BankingRSS

  • December 10, 2007

    Embattled Merrill Lynch Faces ERISA Action

    The subprime mortgage woes continue to take their toll on Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Just two days after being tied into a shareholder action, the company became the target of a purported ERISA class action brought by employees with company retirement plans.

  • December 10, 2007

    Plaintiff Denied Access To New Century Docs

    A bankruptcy judge has refused to grant the lead plaintiff in a consolidated securities class action suit against New Century Financial Corp. access to documents relating to the bankrupt subprime lender’s alleged accounting fraud.

  • December 10, 2007

    Pillsbury Launches New Commodities Finance Group

    Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP has become one of only a few major firms to launch a practice group devoted exclusively to commodities finance. And the firm has hired finance lawyer Alexander Moon to help lead the group, it announced Monday.

  • December 10, 2007

    Geico Faces Class Action Over Auto Payments

    Geico General Insurance Co. and its subsidiaries are facing a class action for allegedly cheating customers out of full reimbursement for automobile repairs by paying reduced prices for replacement parts.

  • December 7, 2007

    D.C. Circuit Will Hear FERC's Amaranth Action

    Setting up a show-down in a federal appellate court in the coming week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied Amaranth's motion to stay $291 million in fines pending an appeal.

  • December 7, 2007

    N.J. Court Rejects Citigroup's Appeal In Parmalat Suit

    The New Jersey Appellate Division will not hear Citigroup Inc.’s appeal of a lower court’s refusal to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit brought against it by Parmalat SpA for alleged securities fraud, Parmalat announced on Thursday.

  • December 7, 2007

    Trustee Wants Former Alliance Officers As Consultants

    Alliance Mortgage Investments Inc.’s Chapter 7 Trustee on Thursday asked a bankruptcy court for permission to hire five former Alliance officers as consultants to help liquidate the company’s estate.

  • December 7, 2007

    Failed Securitization Sends Delta Financial Into Ch. 11

    The mortgage market downturn has finished off another company, as mortgage loan originator and securitizer Delta Financial Corp. revealed Thursday that it plans to stop taking mortgage applications and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

  • December 7, 2007

    Court Asked To Grab Katrina Fees From Scruggs

    As the bribery scandal surrounding Richard “Dickie” Scruggs continues to unfold, the plaintiff at the heart of the fee dispute that started it all has asked that the court to seize the $26.5 million in attorneys' fees that Scruggs is expected to recoup from the Hurricane Katrina litigation against major insurers.

  • December 10, 2007

    Alaska AG Hits Marsh Mac Unit With $1.8B Suit

    The state of Alaska has filed suit against Marsh & McLennan Cos. subsidiary Mercer (US) Inc., claiming the actuarial firm's miscalculation of liabilities for two public pension funds for state employees in the face of growing health care costs resulted in $1.8 billion in losses for the funds.

  • December 7, 2007

    UBS Wins Dismissal Of Remaining Wage Claims

    A federal judge has dismissed the remaining claims in a wage-and-hour suit brought against the brokerage arm of UBS by a former advisor who opted out of a $44 million settlement.

  • December 7, 2007

    Bank Says BNP Poached Trade Secrets, Employees

    Thomas Weisel Partners LLC's securities research subscription service has sued French banking giant BNP Paribas for allegedly poaching one of its most valuable employees – and the trade secrets it needed to lure away more Thomas Weisel employees.

  • December 7, 2007

    ERISA Class Action Targets WaMu

    Adding to already formidable legal challenges, Washington Mutual Inc. has been hit with a putative class action brought by employees who accuse the U.S.'s largest savings-and-loan of acting as a poor steward of their 401(k) retirement plans in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

  • December 7, 2007

    Futures Broker To Pay $10M In CFTC Case

    A district court has ordered a Florida-based trading group and its founder to pay $10 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that the fund defrauded customers purchasing foreign currency futures and options.

  • December 10, 2007

    Plant Worker Pleads Guilty In Insider Trading Case

    A former printing plant worker pled guilty Friday in a case alleging he stole advance copies of BusinessWeek magazine to pass along stock information.

  • December 10, 2007

    Judge Greenlights SEC Suit Against Fund Manager

    A San Francisco hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors will have to defend himself in court, after a judge refused to throw out a suit filed against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • December 7, 2007

    Citigroup May Have Discovered Data Breach Early: TJX

    In ongoing litigation over what's been called the largest retail data security breach in U.S. history, discount retailer TJX Cos. has filed documents suggesting that Citigroup Inc. may have been aware of the illegal intrusion into its computer networks months before TJX learned of it.

  • December 6, 2007

    Online Brokerage E*Trade Faces RICO Suit

    Investment firm Sebastian River Holding's Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the E*Trade Financial Corp., claiming the online brokerage firm illegally manipulated the company's stock.

  • December 6, 2007

    DOJ Takes Aim Over Alleged ABN-Amro Overbilling

    The U.S. Department of Justice has accused a former ABN Amro Holding NV executive of teaming up with the head of an Illinois-based security firm to carry out a massive fraud scheme that purportedly bilked the Dutch financial giant out of $45 million.

  • December 6, 2007

    Committee Objects To Delphi Equity Amendment

    The official committee of unsecured creditors has filed a limited objection to Delphi Corp's bid to amend its equity purchase and commitment agreement with a unit of Appaloosa Management LP and others, saying it was “very concerned” that the monetary threshold in a condition of the agreement would be too low given the volatility of the credit markets.