Cardinal’s manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter last month in a California state court in San Francisco. La Russa’s suit alleges that Twitter allowed a user to maintain a page under his name without his permission. He complains that many posts were vulgar and included off-color statements about Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock, two Cardinals who died during La Russa's tenure.
La Russa argues in his complaint that the impersonation was “derogatory and demeaning,” and damaged to his brand. He seeks unspecified damages and that the page be shut down. For more coverage, click here.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Cravath, Bryan Cave in Hedge Fund Tax Fraud Scam
Federal prosecutors today unsealed an indictment charging the chief executive of what used to be one of the world's largest investment funds with constructing elaborate tax shelters for some of his wealthiest clients. The executive, Jeffrey Greenstein, former head of the Seattle-based fund Quellos Group, and two other defendants (including a Quellos in-house lawyer) face 18 counts related to tax evasion and fraud for a scheme that netted them $86 million in fees and allowed six clients to avoid paying about $400 million in federal taxes, according to the indictment.
What's interesting for our purposes is that the indictment details how lawyers from Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Bryan Cave blessed the shelters with letters indicating to the taxpayers that they were legal and would withstand scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. (The firms are identified as C.S.M. and B.C. in the indictment, but two sources familiar with the matter confirm they are Cravath and Bryan Cave. In addition, a 2006 Congressional investigation mentioned the role the two firms played in the Quellos tax shelters, and at least one lawyer, Lewis Steinberg, then of Cravath and currently at Linklaters, testified before a Congressional subcommittee.)
Those sources say it is extremely unlikely the named firms or their lawyers will be charged with any crime, and the indictment accuses Greenstein and the other defendants of lying to outside firm lawyers in order to get those attorneys to bless the tax shelters.
The scheme involved the creation of sham offshore funds that would engage in fabricated money-losing securities transactions in order to produce fictitious capital losses, according to the indictment. Greenstein and Charles Wilk, an in-house lawyer at Quellos, provided the "C.S.M." and "B.C." lawyers with documentation outlining what appeared to be legitimate operations, the indictment says. Full story
What's interesting for our purposes is that the indictment details how lawyers from Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Bryan Cave blessed the shelters with letters indicating to the taxpayers that they were legal and would withstand scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. (The firms are identified as C.S.M. and B.C. in the indictment, but two sources familiar with the matter confirm they are Cravath and Bryan Cave. In addition, a 2006 Congressional investigation mentioned the role the two firms played in the Quellos tax shelters, and at least one lawyer, Lewis Steinberg, then of Cravath and currently at Linklaters, testified before a Congressional subcommittee.)
Those sources say it is extremely unlikely the named firms or their lawyers will be charged with any crime, and the indictment accuses Greenstein and the other defendants of lying to outside firm lawyers in order to get those attorneys to bless the tax shelters.
The scheme involved the creation of sham offshore funds that would engage in fabricated money-losing securities transactions in order to produce fictitious capital losses, according to the indictment. Greenstein and Charles Wilk, an in-house lawyer at Quellos, provided the "C.S.M." and "B.C." lawyers with documentation outlining what appeared to be legitimate operations, the indictment says. Full story
Kilpatrick Slashes Associate Salaries
AM Law Daily reports that the law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton acknowledged it is cutting associate salaries by 10 percent across all of its offices. Associates in Atlanta and North Carolina, meanwhile, will see their pay drop to $130,000, while those in New York and Washington, D.C. will take a cut from $160,000 to $145,000, the story says. The firm, which has 200 associates and saw a 7.4 percent jump in profit per partner in 2008, will give associates the chance to earn back the lost salary in bonuses that will be contingent on hitting billable-hour targets. The salary cuts go into effect July 1 and are expected to save the firm about $1.75 million by the end of the year, the Daily Report says.
SEC (Finally) Charges Former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo; Irell to Lead Defense
The wait is over: On Thursday the Securities and Exchange Commission charged former Countrywide Financial Corp. chief executive officer Angelo Mozilo--the most visible villain of the subprime mortgage meltdown--with securities fraud and insider trading. It also, according to Legal Times, brought securities fraud charges against Countrywide's former COO David Sambol and former CFO Eric Sieracki. Full story
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