Police Station in central Seoul on Friday.

In a statement released through his company, Kim said he would "humbly accept the law's judgment."

"I plan to explain everything that I know, truthfully and sincerely," the statement said. "I am very pained and ashamed for not having been honest for the past two months."

The dramatic details of the case, which media have likened to a gangster movie, has drawn intense public interest in South Korea, where the heads of family controlled conglomerates wield great economic, political and social clout.

The younger Kim, a student at Yale University, reportedly suffered an injury that required 11 stitches in the scuffle on stairs outside the karaoke club.

Victims have told police the elder Kim and his bodyguards took them to a mountainous area south of Seoul, where Kim himself allegedly assaulted them, including hitting one of them on the back with a 5-foot steel pipe.

They have also told police Kim later sought out another man at a bar in central Seoul and had his son beat him, according to a police statement.

Yonhap news agency reported Saturday that Kim had also used an electroshock device on the bar workers. Kim has admitted to assaulting the club's staff, but denied using a steel pipe or an electroshock device, the report said.

Earlier Friday, Kim said he regretted failing "to control impulsive emotion" and apologized for causing trouble.

"I hope there will never be a silly father like me again," Kim told reporters after a court hearing to determine his arrest.

Newspaper editorials on Saturday called for a fair investigation.

"The judiciary has to show to the public ... that everyone is equal before the law," the Dong-a Ilbo daily said in an editorial. "Wrong perceptions and practices in our society can only be corrected through a strict trial and judgment."

Hanwha was established in 1952 as the Korea Explosives Corp. It later developed interests in petrochemicals, finance, insurance, construction and retail. It also owns the Hanwha Eagles professional baseball team.



Monica Goodling granted immunity in DOJ probe
Breaking Legal News | 2007/05/11 14:41

US District Judge Thomas Hogan approved an offer of immunity Friday for former Department of Justice aide Monica Goodling, clearing the way for Goodling's testimony before Congress on the firings of eight US Attorneys. Under Hogan's order, Goodling may not refuse to testify. The House Judiciary Committee voted in April to grant Goodling immunity from prosecution. Goodling told the committee in March that she would not testify about her role in the firings, and stated through her lawyer that she would seek protection under her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if the committee issued her a subpoena. The DOJ said earlier this month that although officials preferred that Goodling not receive immunity, the department would not try to block immunity for Goodling.

Goodling resigned from her position as White House liaison at the DOJ in April and the DOJ has since opened an investigation into whether she considered the political affiliations of candidates for career prosecutor positions in the DOJ, contrary to federal law and longstanding departmental practice.



'Chemical Ali' denies Anfal chemical weapons use
International | 2007/05/11 14:37

Ali Hassan al-Majid, known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali", told the Iraqi High Tribunal Thursday that he did not use or issue an order to use chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels in the late 1980s. During defense closing arguments, al-Majid defended the government of Saddam Hussein for its actions during the "Anfal campaign", but insisted that he did not know who used chemical weapons, "if they were ever used."

Al-Majid and five other former Hussein-era officials face genocide charges for their alleged involvement in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds during the Anfal campaign. Defense witnesses have repeatedly testified that the defendants did not have access to chemical weapons and that no orders were received to use them. Prosecutors have sought the death penalty for Al-Majid and three other defendants and have asked that charges be dropped against one of the defendants due to lack of evidence. Al-Majid became the leading defendant in the trial following Hussein's execution last year. The trial has now been adjourned until June 10.



OxyContin maker pleads guilty to charges
Court Watch | 2007/05/11 09:58

The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug's risk of addiction and its potential to be abused. To resolve criminal and civil charges related to the drug's "misbranding," the parent of Purdue Pharma, the company that markets OxyContin, agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines. That is the third-highest amount ever paid by a drug company in such a case.

Also, in a rare move, three executives of Purdue Pharma — President Michael Friedman, top lawyer Howard Udell and former medical director Dr. Paul Goldenheim — pleaded guilty Thursday to misbranding charges, a criminal violation.

They agreed to pay a total of $34.5 million in fines.

The fines will be distributed to state and federal law enforcement agencies, the federal government, federal and state Medicaid programs, a Virginia prescription monitoring program and individuals who had sued the company.

The plea agreement settled a national case and came two days after the company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.

"With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public," U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.

"For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice."

Purdue spokesman James Heins objected to any suggestion of ties between the plea agreement and the abuse of OxyContin. "We promoted the medicine only to health care professionals, not to consumers," he said in a statement.

Purdue Pharma said it accepted responsibility for its employees' actions and has taken steps to ensure "similar events" do not occur again.

OxyContin is a powerful, long-acting narcotic that provides relief of serious pain for up to 12 hours. Initially, Purdue Pharma contended that OxyContin, because of its time-release formulation, posed a lower threat of abuse and addiction to patients than traditional, shorter acting painkillers like Percocet or Vicodin.

That claim became the lynchpin of the most aggressive marketing campaign ever undertaken by a pharmaceutical company for such a drug. Just a few years after its debut in 1996, annual sales hit $1 billion.

