Saturday, October 17, 2009

“Cage sues ex-manager over finances - Honolulu Advertiser” plus 4 more

“Cage sues ex-manager over finances - Honolulu Advertiser” plus 4 more

Cage sues ex-manager over finances - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 04:57 AM PDT

Nicolas Cage sued his former business manager for $20 million yesterday, claiming bad advice and mismanagement led him toward financial ruin.

Cage filed the lawsuit against Samuel J. Levin and his firm.

Levin served as Cage's business manager from 2001 to 2008 and collected millions of dollars in management fees, court documents state.

Cage, 45, relied on Levin's statements and advice and couldn't have known about the financial trouble he was facing until after he hired new management, according to the lawsuit.

Another year added to Lohan probation

A Beverly Hills judge yesterday extended Lindsay Lohan's probation for a year in connection with a 2007 drunken-driving case.

The judge made the decision to extend probation after learning that Lohan had not completed required treatment programs because she was filming a movie out of state. Lohan's attorney said the filming is done and that she can finish the programs.

The court appearance stems from a 2007 incident in which she crashed her car in Beverly Hills and was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Jon Gosselin target of TLC lawsuit

The TLC network has sued Jon Gosselin for allegedly breaching his contract as a star of the hit reality show "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Md., alleges that Gosselin has failed to meet his obligations as an exclusive employee of the network, while appearing on rival networks' programs for pay and making unauthorized public disclosures about the show.

The suit is seeking from Gosselin unspecified compensatory damages and demanding he return income gained as a result of his alleged breaches of the agreement, as well as to refrain from future violations.

Tyson, Holyfield gracious on 'Oprah'

Mutual praise and admiration dominated during a face-to-face meeting yesterday between former world champion boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield on a live episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

On June 28, 1997, Tyson was disqualified after biting off part of Holyfield's right ear during their WBA heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas.

A respectful Tyson shook hands with his former rival several times during their encounter — which he said was his first chance to speak at length with Holyfield since the ear chomp that made worldwide headlines.

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Goldman exec Storch named first COO of SEC enforcement - Washington Times

Posted: 17 Oct 2009 08:10 AM PDT

By Marcy Gordon ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — A Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division.

The market watchdog agency said Friday that Adam Storch, vice president in Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the SEC division.

The move came as the SEC has been revamping its enforcement efforts following the agency's failure to uncover Bernard Madoff's massive fraud scheme for nearly two decades despite numerous red flags.

Storch, who will be responsible for project management and operations, will report to SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami.

Along with the enforcement division's deputy director, Storch also will supervise the SEC's Office of Market Intelligence, with an eye to improving the monitoring, collection and analysis of the hundreds of thousands of tips and complaints the agency receives annually.

Before joining Goldman Sachs, Storch was a senior consultant at accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. He is a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner, and has an MBA from New York University and bachelors of science in business administration from the State University of New York in Buffalo.

Storch has a strong background in technology systems and project management, Khuzami said in a statement. "He will help to make us more efficient and nimble, and permit us to put more of our investigators on the front lines to detect and stop fraud," Khuzami said.

Khuzami, a former federal prosecutor who came to the SEC in March from Wall Street investment firm Deutsche Bank, says he has undertaken the most extensive restructuring of the enforcement division in at least 30 years.

In addition, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro ended a policy requiring agency enforcement attorneys to get approval from the SEC commissioners before negotiating fines and penalties with companies accused of violations.

The SEC inspector general recently recommended a new system for handling tips and complaints to prevent another breakdown like the one that allowed Madoff's Ponzi scheme to flourish for 16 years.

The proposals from SEC Inspector General David Kotz for the enforcement and inspections operations also include making it easier for junior-level enforcement attorneys to bring their concerns to top managers.

