US prosecutors disclosed time they had launched a criminal probe against media tycoon Conrad Black, who is already besieged by several lawsuits and regulatory probes. Federal prosecutors are investigating Black for allegedly diverting funds from his media empire, Randall Samborn, spokesman for the US Attorney’s office in Chicago, told AFP. Samborn said the prosecutor’s office […]

A federal appeals court refused early Wednesday to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, denying the latest emergency request by the severely brain-damaged woman’s parents to keep her alive. A panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling that the parents “failed to demonstrate a substantial case on

The former partners of now-defunct law firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in San Francisco didn’t let mere bad times stop them a few years ago. According to suits filed in January by Brobeck’s bankruptcy trustee, Ronald F. Greenspan, the 223 former partners maintained their distributions–a total of $264 million in 2001 and 2002–even though the

Closing a difficult chapter, Time Warner Inc. said Monday it would pay $300 million and restate three years of financial results to settle civil fraud charges stemming from its accounting of online advertising revenues and subscriber counts at its AOL unit. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission also calls for the world’s largest

A federal judge weighed the fate of a brain-damaged Florida woman on Monday, acting hours after the U.S. Congress and President Bush intervened to push the highly charged right-to-die case back into court. U.S. District Judge James Whittemore began a hearing shortly after 3 p.m. EST to consider a request from Terri Schiavo’s parents to

John Carroll, the managing partner of Clifford Chance’s Americas region has announced he is stepping down from the role, nearly nine months before his term was due to expire. The move comes just two months after managing partner Peter Cornell jetted to New York to troubleshoot the firm’s US operation. Carroll, who cited a desire

It took eight years of political maneuvering, but a bill to overhaul the nation’s bankruptcy system now looks close to becoming law. If it does, that’s when the real fight will begin. Lawyers who have combed through the 501-page bill say that despite its attempt at specificity and bright-line tests to tell the truly destitute

THERE is a joke doing the rounds that goes: “Knock, Knock.” “Who’s there?” “Michael.” “Michael who?” “Right, you’re on the Michael Jackson jury.” Given the pop singer’s immense fame, it is hard to imagine that anyone in the potential jury pool for his child molestation trial would not have heard of him. Yet Rodney Melville,

The arms of the justice system reached out and touched Bernard J. Ebbers this week, but it was a cold and crushing embrace. The folksy former WorldCom chief executive, one of the telecommunication bubble’s enduring icons, was found guilty for his role in an $11 billion accounting fraud, which could put him away for as

Last March, a federal prosecutor in Utah overseeing a racketeering case against a dozen members of the Soldiers of Aryan Culture received a chilling threat. “You stupid bitch!” the letter to the assistant United States attorney, who is an African-American woman, began. “It is because of you that my brothers are in jail.” The letter