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Saddam Kickbacks Earn Oil Exec Prison
Legal Information |
2008/03/08 11:13
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Texas oilman David Chalmers was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday after admitting to paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Iraq in connection with the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Chalmers, 54, and his two corporations, Bayoil Supply and Trading Ltd. and Bayoil USA Inc., were sentenced in federal court in Manhattan. Chalmers and his companies were ordered to forfeit $9 million dollars.
He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in August, weeks before he was due to go on trial with Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt. Wyatt was sentenced to a year in prison in November for his role in the oil-for-food scandal.
I feel horribly remorseful for this, a sniffling Chalmers told U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. Because others were doing it I thought it was OK. But I was wrong.
Chalmers' lawyer told Chin that Chalmers deserved a lighter sentence than Wyatt, who met directly with Saddam Hussein and became the most prominent figure jailed over the scandal.
Chin disagreed, saying Chalmers had agreed to buy many more barrels of oil than Wyatt that represented money that should have gone to the Iraqi people.
Prosecutors said they could prove Wyatt paid at least $200,000 in kickbacks, compared to Chalmers, whom they said played a leading role in corrupting the program by agreeing to pay at least $9 million while other oil companies refused. |
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Pfizer Protects Celebrex Patent From Teva
Legal World News |
2008/03/08 11:12
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| pPfizer continued to serve up the pain to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries on Friday when the company reaffirmed its patents on the arthritis pain drug Celebrex./ppThe U.S. Court of Appeals of the Federal District said that two of the three patents were valid, but threw out the third, saying that it was not valid for the treatment of inflammation. Teva will now have to wait until May 2014 to market the copycat. Celebrex provided Pfizer with annual global sales of $1.7 billion in 2007. Bear Stearns analyst project that it will reach global sales of $2.5 billion in 2008, an increase of 9%, and that the drug will pull in $3.1 billion by 2012./ppThe New York-based pharma company has been battling it out with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries to hang on to Celebrex for almost four years. Pfizer sued the Israel-based drug maker after it applied to U.S. regulators for permission to sell the generic in 2004. In March 2007, Pfizer won a ruling from a U.S. federal court over three of the main patents regarding Celebrex, barring Teva from manufacturing the generic until 2015. /p |
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Judge KOs Challenge to Internet Bet Law
State Law Issues |
2008/03/07 09:00
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| A federal judge has dismissed a challenge to a ban on Internet gambling brought by an online gambling association, but gave the group legal standing to challenge the law in an appellate court.pU.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper in Trenton determined that the Interactive Media Entertainment amp; Gaming Association had not shown sufficient cause to order her to block enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed by Congress in 2006./ppThat law was designed to stop online gambling by choking off the electronic processing of money for online wagers or payouts./ppThe industry group had argued that the law was unconstitutional on many fronts, including freedom of speech and invasion of privacy concerns. It wanted the court to declare that people should be allowed to gamble from the privacy of their own homes./p |
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U.S. treasure firm ordered to identify disputed wreck
Legal Information |
2008/03/07 08:55
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| A U.S. judge ordered a Florida treasure-hunting company on Thursday to disclose the identity of a disputed shipwreck and dismissed some of its claims against Spain in a legal wrangle over a $500 million haul of silver and gold.span id=midArticle_byline/spanspan id=midArticle_0/spanpOdyssey Marine Exploration and Spain have been arguing over the treasure since the trove was found last year at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean./pspan id=midArticle_1/spanpU.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ruled on Thursday that Odyssey's lawsuit claiming rights to the treasure could go forward provided the company promptly identifies the wreck for Spain, or gives its best available hypothesis of the identity./pspan id=midArticle_2/spanpAt a court hearing on Wednesday, the company's lawyers said Odyssey did not know for certain the name or nationality of the wreck, from which the company recovered some 17 tonnes of silver coins and gold./pspan id=midArticle_3/spanpWe want to know the identity of this vessel, and what this ruling is saying is 'It's not an answer to say we haven't decided for sure,' said lawyer James Goold, who is representing Spain./pspan id=midArticle_4/spanpMerryday ruled that parts of Odyssey's lawsuit could go forward through the courts, including claims for possession and ownership of the wreck and the artifacts./pspan id=midArticle_5/spanpBut he sided with Spain on several other elements of the suit, dismissing Odyssey's claims for monetary damages from Spain and a request for an injunction to secure the integrity of the recovery operation against interference from a third party./pspan id=midArticle_6/spanpThe two sides have been at odds since Odyssey announced last May that it had found half a million silver coins and other artifacts. It said the wreck, which it code-named Black Swan, was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean outside any country's territorial waters./pspan id=midArticle_7/spanpThe dispute turned ugly when Spanish warships twice intercepted the company's treasure hunting ships after they left the British territory of Gibraltar and escorted them to Spanish ports./p |
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