In a report issued in August, Kotz detailed how the SEC bungled five investigations of Madoff's business between June 1992 and last December, when the financier confessed the scheme to his sons. He found that enforcement staff lacked adequate guidance on how to properly analyze complaints, and therefore failed to thoroughly review a complaint on Madoff brought to them in 2001 by private fraud investigator Harry Markopolos.

Madoff, who pleaded guilty in March, is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison in North Carolina for what could be the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. It destroyed thousands of people's life savings, wrecked charities and gave the financial system another big jolt.

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GMX to sell stake in gas business to Kinder Morgan - CNBC

Posted: 16 Oct 2009 03:07 PM PDT

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oil and gas producer GMX Resources Inc. on Friday said it has agreed to sell a 40 percent interest in its gas gathering and compression business to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP for $36 million.

GMX said that this move will fund the addition of a second rig to the Haynesville/Bossier Shale horizontal drilling program.

The gas gathering and compression business provides gathering services to the company in its Cotton Valley Sands and Haynesville/Bossier Shale horizontal developments in East Texas.

Separately, GMX said its second FlexRig 3 rig from Helmerich & Payne Inc. is in transit and will spud the company's eleventh horizontal well in the Haynesville/Bossier Shale.

GMX ended down 6 cents to $18.44. Kinder Morgan shares fell 37 cents to $55.46.

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Philadelphia Business Journal names 2009 Best Places to Work winners - Philadelphia Business Journal

Posted: 16 Oct 2009 07:14 AM PDT

The Philadelphia Business Journal announced the region's Best Places to Work Thursday night at an awards ceremony at the Pyramid club.

Winners are listed at bottom. For photos from the winning companies click here.

The Best Places to Work program ranks the top employers in the Delaware Valley according to scores given to the companies by their own workers.

Over the course of the summer, the Business Journal received more than 270 nominations from readers. Employees of nominated companies were then asked to complete an online questionnaire administered by Quantum Market Research, an independent surveying firm in Wichita, Kan.

Employees were asked to rank their company on 38 questions relating to team effectiveness, trust with coworkers, alignment with goals, trust in senior leaders, and people practices in addition to respect, recognition and benefits.

To advance in the contest, a statistically significant number of employees, based on company size, must complete the survey. For example, a company with less than 50 employees must have a response rate of at least 85 percent to qualify.

The Business Journal then sorted the 60 top-scoring winners into small, medium, large, extra-large and based-elsewhere categories. Companies that have placed top in their size category more than once receive Hall of Fame status, marking them as the best of the best.

"After a year of cutbacks, credit worries and layoffs, a lot of people are happy just to have a job. But it takes more than just an employee's grateful relief to bring a company to the top of the list of Best Places to Work," said Sonja Sherwood, associate editor of special reports. "To advance in the contest, companies must have the trust and loyalty of their employees."

THE 2009 BEST PLACES TO WORK
Small Category

• Hall of Fame Winner: BeneServ Corporate Benefit Services

• Gold Winner: PeopleShare Inc.

• Silver Winner: Komfort & Kare Home Medical & Mobility

• Bronze Winner: SecurElement Infrastructure Solutions

Finalists (alpha order):

•Advanced Benefit Advisors Inc.

• ExpenseWatch.com

• eXude Benefits Group Inc.

• Dubin Group, The

• JK Associates Inc.

• MayoSeitz Media

• Really Strategies Inc.

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Visiting business executives to learn about aerospace - Charleston Gazette

Posted: 16 Oct 2009 11:53 AM PDT

CHARLESTON, Va. -- Business executives from Japan, Italy and Portugal are visiting West Virginia to learn about the state's aerospace capabilities.

Gov. Joe Manchin and other officials will try to sell 16 representatives from 13 companies who are scheduled to arrive today on the advantages of West Virginia's growing aerospace and high-technology industries.

The group met Wednesday with Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV in Washington, D.C.

Rockefeller says officials are promoting the industry, building on West Virginia's strong tradition of manufacturing and engineering excellence.

 

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