Latest news with #JonathanStempel
USA Today
2 hours ago
- Business
- USA Today
Bernie Madoff victims to recoup $498 million in settlement, recovery hits $15.26 billion
Jonathan Stempel Reuters Former customers of the late Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff will recoup $498.3 million under a settlement on Wednesday with the liquidators of two Luxembourg funds, boosting their recovery to about $15.26 billion. The Luxembourg Investment Fund and Luxembourg Investment Fund U.S. Equity Plus had invested exclusively with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities for three years before Madoff's firm collapsed in December 2008. Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Madoff's firm, said the $498.3 million represents all transfers that the Luxembourg funds received from the firm. The funds will also give the Madoff firm's bankruptcy estate 15% of proceeds from their lawsuit in Luxembourg against the Swiss bank UBS UBSG.S. They are expected to receive $45.1 million on their own claim against the estate. The funds did not admit wrongdoing. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Who was Bernie Madoff?: Who did his Ponzi scheme impact and how did he get caught? Court approval is required, and a June 25 hearing has been scheduled. A lawyer for the Luxembourg funds did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prior to Wednesday's settlement, Picard recovered $14.76 billion for Madoff customers, whose losses he has estimated at $17.5 billion. Payouts go to 2,656 customers whose claims he deemed valid. The payouts are separate from the $4.3 billion awarded by the U.S. government-created Madoff Victim Fund to 40,930 individuals, schools, charities and pension plans. These recipients included customers, and victims who lost money indirectly through Madoff, including in "feeder funds." Madoff concealed his fraud for decades before confessing to his sons one day after his firm's 2008 Christmas party. He pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, with the sentencing judge calling Madoff's crimes "extraordinarily evil." Madoff died in prison at age 82 in April 2021. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SEC wins dismissal of lawsuit challenging tighter rules on shareholder proposals
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule changes that made it harder for shareholders to file proposals at companies' annual meetings, including for reforms on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington, D.C. rejected arguments that the SEC arbitrarily and capriciously adopted the changes, including on the alleged pretext it supported corporate opposition to reforms on contentious issues such as climate change and workplace diversity. The SEC was required to determine whether the changes would "promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation, and it did so," Walton wrote in a 64-page decision. Adopted in November 2020, late in Republican President Donald Trump's first White House term, the SEC rule changes increased how much stock shareholders had to own, and how long they had to own it, before submitting proposals. The changes also added requirements for resubmitting proposals that shareholders had rejected in the last three years. Plaintiffs in the June 2021 lawsuit included the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which represents more than 300 faith-based institutional investors, shareholder advocacy group As You Sow and shareholder advocate James McRitchie. They said the SEC, before adopting the rule changes, failed to quantify the benefits of ESG and other shareholder proposals, or address the expected loss of "billions of dollars in long-term shareholder value" by adding restrictions. In a joint statement following Walton's decision, the plaintiffs said the changes "only serve to hurt shareholders and companies alike. Despite this decision, shareholders will continue to engage with corporations on their environmental and social impacts." The SEC declined to comment. In seeking the lawsuit's dismissal, the SEC said the rule changes would help ensure that proposals reflect the interests of all shareholders, and that resubmitted proposals could receive levels of support "likely to lead to company action." SEC commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines for the changes, with Republican appointees in the majority. The regulator defended the changes during Democratic President Joe Biden's administration. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported the SEC's position. The case is Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility et al v SEC, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 21-01620.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SEC wins dismissal of lawsuit challenging tighter rules on shareholder proposals
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule changes that made it harder for shareholders to file proposals at companies' annual meetings, including for reforms on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington, D.C. rejected arguments that the SEC arbitrarily and capriciously adopted the changes, including on the alleged pretext it supported corporate opposition to reforms on contentious issues such as climate change and workplace diversity. The SEC was required to determine whether the changes would "promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation, and it did so," Walton wrote in a 64-page decision. Adopted in November 2020, late in Republican President Donald Trump's first White House term, the SEC rule changes increased how much stock shareholders had to own, and how long they had to own it, before submitting proposals. The changes also added requirements for resubmitting proposals that shareholders had rejected in the last three years. Plaintiffs in the June 2021 lawsuit included the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which represents more than 300 faith-based institutional investors, shareholder advocacy group As You Sow and shareholder advocate James McRitchie. They said the SEC, before adopting the rule changes, failed to quantify the benefits of ESG and other shareholder proposals, or address the expected loss of "billions of dollars in long-term shareholder value" by adding restrictions. In a joint statement following Walton's decision, the plaintiffs said the changes "only serve to hurt shareholders and companies alike. Despite this decision, shareholders will continue to engage with corporations on their environmental and social impacts." The SEC declined to comment. In seeking the lawsuit's dismissal, the SEC said the rule changes would help ensure that proposals reflect the interests of all shareholders, and that resubmitted proposals could receive levels of support "likely to lead to company action." SEC commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines for the changes, with Republican appointees in the majority. The regulator defended the changes during Democratic President Joe Biden's administration. