Deutsche Bank agrees to $75M US settlement with Jeffrey Epstein victims
CBC
23-05-18 14:08
Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million in a settlement over allegations that it should have seen evidence of sexual exploitation by American financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was a client. The lawsuit was launched by a woman only identified as Jane Doe and claimed the bank had profited from Epstein’s sex trafficking. Deutsche Bank was said to have chosen “profit over following the law” to earn millions of dollars from the businessman. The bank has previously acknowledged it made mistakes in taking on Epstein as a client, and has since invested over €4bn ($5.9bn) to bolster anti-financial crime processes.
Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75m to settle a lawsuit claiming the German lender failed to see evidence of sex trafficking by financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was a client. A woman only identified as Jane Doe sued the bank in federal district court in New York and sought class-action status to represent other victims of Epstein. One of the law firms representing women in the case, Edwards Pottinger, said it believed it is the largest sex trafficking settlement with a bank in US history. Deutsche Bank noted that it had invested more than $4.3bn to bolster controls against financial crime.
Canada’s Competition Bureau has accused Cineplex, the country's largest movie theatre operator, of advertising misleading ticket prices and alleged that it engaged in drip pricing by adding a booking fee at checkout that was raised without making clear. The Competitions Act changes made in April 2022 now consider drip pricing to be a "harmful” business practice. The Canadian regulator has filed an application with the Competition Tribunal to stop Cineplex from continuing to advertise such prices, pay a penalty, and issue restitution to affected consumers who purchased tickets through the company’s website or app.
The son of Samuel Pettyjohn, a former ally of union boss Jimmy Hoffa who was gunned down in 1979 after testifying about corrupt officials selling prison pardons, is suing the FBI for failing to protect his father. Marrell Graham claims that the FBI's actions led to the deprivation of "income, services, protection, care, assistance ... counsel, and advice of his father". The "cash-for-clemency" scandal in Tennessee ultimately led to the removal of Governor Ray Blanton, although he was not indicted in the investigation. Three of his aides were indicted.
Ecuador’s political opposition has launched a legal challenge to challenge the dissolution of the country’s National Assembly by President Guillermo Lasso. The action came after the country’s electoral court permitted elections to be held as early as August. Lasso had made use of a constitutional provision known as the ‘two-way death’, which both triggers a dissolution of the National Assembly as well as presidential and legislative elections. Critics of the president allege that he pursued the dissolution in order to avoid being removed via impeachment procedures.
A woman who allegedly killed the bride of a wedding last month is facing a wrongful-death lawsuit together with the establishments who served her. Jamie Lee Komoroski was allegedly given “copious amounts of alcohol” and allowed to become “visibly intoxicated” in four bars before she drove at high speed into a golf car carrying newlyweds from their reception. The crash killed Samantha Miller and injured her husband, Aric Hutchinson, as well as two other passengers. A toxicology report indicated Komoroski had a blood alcohol level over three times the legal limit. The family is seeking unspecified damages.
Federal judge dismisses another lawsuit against Ed Sheeran in the legal battle over ‘Thinking Out Loud’
CNN
23-05-18 20:09
A US federal district judge has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed Ed Sheeran’s hit “Thinking Out Loud” copied the 1973 Marvin Gaye hit, “Let’s Get It On”. Structured Asset Sales (SAS), a company that owns one-third of the “Let’s Get It On” copyright, brought the action, which was connected to a previous lawsuit against Sheeran. The previous suit, brought by the family of Edward Townsend, a co-writer with Gaye, was also dismissed, with the jury finding that Sheeran independently created his song and did not infringe on the earlier hit's copyright. The SAS lawsuit has now been dismissed as routine chord progressions are viewed as too commonplace for protection. SAS has said it intends to appeal against the decision.
The legal conflict over the Food and Drug Administration’s lax regulation of abortion drugs is getting more complicated by the day as a lawsuit winds its way through the federal courts. Medical groups filed another petition in March 2019 to challenge these changes. Once again, the FDA ignored the law and, this time, waited for 994 days before rejecting the petition.
Last November, four medical associations and four emergency room doctors sued the FDA, alleging that its approval of Mifeprex and subsequent decisions weakening its safety restrictions were “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act. In other words, “Hundreds of thousands of women will … need emergency care on account of [the FDA’s] actions. And because [the FDA] chose to cut out doctors from the prescription and administration of mifepristone, plaintiff doctors and their associations will necessarily be injured by the consequences,” the panel wrote.
The 5th Circuit’s decision is that, while the lawsuit proceeds, the FDA’s original approval of mifepristone remains and the safety restrictions that were repealed in 2016 and 2021 are reinstated. In other words, mifepristone can be used up to seven, not 10, weeks; using mifepristone will require three physician office visits; only doctors may dispense or administer the drug; doctors must report all medical complications to the FDA; and abortion drugs may not be dispensed through the mail or mail-order pharmacies.
Elon Musk, Twitter owner, has called for an audit of Microsoft as one of its apps reportedly accessed information from Twitter without notifying the company. Musk's lawyer has sent the demand letter regarding alleged misuse of Twitter user data by Microsoft, despite the tech giant's partnership with the social media platform. Details of how the data was used or where it went remain unclear, but Musk has suggested that Microsoft has used Twitter data to develop AI language systems, calling this "illegal”.
