Ohio: Government: Fraud fugitive deported to U.S.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Justice Department says a fugitive in a $1.9 billion corporate fraud case out of Ohio is back in the U.S. following her arrest and deportation from Mexico.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday that 62-year- old Rebecca Parrett was expected in federal court in Los Angeles before returning to Columbus.
Parrett was arrested in Ajijica (ah-hee-HEEK’-uh), in the Mexican state of Jalisco (huh-LEES’-koh).
The Justice Department says Mexican authorities arrested Parrett based on information provided by U.S. marshals in Columbus.
Parrett disappeared in March 2008 following her conviction on securities fraud, wire fraud and other charges in a scheme at health care financing company National Century Financial Enterprises.
A judge sentenced her to 25 years in prison in absentia.
Missouri: Antitrust suit against Inbev, AB again fails
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A bid by 10 beer consumers who sued to block InBev’s now-completed takeover of U.S. beer giant Anheuser-Busch on antitrust grounds again has fallen flat.
A three-judge 8th U.S. Circuit Court panel on Wednesday upheld a federal judge’s September 2009 ruling throwing out the lawsuit that claimed the 2008 merger would lessen competition and raise beer prices.
The lawsuit was filed in September 2008, just two months before Belgium-based InBev bought Budweiser-maker Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion with the goal of making the beer a global brand.
A message left with the company was not immediately returned.
It was not immediately clear if the plaintiffs planned to further appeal.
New Hampshire: State High Court reverses divestment law ruling
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire’s State Supreme Court upheld a law Wednesday that forces two public pension plans to divest holdings in any company that does business in Sudan.
In its unanimous ruling, the court reversed a superior court judge’s ruling from last year that had suspended the 2008 state law after trustees for the plans argued it was unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court disagreed.
The law had ordered the New Hampshire Judicial Retirement Plan and the much larger New Hampshire Retirement System to sell their holdings in selective companies doing business in Sudan.
Since 2004, the U.S. government has recognized that the government of Sudan has engaged in genocide against the non-Arab population in the country’s Darfur region. Many states have adopted Sudan divestiture laws.
The Judicial Retirement Plan was created by the Legislature for judges. The New Hampshire Retirement System covers over 70,000 active and retired teachers, firefighters, police officers and state and local government workers. A message seeking comment from the system was not immediately returned Wednesday morning.
Lawyers for the plans’ trustees, in arguing against the law, pointed to the language of the constitution, which says public retirement plans must make investment decisions “for the exclusive purpose” of benefiting current and future retirees and retirement funds “shall not be encumbered for, or diverted to, any other purposes.”
The state Supreme Court ruled that the 2008 law “does not require that the systems’ funds be used for any pur- pose other than providing retirement benefits. It simply prohibits one possible investment option.”
Fighting in Darfur has left up to 300,000 people dead and forced 2.7 million to flee their homes, since a 2003 rebellion that started as a crackdown on anti-government ethnic-African rebels by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government.
In 2007, President George W. Bush signed legislation to allow states and local governments to cut investment ties with Sudan.
Mississippi: Man awarded $103M in lawsuit against lawyer
LAUREL, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi businessman has been awarded $103 million in a lawsuit against the Chicago-based law firm that he accused of defrauding his oil and gas business.
Lavon Evans Jr. filed the lawsuit in Jones County Circuit Court in Mississippi in 2008. It sought $150 million in damages from attorney Joel Held, who worked at the Dallas office of the Baker & Mackenzie law firm.
Held represented one of Evans’ companies and manipulated documents and disclosed confidential information to benefit Reed Cagle, Evans’ partner in Laredo Energy Holdings LLC, the lawsuit claims, among other things.
Baker & McKenzie told The Hattiesburg American in a statement that it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal.
“We are confident we acted in a manner that was entirely consistent with our professional obligations and that no harm was done to the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit said. “We will continue to argue our position vigorously and expect we will be vindicated. As this is a pending legal matter, we will have no further comment at this time.”
Evans had no comment on the lawsuit.
Cagle’s attorney said his client was not a party in the lawsuit, but was are aware of the allegations in the lawsuit that claimed Cagle and Held conspired to defraud Evans.
“We categorically deny that there was any such conspiracy,” said Mike Bowers, an attorney with Bell, Nunnally and Martin LLP in Dallas.
Evans owns Evans Operating Mississippi and E&D Mississippi drilling company in Laurel, Miss.
He formed Laredo Energy Holdings LLC with Cagle in 2006 after the two had worked together for years drilling and operating oil and gas wells, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit claims Cagle introduced Evans to Held to discuss joint ventures and Held eventually became the lawyer for Laredo Energy Holdings.
Among the claims in the lawsuit:
—Held allegedly withheld information that Cagle had no real assets to offer the joint business and his finances were insolvent.
—Evans was listed as owner of the majority interest and all financial transactions required his consent, but Held allegedly used Evans’ property as collateral without permission for millions of dollars in loans that benefited Cagle.
—Held misrepresented the ownership of Laredo and its subsidiaries, a drilling rig and other assets and intimidated Evans to force him to give up his majority interest in Laredo Energy.
