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Romania's outgoing PM appears at court for corruption trial
Corporate Governance |
2015/11/04 14:31
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Romania's outgoing prime minister has appeared at the high court where he's on trial for tax evasion, money-laundering, conflict of interest and making false statements.
Victor Ponta arrived at the High Court for Cassation and Justice Friday, declining comment saying he was now "a private citizen."
Ponta and his Cabinet resigned Wednesday after mass protests following a nightclub fire that killed more than 30. Protesters have staged mass rallies demanding better governance.
The charges Ponta faces refer to a period when he was working as a lawyer. He denies wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say Ponta, who is still a lawmaker, forged expense claims worth at least 181,000 lei ($45,000) from the law firm of political ally. Prosecutors say he pretended he worked as a lawyer to justify getting money from the firm.
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Britain's High Court rules that Uber app is lawful
Corporate Governance |
2015/10/18 00:01
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Britain's High Court has ruled that the Uber app to hail minicabs is lawful ? a blow to London's famous black cab drivers, who argued that it violated city regulations.
The court's decision Friday came after Transport for London sought clarification as to whether the San Francisco-based company's app worked in the same way as meters used by the strictly regulated black cabs.
The Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association argued the app ? which records a car's location and travel time and feeds it back to servers in California ? worked like a meter.
But Justice Duncan Ouseley disagreed, ruling that the app relies on GPS signals and did not operate in the same way.
Uber has come under fire in several European countries, including France, Italy and Spain.
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Court fines Washington state over education funding
Corporate Governance |
2015/08/15 13:12
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Washington officials are considering a special legislative session after the state Supreme Court issued daily fines a of $100,000 until lawmakers comply with a court order to improve the way the state pays for its basic education system.
Thursday's order, signed by all nine justices of the high court, ordered that the fine start immediately, and be put into a dedicated education account.
The court encouraged Gov. Jay Inslee to call a special session, saying that if the Legislature complies with the court's previous rulings for the state to deliver a plan to fully fund education, the penalties accrued during a special session would be refunded.
Inslee and legislative leaders are set to meet Monday in Seattle discuss what next steps the state should take.
"There is much that needs to be done before a special session can be called," Inslee said in a statement. "I will ask lawmakers to do that work as quickly as humanly possible so that they can step up to our constitutional and moral obligations to our children and lift the court sanctions."
The ruling was the latest development in a long-running impasse between lawmakers and justices, who in 2012 ruled that the state is failing to meet its constitutional duty to pay for the cost of basic education for its 1 million schoolchildren.
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Regulators probe bank's role in Facebook IPO
Corporate Governance |
2012/05/23 09:29
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Regulators are examining whether Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that shepherded Facebook through its highly publicized stock offering last week, selectively informed clients of an analyst's negative report about the company before the stock started trading.
Rick Ketchum, the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-policing body for the securities industry, said Tuesday that the question is "a matter of regulatory concern" for his organization and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The top securities regulator for Massachusetts, William Galvin, said he had subpoenaed Morgan Stanley. Galvin said his office is investigating whether Morgan Stanley divulged to only some clients that one of its analysts had cut his revenue estimates for Facebook before the stock hit the market on Friday.
The bank said late Tuesday that it "followed the same procedures for the Facebook offering that it follows for all IPOs," referring to initial public offerings of stock. It said that its procedures complied with regulations.
The questions about the role played by Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for the deal, add to the confusion surrounding Facebook's IPO. In the most hotly anticipated stock debut in years, the offering raised $16 billion for the social networking company, valuing it at $104 billion.
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Court says farmers must pay bankruptcy tax
Corporate Governance |
2012/05/14 21:30
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The Supreme Court says a farming family has to pay tax on the bankruptcy sale of their farm.
The high court on Monday voted 5-4 for the IRS in its fight with Lynwood and Brenda Hall over their bankruptcy sale of their 320-acre farm in Willcox, Ariz.
The Halls were forced to sell their family farm for $960,000 to settle their bankruptcy debts. That sale brought about capital gains taxes of $26,000.The Halls wanted the taxes treated as part of the bankruptcy, paying part of it and having the court discharge the rest.
The IRS objected to that plan, saying all of the taxes must be paid and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with the tax agency.
The high court agreed with that decision.
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Former CEO guilty in 'Ponzi' scheme
Corporate Governance |
2011/08/18 09:21
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The former CEO of an Austin-based investment firm was found guilty on Wednesday on federal charges that he schemed and defrauded investors out of millions of dollars.
Triton Financial CEO Kurt Branham Barton was named in a 39-count indictment alleging he used former NFL stars and church contacts to raise $50 million fraudulently from investors.
The counts against Kurt Branham Barton included money laundering, wire fraud and securities fraud. He is accused of using the money raised from investors "to support an expanding Ponzi scheme" and to enrich himself and the chief financial officer of his Triton Financial firm.
“It is regrettable that selfish, greedy individuals devise schemes to make themselves rich by victimizing honest and innocent people, often depriving the victims of their life savings," U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy said. "These con artists are usually very accomplished salesmen taking advantage of trusting investors, who unfortunately will never be made whole again."
Evidence presented during the eight-day trial showed that from December 2005 and December 2009, Barton devised a scheme to obtain money from investors under false pretenses.
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E. Idaho investor pleads guilty in fraud case
Corporate Governance |
2011/06/01 08:58
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A former eastern Idaho investor has pleaded guilty to felony wire fraud and money laundering as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors.
Daren Palmer, who appeared in U.S. District Court in Pocatello on Tuesday, remains on supervised release until his sentencing on Aug. 22.
Prosecutors say Palmer duped clients out of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme over the course of several years. Investigators accused him of using his company, Trigon Group, to fraudulently take more than $76 million from 68 separate investors.
State and federal officials called it a classic Ponzi scheme, in which money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors. The scheme falls apart when clients start trying to pull their money out and there aren't enough new investors to provide funds.
In Idaho, federal prosecutors filed charges against Palmer last month after a two-year FBI investigation. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission won civil lawsuits against Palmer, who was ordered to pay about $90 million in restitution and fines.
Palmer has cooperated with his prosecution and wanted to plead guilty as early as a year ago, said assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Haycock.
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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, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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