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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (9927)	2/13/2007 9:52:06 AM
From: scion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

U.S. SEC seeks to curtail investor suits: NYT Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:50AM EST reuters.com NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has taken steps on two fronts to protect corporations, executives and accounting firms from investor lawsuits that accuse them of fraud, the New York Times reported in a story published on Tuesday. Last week, the commission filed a brief in the Supreme Court urging the adoption of a legal standard that would make it harder for shareholders to prevail in fraud lawsuits against publicly traded companies and their executives, the paper said. At the same time, the agency's chief accountant told a conference that it was considering ways to protect accounting firms from large damage awards in cases brought by investors and companies, the paper said. Christopher Cox, the commission's chairman, said in an interview that both efforts were in the best interests of investors, because they aimed at preventing the accounting industry from further consolidation and at limiting what he called "fraudulent lawsuits", including some he said were filed by "professional plaintiffs", the Times said. The SEC was not immediately available to comment. reuters.com

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (9927)	2/15/2007 1:27:04 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12465

2/15/07 - [Lou Pearlman] Orlando Sentinel: Authorities serve warrant on Pearlman's Trans Continental Scott Powers \| Sentinel Staff Writer Posted February 15, 2007, 12:51 PM EST PHOTO GALLERY The FBI and several other federal and state law enforcement agencies swarmed on Lou Pearlman's downtown business headquarters this morning with a search warrant. "We're conducting a search warrant on Trans Continental. There are various agencies, the state of Florida, FBI, the IRS, the FDIC," FBI Supervisor Eric J. Alpert said. Twenty to 25 agents from those agencies participated. They are searching all of Pearlman's Church Street-based businesses. Those include Trans Continental Airlines, his flagship company; Fashion Rock, his modeling business; and FF Station, which is his property development company. Alpert would not comment on whether any criminal charges are in the works. Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa, said the search warrant is part of an ongoing criminal investigation against "Mr. Pearlman and his entitites." Cole said the warrant was served at Pearlman's downtown business and his Windermere residence. He said no charges have been filed, and he would not comment on whether there is an ongoing grand jury investigation. The investigators showed up this morning at the Trans Continental building at 127 W. Church Street around 9:30 a.m. They parked two vans at the loading dock and about a dozen law enforcement officers entered the building. They proceeded to the third floor where Alpert said they would be carefully retrieving, logging and boxing Trans Continental records. Two weeks ago a Florida office of Financial Regulation lawsuit enticed Orange Circuit Judge Renee Roche to turn over operations of Pearlman's Trans Continental Airlines and two other companies to a court-appointed receiver, Jerry McHale. McHale was not in the building this morning. He was out of town on an unrelated urgent business matter, said Michael Markham of the Johnson Pope Bokor Ruppel & Burns law firm in Clearwater, which is representing McHale. Markham said the FBI advised the firm that the agency would be coming in today but did not say it was going to be serving a warrant. He said two attorneys from the firm were at the building to meet the FBI. Alpert said the files will be available for McHale to examine and that the Florida office of Financial Regulation was part of this morning's raid. Pearlman has been out of town and has not been able to be reached for comment. While law enforcement agencies secured the third floor of the Trans Continental building, the first floor and other parts of the Church Street station complex remained "business as usual," said Steve LaFreniere, president of Quest, the property management company hired by Pearlman to run the property. LaFreniere said he was surprised to learn the FBI arrived this morning but stressed that tenants, including several restaurants, a wine shop and an antique store, are operating as normal. "Come on down," he said. "They're doing a great job." ----- More coverage of the Lou Pearlman saga orlandosentinel.com ----- orlandosentinel.com - Jeff