San Francisco officials are investigating Twitter after six former employees alleged that Elon Musk's leadership team broke laws in turning the company's headquarters into a "Twitter hotel" for workers. The former employees, including the former vice-president of real estate and workplace Tracy Hawkins, allege that Musk's team made numerous changes to the building that violated building codes. Hawkins claims in the lawsuit that she was forced to leave after Musk and his team insisted that she cause Twitter to intentionally violate its leases and other contracts, and that Musk refused to pay the rent on the building. In December 2020, the city launched an investigation following Forbes' report on Twitter's beds, and earlier this year, San Francisco building inspectors gave the company's construction contractor two weeks to submit a corrected building use permit if they wanted to keep using two conference rooms as bedrooms.
Six former Twitter employees are alleging that Elon Musk's leadership team broke laws in turning the company's headquarters into a “Twitter Hotel”. The plaintiffs, including a former vice president of real estate, filed a lawsuit in a Delaware federal court claiming that Twitter did not pay them the promised severance pay and that Musk's team made numerous changes to the building that violated building codes. These changes included disabling lights and adding locks that wouldn't open during an emergency, the lawsuit claimed. Among the plaintiffs was Tracy Hawkins, the former vice president of real estate and workplace, who eventually resigned because Musk and his transition team insisted she breach her professional ethics to cause Twitter to intentionally breach its leases and other contracts. Musk has previously come under fire when San Francisco’s building inspectors investigated the apparent transformation of the company's new headquarters into a hotel for employees.
Goldman Sachs is still grappling with the discrimination issues highlighted in the class action lawsuit filed by the bank’s female employees in 2010, according to a report in the Financial Times. While there are fewer signs of overt sexism, women complain of inaccessible cultures, exclusion and a lack of support. “I would’ve been better compensated if I wasn’t a mom, for guys, most of the people I interacted with, their wives didn’t work”, said one woman who recently left the bank. Among other complaints, female employees note Goldman’s culture remains less receptive to women who have no interest in sports and the difficulty of confronting controversial issues without damaging their careers, as one junior employee said. Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $215m, one of the biggest payouts in US corporate history, to settle the discrimination case.
The Adult Survivors Act, a law passed in New York City last year removing the statute of limitations for certain sexual misconduct, is prompting victims of sexual abuse to speak out. The act opened a one-year window after its passing for victims to file lawsuits against individuals or institutions in New York regardless of when the alleged crime took place. Since the act was passed, 136 plaintiffs have filed 106 lawsuits. Advocates and attorneys expect that number to rise significantly before the November deadline. The law has been viewed as an important step in the discussion of sexual assault and misconduct. Many allegations about accused individuals had been known for decades, but the accusers were often unable to legally pursue litigation. The law has created a window for survivors to be heard and for some abusers to be held accountable.
The Center for Reproductive Rights has filed a lawsuit in Texas, challenging some of the state's abortion restrictions. The Center is calling on a Texas court to place an emergency hold on prohibitions which prevent pregnant women from terminating their pregnancy unless it poses a physical threat to the mother's life, or if the fetus has a disease that is fatal. Lead lawyer on the case, Molly Duane, claimed in an interview with the Associated Press that numerous women who contacted the organization had similar stories: they were trying to end their pregnancy for health reasons, but their doctors advised that they could not due to the state's restrictive legislation. The case could pave the way for Congress around the US to contest heightened abortion controls.
TikTok has filed a federal lawsuit against Montana after the state passed a law banning the short-video app, citing the ban as unconstitutional. The company stated that it aims to protect its business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana.
Bank that bought Silicon Valley Bank sues HSBC for poaching staff
CBC
23-05-22 18:38
First Citizens BancShares has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court which claims that HSBC illegally hired over 40 Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) employees to launch its own US venture banking business while breaching federal law. The lawsuit accuses HSBC of violating the law and poaching the employees to gain access to trade secrets held by SVB, which included vital information about firms in the tech and health-care sectors. Meanwhile, HSBC has recently announced that it will axe global bonuses and suspend pay raises.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) has launched a $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post over an article from May 2022 in which the media company accused TMTG of securities fraud. The article’s headline insinuated “that TMTG was involved in shady business dealings,” according to the TMTG-owned Truth Social. Launched in October 2021, Truth Social is an alternative to Facebook and Twitter but has already been subject to a number of financial investigations. This is the latest of a string of defamation-related cases brought by former President Donald Trump.
Lawyers acting for Jean Carroll, who won a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump in May after the former president accused her of lying about an alleged rape, have requested to amend that action to include accusations about Trump’s comments during a recent town hall meeting. As well as denying Carroll’s claims, Trump is alleged to have called her “a whack job” during the CNN broadcast. The new complaint seeks $10m in damages in a lawsuit, currently awaiting action by a lower court. Trump has since appealed the original verdict.
Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll, who recently won a $5m sexual abuse and defamation case against Donald Trump, have filed an amended lawsuit seeking at least $10m in compensatory damages. Carroll has claimed that remarks by Trump after she made rape allegations against him spoiled her reputation and resulted in her losing her job. After a jury decided that Trump had sexually abused Carroll, lawyers for Trump put the previous defamation lawsuit on hold as they sought to determine whether he could be held liable for remarks he made in 2019 while in office.
TikTok sues Montana to overturn first statewide ban on video-sharing app
CBC
23-05-22 21:36
TikTok is suing the state of Montana in response to its first-in-the-US ban on the social video-sharing platform, arguing that it contravenes freedom of speech rights guaranteed by the country’s constitution. The ban has a scheduled start date of 1 January 2024. The suit follows a similar one last week brought by five content creators. The Montana law stemmed from concerns by officials, law enforcement and some lawmakers, who suspect that the Chinese government could employ TikTok to gather information on US citizens or influence public opinion. ByteDance-owned TikTok maintains it has never faced such demands.
