Legal News

By Thom Weidlich – Nov 3, 2011 12:01 AM ET Visa Inc. (V) and MasterCard Inc. (MA), the world’s biggest payment networks, put any potential settlement of price-fixing litigation by merchants at about $4 billion. MasterCard “extrapolated an estimate of a reasonably possible loss of at least $500 million if there is a negotiated settlement with [...]

By Linda Sandler and Bob Van Voris – Nov 2, 2011 12:01 AM ET JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) won dismissal of $19 billion in claims in a lawsuit brought by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s former firm that alleges the biggest U.S. bank aided the fraud. Trustee Irving Picard lacks standing to demand common-law damages [...]

By Tiffany Kary and Linda Sandler – Nov 2, 2011 12:01 AM ET MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF), run by former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) co- chairman Jon Corzine, has accounted for all its customer funds, said Kenneth Ziman, a lawyer for MF Global, citing the company’s management. “To the best knowledge [...]

By Margaret Cronin Fisk – Nov 2, 2011 12:01 AM ET Dallas County, Texas, is seeking to represent all counties in the state in its lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. over unpaid filing fees. Dallas filed the complaint in September, alleging that Merscorp Inc.’s MERS, which runs an electronic [...]

By Thom Weidlich – Nov 2, 2011 12:00 AM ET Visa Inc. (V) and MasterCard Inc. (MA), the world’s biggest payment networks, will try to persuade a federal judge to dismiss multibillion-dollar lawsuits accusing them of price fixing because the merchants suing don’t directly pay the fees at issue. Visa and MasterCard will also argue before [...]

By Tiffany Kary, Linda Sandler and David McLaughlin – Nov 1, 2011 12:11 AM ET MF Global Holdings Ltd., the holding company for the broker-dealer run by ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) co-chairman Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy protection as it seeks to reorganize after making bets on European sovereign debt. Its broker-dealer unit, MF [...]

By Elizabeth Amon – Nov 1, 2011 8:34 AM ET Roman Abramovich told a London court in a $6.8 billion-dollar fight with Boris Berezovsky that he didn’t seek an extravagant lifestyle with houses in France and the U.K. before he bought the Chelsea Football Club in 2003. “When I bought Chelsea Football Club that did impact my way [...]

By Erik Larson – Nov 1, 2011 7:21 AM ET A “lifestyle adviser” to the wife of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said she was told by London police that her mobile phone was hacked by News Corp. (NWSA)’s News of the World tabloid. The Metropolitan Police told Carole Caplin her phone messages were intercepted by [...]

By Patricia Hurtado – Nov 1, 2011 12:00 AM ET Bernard Madoff’s wife and surviving son say in a new book that they didn’t know of his $65 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest in history, until the day in December 2008 when he confessed his crimes to them. Andrew Madoff, who worked at Bernard L. [...]

By Matthew Leising – Oct 31, 2011 8:40 AM ET MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker run by Jon Corzine, was suspended from conducting new business with the New York Federal Reserve today after posting a record loss. The firm’s board met through the weekend in New York to consider options including a sale [...]

By Linda Sandler and Bob Van Voris – Oct 31, 2011 8:28 AM ET HSBC Holdings Plc and other defendants in a lawsuit by investors in foreign feeder funds that lost money in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme asked a U.S. judge to dismiss the case, saying it belongs in Ireland and Luxembourg. The individual investors in [...]

By Victoria Slind-Flor – Oct 31, 2011 7:01 AM ET HanesBrands Inc., the North Carolina underwear manufacturer, asked a federal court to declare it isn’t infringing a design patent for women’s pants with built-in support. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based company said it’s been accused of infringing patent D641,135, belonging to Rockfit LLC of Commerce, California. [...]

By Linda Sandler – Oct 29, 2011 9:12 AM ET A U.S. bankruptcy judge’s order that Barclays Plc return $2 billion in margin assets to the liquidator of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s brokerage was “commercially absurd” and should be reversed, the U.K. bank said in a court filing challenging the decision. “Courts should avoid interpretations [...]

By Lauren Coleman-Lochner – Oct 28, 2011 9:53 AM ET With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probing Avon Products Inc. (AVP)’s dealings with analysts, Andrea Jung may be facing the toughest challenge of her 12-year tenure as chief executive officer. The investigation increases scrutiny of the world’s largest door-to-door cosmetics company, which has trailed [...]

By Linda Sandler – Oct 28, 2011 12:01 AM ET Bernard L. Madoff’s family would keep about $82 million of “other investors’ money” under a ruling that limited a bankruptcy trustee to claiming from the owners of the New York Mets only two years of withdrawals from the Ponzi scheme, according to a court filing. [...]

By David Glovin, David Voreacos and Michael Smith – Oct 28, 2011 12:00 AM ET An Israeli man who brokered black- market sales of human kidneys in the U.S. arranged transplant surgeries at medical centers, including Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, according to five people familiar with the case. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 60, pleaded guilty yesterday [...]

By Robert Schmidt and Joshua Gallu – Oct 28, 2011 12:00 AM ET The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s internal watchdog has castigated the agency for missing the Bernard Madoff fraud, spotlighted employees who viewed online pornography and called for a criminal probe into the ethics of the SEC’s former top lawyer. His blunt reports [...]

By David McLaughlin, Margaret Cronin Fisk and Phil Milford – Oct 27, 2011 10:47 AM ET The Delaware attorney general’s office sued Merscorp Inc., which runs a national mortgage registry used by banks, saying its practices are deceptive and hide information from borrowers. The MERS database, which tracks ownership interests in mortgages, obscures information from [...]

By Linda Sandler – Oct 27, 2011 9:59 AM ET Bernard L. Madoff’s family would retain about $82 million of “other investors’ money” under a ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff that limited the trustee to claiming from the owners of the New York Mets only two years of withdrawals from the Ponzi scheme, the [...]