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported the SEC's position. The case is Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility et al v SEC, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 21-01620. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
New York, other states urge FDA to expand access to abortion pill
By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -The attorneys general of New York, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey asked the Food and Drug Administration to expand access to the abortion pill mifepristone, and remove outdated restrictions still in place 25 years after its approval. Thursday's petition came after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr told Congress last month he directed FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to review the pill, saying "alarming" new data suggested at minimum that the label should be changed. Mifepristone, together with the drug misoprostol, won FDA approval in 2000 for medication abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Medication abortions account for more than half of U.S. abortions, though 28 states restrict access according to the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on reproductive health. The petition challenges FDA requirements that mifepristone prescribers be included in national and local abortion provider lists, patients attest in writing that they intend to end their pregnancies, and pharmacies perform a variety of recordkeeping. New York Attorney General Letitia James said the FDA's Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program imposes "medically unnecessary" rules that keep mifepristone out of reach of most primary care settings. She called the problem particularly acute in rural and other areas where getting abortions often requires lengthy travel. "There is simply no scientific or medical reason to subject it to such extraordinary restrictions," James said, referring to mifepristone. "The FDA must follow the science." Many states, primarily Republican-led or leaning, have restricted or substantially eliminated abortions in the three years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized the procedure nationwide. The White House under Republican President Donald Trump has largely sided with abortion opponents, though Trump said during his 2024 campaign he did not plan to limit access to mifepristone. Last month, the administration asked a federal judge to dismiss, on procedural grounds, a lawsuit by three generally Republican states seeking to narrow such access. That lawsuit began during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, who generally supported abortion access. Seventeen other Democratic-led or -leaning states plus Washington, D.C. are separately suing the FDA in Spokane, Washington to loosen restrictions on mifepristone. They said doctors and pharmacies should be able to dispense the pill, as with most drugs, without special certifications. On May 30, the Trump administration urged a dismissal, saying the states didn't show the FDA's policy was flawed or the agency ignored important evidence.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Reddit sues AI startup Anthropic for allegedly using data without permission
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -Reddit sued the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday, accusing it of stealing data from the social media discussion website to train its AI models despite publicly assuring it wouldn't. The complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court is the latest battle over AI companies' alleged unauthorized use of third-party content. Anthropic's backers include and Google parent Alphabet. "We disagree with Reddit's claims and will defend ourselves vigorously," an Anthropic spokesperson said. According to the complaint, Anthropic has resisted entering a licensing agreement even as it trained its Claude chatbot on Reddit content, despite assuring last July it had blocked its bots from accessing Reddit's platform. Reddit quoted Claude admitting it was "trained on at least some Reddit data" and did not know if that content was deleted. It also said Anthropic's bots have accessed or tried to access Reddit content more than 100,000 times, undermining the company's allegedly styling itself as an AI "white knight" committed to trust and honesty. "Anthropic refuses to respect Reddit's guardrails and enter into a license agreement," unlike Google and OpenAI, the complaint said. By scraping content and using it for commercial purposes, Anthropic violated Reddit's user policy and "enriched itself to the tune of tens of billions of dollars," the complaint added. In a statement, Reddit Chief Legal Officer Ben Lee said "we believe in an open internet," but AI companies need "clear limitations" on how they use content they scrape. Reddit and Anthropic are based in San Francisco, about a 10-minute walk from each other. The lawsuit seeks unspecified restitution and punitive damages, and an injunction prohibiting Anthropic from using Reddit content for commercial purposes. Anthropic introduced its newest Claude models, Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, on May 22. Overall annualized revenue has reached $3 billion, two people familiar with the matter said last week. The case is Reddit Inc v Anthropic PBC, California Superior Court, San Francisco County, No. CGC-25-524892. Sign in to access your portfolio