Purdue Pharma heavily promoted OxyContin to doctors who had little training in the treatment of serious pain or in recognizing signs of drug abuse in patients.

But both experienced drug abusers and novices, including teenagers, soon discovered that chewing an OxyContin tablet or crushing one and then snorting the powder or injecting it with a needle produced a high as powerful as heroin.

By 2000, several parts of the U.S. began to see skyrocketing rates of addiction and crime related to the drug's use.

In a proceeding Thursday morning in U.S. District Court, both Purdue Pharma and those executives acknowledged that the company fraudulently marketed OxyContin for six years as a drug that was less prone to abuse as well as one that also had fewer narcotic side effects.

Federal officials said that internal Purdue Pharma documents show that company officials recognized even before the drug was marketed that they would face stiff resistance from doctors concerned about OxyContin's potential to be abused.

As a result, company officials developed a fraudulent marketing campaign to promote OxyContin as a time-released drug less prone to such problems.



New questions for AG in attorneys' probe
Legal Business | 2007/05/11 09:55

Members of the US House Judiciary Committee questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Thursday about the US Attorney firing scandal, demanding to know whether White House officials ordered the firings of prosecutors for political reasons. Gonzales said his former chief of staff Kyle Sampson was mainly responsible for compiling the list of prosecutors to be dismissed, but acknowledged that presidential adviser Karl Rove had earlier discussed voter fraud prosecutions in three jurisdictions with Gonzales. The US Attorney in one of those jurisdictions was later fired, and allegations have surfaced that US Attorneys were evaluated on whether they pursued voter fraud cases that benefited Republican candidates.

A series of emails released by the Department of Justice in March revealed that Rove originally suggested firing all 93 US Attorneys in January 2005, contradicting earlier assertions by the White House that the idea first came from former White House counsel Harriet Miers. The same month, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Rove, Miers, and Sampson, rejecting Bush's interview offer. The House Judiciary Committee later subpoenaed Rove, Miers, and several aides to testify in a concurrent investigation. The Department of Justice is currently investigating whether Gonzales' former White House liaison Monica Goodling considered political affiliation in hiring replacement US attorneys in violation of federal law.



Police killer found guilty of prostitute murder
Criminal Law | 2007/05/11 07:01

A man already serving a life sentence for killing two police officers has been found guilty of the murder of a teenage prostitute in 1997. A Supreme Court jury has found 53-year-old Bandali Debs guilty of the shooting murder of Kristy Harty. The body of the 18-year-old prostitute was found on a bush track in Upper Beaconsfield, south-east of Melbourne, almost a decade ago. During the trial the court heard DNA from Debs was found on Ms Harty, and that Debs had access to guns with the same calibre bullets as the one that killed her.

Debs is already serving a life sentence without parole for the murders of policemen Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Moorabbin in 1998, a year after he murdered the teenager. His plea hearing will be held at a later date.



Fourth Florida Officer Pleads Guilty in Drug Sting
Law Center | 2007/05/11 06:00
Jeffry Courtney pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge Thursday morning, becoming the last of four former Hollywood police officers to accept responsibility for his role in a mob-style federal drug sting.

"I feel very terrible about the activities that went on," Courtney told Judge William Dimitrouleas as he entered the guilty plea for conspiring to possess a load of heroin with intent to distribute.

On Wednesday, Thomas Simcox pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge. The officers' punishment could range from 10 years to life in prison, with the possibility of a reduced sentence for cooperating with the government.

Two other officers pleaded guilty last month.

No other police officers are expected to be charged, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

But there is still an ongoing probe into who leaked information about the FBI sting, forcing federal agents to abort the investigation before they were able to make further arrests.

Simcox pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess a load of heroin with intent to distribute. An extortion-conspiracy charge was dropped as part of the plea deal with the officers.

All four officers cut a similar deal.

They were all accused of providing security in an FBI sting in which undercover agents posed as organized crime figures during a series of stings -- from illegal gambling to transporting narcotics.

All four have pleaded guilty to the one conspiracy count of providing protection to move more than one kilo of heroin from Miami Beach to Oakwood Plaza in Hollywood for what the officers believed were mob-connected drug dealers.

The plea comes nearly three months after Simcox and the three other officers -- Kevin Companion, Stephen Harrison and Courtney -- were arrested by federal agents.

Simcox will be sentenced July 18 and Courtney will be sentenced on July 27.

Originally, Simcox was the only one of the four cooperating with authorities. He is alleged to have worn a concealed recording device for nearly a month.

Simcox's attorney, Bruce Udolf, would not comment on the extent of his client's cooperation with authorities.

Simcox agreed to surrender his law enforcement certificate and repay the FBI $16,000. Courtney must also surrender his certificate and repay the FBI $22,000.

Officials said Simcox received $8,000 in cash for protecting the load of heroin, and a total of $16,000 during his involvement in the illegal activities.

The FBI sting, dubbed Operation Tarnished Badge, was part of a two-year probe in which the officers were accused of providing protection for what they thought were illegal gambling and drug-dealing operations.

The four were charged with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute a multi-kilo load of heroin between October and November 2006.



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