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Court rules that UBS trader should stay in custody
Court Watch |
2011/09/22 12:08
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An alleged rogue trader accused of losing Swiss banking giant UBS about $2.3 billion is sorry beyond words, his lawyer said Thursday, as a judge ordered him to be held in jail until a hearing next month.
Kweku Adoboli, 31, is charged with four offenses of fraud and false accounting dating back to 2008 and accused of racking up losses in authorized trades. His arrest a week ago has heaped pressure on UBS Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel and stoked speculation that the bank could get rid of its investment banking operations.
At a court hearing in London, prosecuting lawyer David Levy added a new fraud offense to the three previous charges laid against Adoboli, and confirmed that authorities had revised upward the amount allegedly gambled away by the trader to around $2.3 billion. A previous hearing was told the trader was accused of losing $2 billion.
Patrick Gibbs, defending Adoboli, said his client ? who wore a gray suit, white shirt and dark blue tie ? was truly sorry for his actions.
He is sorry beyond words for what has happened here, he went to UBS and told them what he had done, and stands now appalled at the scale of the consequences of his disastrous miscalculations, Gibbs said.
Adoboli, who appeared confident and nodded in acknowledgment to a handful of supporters attending the hearing, spoke only to confirm his name, birth date and address. He did not enter any pleas to the charges. |
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Appeals court in Va. tosses 2 Abu Ghraib lawsuits
Court Watch |
2011/09/21 22:08
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A federal appeals court in Virginia has dismissed two lawsuits by former Iraqi detainees who claimed they were tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison.
A divided three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Wednesday with two contractors who claimed immunity because they were doing the government's work in providing interrogators and translators to the U.S.-run prison near Baghdad.
In one of the cases, four Iraqis claimed they were abused by interrogators employed by CACI International Inc. The other lawsuit was filed by 72 Iraqis against L-3 Services, which provided translators at Abu Ghraib and other prisons.
The appeals court's ruling reversed decisions by federal judges in Alexandria, Va., and Greenbelt, Md., who had rejected the contractors' immunity claims. |
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Kona coffee dispute prompts class-action lawsuit
Court Watch |
2011/09/20 22:08
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A spat involving Safeway and Hawaii coffee growers is still brewing, even after the supermarket giant agreed to change labeling on its Kona blend coffee.
A $5 million class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Northern California claiming Safeway profited off the reputation of Kona coffee while selling an inferior product with very little Hawaii-grown coffee.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 30, a day before Safeway's letter informing the Kona Coffee Farmers Association the company would change its packaging to reflect the percentage of Kona it contains. The farmers had called for a boycott of Safeway's 1,700 stores nationwide after a farmer saw the Kona blend for sale in a California store.
In an effort to protect a world-famous Hawaii product, the state's Board of Agriculture Chairman Russell Kokubun sent a letter to Safeway officials asking them to comply with a law here requiring labels to specify the percentage of Hawaii-grown coffee included in the blend. The law requires those blends have at least 10 percent Hawaii-grown coffee. But because Safeway's Kona blend isn't sold in any of the 19 Hawaii locations, Kokubun could only ask for voluntary compliance. |
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Va. high court considers ex-King confidant's case
Court Watch |
2011/09/19 22:10
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A lawyer has asked the Virginia Supreme Court to throw out the incest conviction of a former top adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rev. James Bevel, the architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., died in 2008 at age 72 while his appeal was pending. His attorney, Bonnie Hoffman, is seeking what's known as an abatement. The idea is that a conviction is not final until the appeals process is complete.
However, Senior Assistant Attorney General Virginia Theisen (THIGH'-sun) said that under the law, convictions are presumed to be valid.
A Loudoun County judge refused to abate the conviction after hearing emotional testimony from Bevel's victim. The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
A ruling by the Supreme Court is likely in early November. |
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1 spank isn't domestic violence, Fla. court says
Court Watch |
2011/09/18 22:09
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An appeals court says a single spank doesn't qualify as domestic violence.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal on Friday quashed an injunction for protection against domestic violence.
It cited common law and a 2002 Florida Supreme Court ruling that says reasonable or non-excessive corporal punishment can be used as a defense against child abuse charges.
Circuit Judge Karen Gievers of Tallahassee had issued the injunction against a father identified in the ruling only as G.C.
He had been accused by his former wife of spanking their 14-year-old daughter once on the buttocks with his hand.
The father said the teen had been disrespectful and defiant. The girl said she was only being sarcastic. |
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Appeals court upholds sentence in Ponzi scheme
Court Watch |
2011/09/15 22:10
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A federal appeals court has upheld the 30-year prison sentence for a man convicted of operating what prosecutors called the largest Ponzi scheme in Louisiana's history.
In a 15-page opinion issued Friday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the sentence for Matthew Pizzolato, of Tickfaw.
Pizzolato also was ordered to make over $15 million in restitution to the 165 victims he defrauded. He had offices in Baton Rouge, Covington, Hammond and Lake Charles and advertised investment services under several company names, including Gulf Region Guaranty Inc.
Prosecutors said he promised high rates of return and claimed investors' money was protected against losses, but made risky investments they didn't authorize, gave away millions to friends and family and spent much of the money on luxury items for himself. |
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