Legal News

By Sophia Pearson – Jan 5, 2012 12:01 AM ET Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (1147L) regained the top spot among legal advisers on mergers and acquisitions in 2011 as deals rose by 3.7 percent in a year lawyers said was marked by volatility tied to European debt and regulatory enforcement. The law firm ranked No. [...]

By Patricia Hurtado and David Glovin – Jan 5, 2012 12:00 AM ET Ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) director Rajat Gupta is trying to bolster his defense to federal insider- trading charges by using prosecutors’ own words calling accused accomplice Raj Rajaratnam a liar. Prosecutors are likely to argue at Gupta’s April trial that Rajaratnam told [...]

By Linda Sandler and Patricia Hurtado – Jan 4, 2012 8:46 AM ET Plaintiffs including funds and retirement systems are competing to lead a lawsuit against Jon Corzine, MF Global Holdings Ltd (MFGLQ).’s former chief executive officer, over the collapse of the commodity brokerage. Corzine is the defendant in at least nine lawsuits before a federal judge [...]

By Phil Milford – Jan 4, 2012 8:27 AM ET Trident Microsystems Inc., a provider of integrated circuit chips and software for computers and television set-top boxes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, citing an economic slowdown. In petitions today, the Sunnyvale, California-based company listed debts and assets of as much as $500 [...]

By Joel Rosenblatt – Jan 4, 2012 12:12 AM ET Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) director charged with insider trading as part of the Galleon Group LLC probe, asked a judge to dismiss some of the counts against him. The government’s indictment focuses on two instances in which the U.S. said Galleon co-founder [...]

By Andrea Tan – Jan 3, 2012 9:15 PM ET Citigroup Inc. (C)’s Singapore unit sued Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager Raghavendran Rajaraman, seeking to recoup $1.03 million in trading losses the bank says he incurred after gold fell from a record high in September. Rajaraman had $19.2 million worth of gold in his account on Sept. [...]

By Mariam Fam – Jan 3, 2012 6:20 AM ET Egyptians are voting in the third round of parliamentary elections today as prosecutors began to present their case in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak. The final stage of the vote, the first since Mubarak was ousted in February, covers nine provinces including the North [...]

By Susannah Nesmith – Jan 3, 2012 12:49 AM ET (Corrects to show Rothstein said he didn’t consider the funds to be co-conspirators in third paragraph of story published Dec. 31.) Scott Rothstein, the Florida lawyer sentenced to 50 years in prison for running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, said officials at three Manhattan hedge funds [...]

By Joe Carroll and Nathan Crooks – Jan 3, 2012 12:01 AM ET Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)’s four-year hunt for billions of dollars in nationalized Venezuelan oil profits isn’t finished after an international panel slashed the U.S. oil company’s claim by 89 percent. Venezuela’s state-controlled oil producer, known by the acronym PDVSA (PDVSA), was ordered to [...]

By Christopher Palmeri and Michael B. Marois – Jan 3, 2012 12:00 AM ET Los Angeles Police identified the suspect in more than 50 arson fires as Harry Burkhart, a 24- year-old area resident who may have been motivated by immigration problems. Burkhart was being held on a single charge of arson, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa [...]

By Aaron Ricadela – Dec 30, 2011 12:01 AM ET Former Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd tried to persuade Jodie Fisher to have sex and kissed and touched her inappropriately while she was a company events contractor, according to a much-contested letter that was ordered to be released by a court yesterday. During dinners, [...]

By Karen Gullo and James Nash – Dec 30, 2011 12:01 AM ET The California Supreme Court handed Governor Jerry Brown a late holiday gift, ruling that more than $1 billion in redevelopment funds can be used to fill a state budget gap. Four hundred agencies can be eliminated and their funds used for education, roads [...]

By Freeman Klopott – Dec 30, 2011 12:00 AM ET Buying a lottery ticket may soon be no more difficult than clicking a computer mouse, and U.S. states grappling with budget deficits are seeking to cash in. From California (STOCA1) to New York (STONY1), lotteries that already account for $56 billion in annual sales are considering expanding [...]

By Thomas Penny – Dec 29, 2011 7:01 PM ET Margaret Thatcher’s government considered arresting journalists covering riots in Britain in 1981 as it blamed the media for fomenting violence in inner-city areas, according to previously secret Cabinet papers. Like David Cameron’s Tory-led government amid riots this year, Thatcher’s Conservative Cabinet wrestled with the violence that spread [...]

By Joe Schneider – Dec 29, 2011 2:37 AM ET Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) Marvel Entertainment won a second challenge over the ownership of its comic book characters, with a New York judge dismissing claims from the creator of  “Ghost Rider” of copyright infringement. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan ruled yesterday that Gary Friedrich, [...]

By Edvard Pettersson – Dec 29, 2011 12:01 AM ET California can’t cut reimbursements hospitals receive for the skilled-nursing services they provide to low-income people, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles yesterday granted the request from the California Hospital Association for an order to stop California from imposing the [...]

By David McLaughlin – Dec 29, 2011 12:00 AM ET Transel Elevator Inc., which two weeks ago was servicing an elevator hours before it killed a Manhattan advertising firm employee, was sued this week over an accident at New York’s Plaza hotel, the latest in a series of similar suits filed against the company. Cecilia [...]

By Shinhye Kang and Sungwoo Park – Dec 28, 2011 9:48 PM ET SK Holdings Co. (003600) Vice Chairman Chey Jae Won, the second-ranking executive at South Korea’s third- largest industrial group, was arrested today on suspicion he embezzled money from company affiliates. The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant as there is a [...]

By Bibhudatta Pradhan and Andrew MacAskill – Dec 28, 2011 7:08 AM ET Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is one hurdle away from creating the anti-corruption agency that has been repeatedly rejected by Indian lawmakers over four decades as he bids to end a year of protests against graft. The bill to set up the body is [...]

By Zainab Fattah – Dec 28, 2011 6:34 AM ET Nakheel PJSC, Dubai’s largest property developer by assets, doesn’t have the right to deny residents of a palm-shaped island access to communal facilities by turning them into exclusive clubs, according to the emirate’s property regulator. Nakheel posted leaflets earlier this month telling residents at the [...]