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Creditors raise new concerns over Rangers' sale
Lawyer Blog News |
2010/07/20 09:26
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Angry creditors have thrown plans for an Aug. 4 auction of the Texas Rangers into jeopardy, saying they don't like the bidding procedures and arguing that the lease for the team's ballpark should be severed from the sale. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge D. Michael Lynn on Monday granted a motion to seal the creditors' request to reconsider the bidding procedures that are heavily controlled by Major League Baseball. Lynn approved the procedures last week after making some changes, including delaying the auction for two weeks to give potential buyers more time to secure financing. Attorneys for Major League Baseball said the creditors' motion filed last week was rehashing arguments already rejected by the judge, including claims that the bidding process would prevent a fair and competitive sale. Lynn set a Tuesday hearing to consider the objections and possibly rule on a separate lawsuit, filed by creditor JP Morgan Chase Bank, seeking to remove the Rangers Ballpark lease from the sale. JP Morgan contends the team's parent company, Hicks Sports Group, transferred the lease to the team just before the bankruptcy filing without the bank's approval, as required in its loan agreement. The bank contends that the ballpark lease is not the team's property.
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RICO law made to combat Mafia used in BP lawsuits
Headline News |
2010/07/19 16:23
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Using a law originally enacted to combat the Mafia, attorneys are filing lawsuits accusing BP PLC and Transocean Ltd. of committing a longterm series of crimes by concealing flaws in deepwater drilling plans and lacking safeguards to contain a catastrophic Gulf of Mexico spill.
BP has been named in at least three lawsuits brought under the federal law known as RICO, which stands for Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Transocean, which leased the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP, has been named in two lawsuits filed in Louisiana and Florida.
The lawsuits accuse both companies of committing wire and mail fraud over a number of years by filing false documents with the U.S. government, and by misleading investors through other documents and falsehoods. They also claim both companies are guilty of bribery because they are part of an overall oil and gas industry effort to "infiltrate" federal regulators by providing favors such as alcohol and drugs, sex, golf and ski trips, concert and sports tickets, and more. |
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Singapore arrests British writer for defamation
Legal World News |
2010/07/19 14:17
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Singapore has arrested a British author as part of a criminal defamation investigation related to his book on the city-state's death penalty policy, police said Monday.
Alan Shadrake, 75, was in Singapore to promote the book and was arrested Sunday, police said in a statement.
He hosted an event Saturday promoting "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock."
Police said they arrested Shadrake based on a complaint by the government's Media Development Authority and were investigating him for other offenses. They declined to give details.
The attorney-general's office is also seeking contempt of court charges against Shadrake because statements in the book allegedly impugn the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary, a spokeswoman said. She spoke anonymously in line with the attorney-general's office policy. |
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NH lawyer out $240,000 in scam targeting attorneys
Headline News |
2010/07/19 10:17
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A New Hampshire lawyer is out $240,000 after falling prey to an international Internet scam, prosecutors said.
The attorney general's office declined to identify the lawyer but said he is one of two lawyers in the state who were targeted in recent weeks by scam artists who used Internet messages, fake companies and counterfeit checks to "retain" them.
The checks were said to be settlement money or retainer fees, and the lawyers were instructed to wire money to a different party in the case.
Prosecutors say one lawyer investigated further and learned the check was counterfeit and that the scam artists had used fraudulent stationary to pretend to be the opposing counsel who sent the check. He did not wire the money as instructed, but instead alerted the attorney general's Office and state banking officials.
The second lawyer deposited the check and wired half the amount — $240,000 — to a so-called client of the company that retained him, prosecutors said. He soon learned the check was bogus and his account was drained of cash. Because the lawyer was the one who deposited the check in his account, he suffers the loss. |
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Appeals court sides with Iranian dissident group
Legal World News |
2010/07/19 09:14
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An Iranian opposition group has won a round in its long legal fight to get the State Department to stop classifying it as a terrorist organization.
A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the State Department to reconsider its decision to keep the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The designation prohibits groups from raising money and obtaining other support in the United States.
The court said the U.S. government must give the Iraq-based group a chance to respond to claims that it continues to engage in terrorist activity or at least retains the capability and intent to do so. The government also maintains a file of secret information that it says supports the continuing terrorist designation. Friday's ruling did not address the classified material.
The People's Mujahedeen has argued that it stopped military operations against the Iranian regime and renounced violence in 2001, and handed over its weapons to U.S.-led forces after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003.
The European Union dropped the People's Mujahedeen from its list of banned terrorist groups last year. |
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Man with neo-Nazi ties leading patrols in AZ
U.S. Legal News |
2010/07/19 08:18
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Minutemen groups, a surge in Border Patrol agents, and a tough new immigration law aren't enough for a reputed neo-Nazi who's now leading a militia in the Arizona desert.
Jason "J.T." Ready is taking matters into his own hands, declaring war on "narco-terrorists" and keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants. So far, he says his patrols have only found a few border crossers who were given water and handed over to the Border Patrol. Once, they also found a decaying body in a wash, and alerted authorities.
But local law enforcement are nervous given that Ready's group is heavily armed and identifies with the National Socialist Movement, an organization that believes only non-Jewish, white heterosexuals should be American citizens and that everyone who isn't white should leave the country "peacefully or by force."
"We're not going to sit around and wait for the government anymore," Ready said. "This is what our founding fathers did."
An escalation of civilian border watches have taken root in Arizona in recent years, including the Minutemen movement. Various groups patrol the desert on foot, horseback and in airplanes and report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol, and generally, they have not caused problems for law enforcement.
But Ready, a 37-year-old ex-Marine, is different. He and his friends are outfitted with military fatigues, body armor and gas masks, and carry assault rifles. Ready takes offense at the term "neo-Nazi," but admits he identifies with the National Socialist Movement. |
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