Legal News

By Andrew Harris, Sophia Pearson and Peter Robison – Mar 19, 2012 12:00 AM ET John Henry Browne, lawyer for the U.S. soldier suspected in the shooting deaths of 16 Afghan civilians, has a history of defending clients in multiple- homicide cases, including serial killer Ted Bundy and mass murderer Benjamin Ng. Today, he is [...]

By Jim Brunsden – Mar 18, 2012 8:00 PM ET After targeting global banks deemed too big to fail, regulators are weighing tougher capital rules for lenders whose collapse would roil national economies. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is considering extra reserve requirements and tougher oversight for smaller lenders that aren’t caught by measures to protect [...]

By Jim Polson – Mar 16, 2012 8:02 AM ET Dynegy Inc. (DYN) disputed an examiner’s conclusion that its purchase of coal-fired power plants from a unit that later entered bankruptcy was a fraudulent transfer that harmed creditors. “Dynegy is both troubled and disappointed by the examiner’s report as we continue to believe our restructuring activities [...]

By Jef Feeley and David McLaughlin – Mar 16, 2012 12:00 AM ET Attorney Lynn Szymoniak had spent a career investigating insurance fraud when a bank moved to foreclose on her Florida home in 2008. Almost four years later, the fraud she said she uncovered by combing through mortgage documents earned her $18 million. Szymoniak, 63, is [...]

By Linda Sandler and Bob Van Voris – Mar 16, 2012 12:00 AM ET The New York Mets owners are about to try to convince a jury they have the right to keep $303 million they withdrew from Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. For Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, a defeat in a trial that [...]

By Michael A. Riley and Ashlee Vance – Mar 15, 2012 5:00 PM ET Last June, three men squeezed inside a wind turbine in China’s Gobi Desert. They were employees of American Superconductor Corp., a maker of computer systems that serve as the electronic brains of the device. From time to time, AMSC workers are required to [...]

By Tom Schoenberg – Mar 15, 2012 8:58 AM ET A report detailing allegedly pervasive misconduct in the failed corruption case against the late Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was filed in federal court after some prosecutors fought to keep it under seal. “The investigation and prosecution of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens were permeated by the [...]

By Kyunghee Park and Andrea Tan – Mar 15, 2012 5:48 AM ET PT Berlian Laju Tanker (BLTA), the Indonesian ship operator under court protection, may present a plan to creditors in early May as it seeks to restructure debts and leases. The company is in “active negotiations” with shipowners and has begun talks with [...]

By Sanat Vallikappen – Mar 15, 2012 4:10 AM ET Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), the U.K. bank whose earnings from China doubled last year, said its private-bank relationship manager Wu Yidian Eden has been detained by police in the Asian nation. “We are unable to comment on the reason for her detention — this is a [...]

By Edvard Pettersson - Mar 15, 2012 12:01 AM ET News Corp. (NWSA)’s Twentieth Century Fox Film (2888A) unit doesn’t have the rights for a “Valley of the Dolls” television series it is developing, the estate of the late novelist Jacqueline Susann said in a lawsuit. Fox, which obtained the rights for the 1967 movie, which became [...]

By Sophia Pearson – Mar 14, 2012 8:49 AM ET Paramount Pictures Corp.’s interpretation of a 1969 agreement with “The Godfather” authorMario Puzo is costing his estate more than $10 million, the novelist’s son and estate executor said in court papers. Paramount, a unit of New York-based Viacom Inc. (VIA), sued Anthony Puzo last month to [...]

By Sophia Pearson – Mar 14, 2012 11:33 AM ET Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) sued Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. (WPI), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (GNP) and two other drugmakers claiming they seek to sell a generic version of the hypertension pill Bystolic before a U.S. patent expires. Forest is the exclusive licensee for the patent issued [...]

By Tom Schoenberg – Mar 14, 2012 11:10 AM ET The suspension of two CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) pharmacies from selling controlled substances, ordered by the Drug Enforcement Administration after a probe of oxycodone sales in Florida, was put on hold by a federal appeals court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today ruled [...]

By David Voreacos and Bob Van Voris – Mar 14, 2012 11:06 AM ET Two Swiss men acted as “full service tax evasion advisers” in helping U.S. clients hide hundreds of millions of dollars from tax authorities, using street-corner handoffs and a child courier, prosecutors said. Hans Thomann and Josef Beck, who worked as independent [...]

By Edvard Pettersson and Shunichi Ozasa – Mar 13, 2012 10:27 AM ET Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada, saying Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) is run by Chairman Steve Wynn as a “personal fiefdom,” is challenging the redemption of his own 20 percent stake in the company at an $800 million discount. Aruze USA, through which Okada invested [...]

By Linda Sandler and Bob Van Voris – Mar 13, 2012 10:06 AM ET The New York Mets owners, facing a trial over whether they suspected Bernard Madoff’s fraud when they withdrew $303 million from his brokerage, said the judge should allow evidence of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “inaction” as the defunct firm’s regulator. The [...]

By Amy Thomson and Jonathan Browning – Mar 13, 2012 9:56 AM ET Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive officer of News Corp. (NWSA)’s U.K. publishing unit, was arrested a second time by London police, Sky News said today, as the year old phone-hacking probe turned to a possible cover up. The Metropolitan Police said they arrested [...]

By Andrew Harris and Seth Stern – Mar 13, 2012 12:01 AM ET Texas and Wisconsin officials were barred from enforcing laws requiring voters to produce a government-issued photo identification before casting ballots. The U.S. Justice Department yesterday told Texas officials the state failed to show that the statute signed into law by Governor Rick Perry last year [...]

By Renee Bonorchis and Jim Brunsden – Mar 12, 2012 6:25 AM ET Global banking regulators will seek an accord later this month on changes to draft liquidity rules criticized by some governments and lenders as a threat to economic recovery. The measures will be considered at a meeting of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervisionon [...]

By Joe Schneider – Mar 12, 2012 9:01 AM ET Gina Rinehart’s four children may have a stake of as much as $4.7 billion in a trust at the center of a dispute where the three eldest are suing to oust their mother as trustee, according to Bloomberg calculations based on court documents. Jay Newby, [...]