Dallas Business Lawyer Blog

Woman Wins Suit Over Honda Hybrid Civic False Claims About Mileage - Dallas, Texas

The California owner of a Honda Civic Hybrid car has won her unusual small-claims court lawsuit against the auto giant over the vehicle's failure to deliver the promised mileage.

A Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner has awarded Heather Peters $9,867.

Peters opted out of a class-action lawsuit so she could try to claim a higher payment for the failure of her Civic to deliver the 50 miles per gallon (21.26 kilometers per liter) that was promised when she bought it.
Informed of the decision by The Associated Press, Peters exulted, "Wow! Fantastic."

"I am absolutely thrilled. Sometimes big justice comes in small packages," she said. "This is a victory for Honda Civic owners everywhere."

Peters, a former lawyer, hoped to inspire a flood of such lawsuits by the other 200,000 owners of the Hybrid Honda Civic model sold in 2006. She said that if all 200,000 owners of the cars sued and won in small claims cost, it could Honda Motor Co. $2 billion.

For more information go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034.

Citigroup Agrees to Pay Millions For Investment Fraud Claim - Dallas, Texas

As the housing market began its collapse, Wall Street firms and sophisticated investors searched for ways to profit. Some of them found an easy method: Stuff a portfolio with risky mortgage-related investments, sell it to unsuspecting customers and bet against it. 

Citigroup on Wednesday agreed to pay $285 million to settle a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had defrauded investors who bought just such a deal. The transaction involved a $1 billion portfolio of mortgage-related investments, many of which were handpicked for the portfolio by Citigroup without telling investors of its role or that it had made bets that the investments would fall in value.

In the four years since the housing market began its steady descent, securities regulators have settled only two cases related to the financial crisis for a larger sum of money. This is also the third case brought by the S.E.C. accusing a major Wall Street institution of misleading customers about who was putting together a security and about their motive. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Company both settled similar cases last year.

If you need help with a civil fraud claim in Texas, call 214-855-0034 or jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com or go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com

AT&T Sued Over Secretly Charging Clients Including Iphones - Dallas, Texas

 

Telecommunications giant AT&T is being sued for allegedly overcharging iPhone users to the tune of millions. The class-action lawsuit, filed last Thursday in the Northern District of California, alleges the company has been overstating data downloads by 7 to 14 percent, leading to excessive charges for those customers who aren’t signed up for the iPhone’s unlimited data plan.

The suit also accuses AT&T of charging customers for “phantom” downloads, or downloads that never occurred. The company is even alleged to have charged consumers for downloads taking place when the Internet connection was off.

The lawsuit accuses AT&T of breaking federal and state consumer protection laws, stating that the company committed “unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices.”

 

Do you have a claim?  For more information call 214-855-0034 or e-mail at jonathan@theleblanclawfirm.com

Trial Date Set Over "Disney Land" Case Involving Claims of Fraud and Misrepresentation - Dallas, Texas

A Jan. 17 trial date has been set in a lawsuit alleging that two related Dallas real estate companies tricked investors into buying northeast Denton County land at inflated prices by claiming that the Walt Disney Co. planned a project in the area.

In the lawsuit filed in November 2008 in state district court, three investors claim Harry “Beau” Lucas Jr., Harry B. Lucas Co. and Harry B. Lucas Management Corp. convinced them to buy 105 acres near Celina and the proposed route for the Dallas North Tollway based on false information.

Lucas has called the suit baseless and said he, the Harry B. Lucas Co. and Harry B. Lucas Management Corp. have done nothing wrong.

Investors Scott B. Aston, Benson Lee and Robert E. Mangum Jr. say in the lawsuit that they relied on Beau Lucas’ alleged statements that an announcement of a Disney-related project was imminent when they invested in a limited liability company, called NCJI, formed to purchase and hold property in the area. NCJI is a named plaintiff in the suit along with Aston, Mangum and Lee.

Mangum and Aston, both of whom are Dallas attorneys, and Lee, an investor with substantial holdings in North Texas, as well as other investors, purchased the Denton County property through NCJI for more than $6.3 million, the lawsuit says. The suit says Aston, Mangum and Lee overpaid for the land, suffering actual damages of about $2 million. Aston, Mangum and Lee also seek unspecified exemplary damages, court costs and attorneys’ fees.

 

Dell Settles SEC Probe For $100 Million

 

Dell Inc. announced that the company and CEO Michael Dell have reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission after a 5-year-long investigation.

Dell will pay a civil penalty of $100 million for financial reporting irregularities and the failure to disclose rebate payments from Intel Corp.

Michael Dell agreed to pay a $4 million civil payment tied to his failure to disclose the Intel payments.

The company said it and its CEO did not admit or deny the allegations in the SEC complaint. The settlements are subject to the approval of a U.S. District Court.

Dell said it June that it had taken a $100 million charge against its first quarter earnings as a reserve for the potential SEC settlement.

For more information about business law in Dallas, Texas go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com

 

Goldman Settles Fraud Claim For 550 Million With SEC

Goldman Sachs paid $550 million to settle charges of defrauding investors in a sale of securities tied to subprime mortgages, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

Goldman (GS, Fortune 500) shares jumped almost 3% in after-hours trading on the announcement, as many predicted the company would be forced to pay $1 billion to settle the case. The stock rose more than 4% in regular trading due to reports that a settlement was imminent.

The $550 million was still the largest penalty a Wall Street company has ever paid to the SEC.

The SEC filed the charges in April against New York-based Goldman and one of its vice presidents, Fabrice Tourre, for failing to disclose conflicts in a 2007 sale of a so-called collateralized debt obligation dubbed Abacus.

Investors in that CDO lost $1 billion, the SEC said. The commission's complaint alleged that Goldman allowed hedge fund Paulson & Co. to help choose the securities included in the CDO, which is a financial instrument backed by a pool of assets such as loans or bonds.

But Goldman didn't tell investors that Paulson was shorting the CDO, or betting its value would fall.

Goldman shot back in April, saying the charges were "completely unfounded in law and fact" and that the company lost $90 million on the CDO.

Despite Goldman's protests, the charges brought scrutiny and criticism on the company and its chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, who still managed to hold onto his job as chairman in May.

For more information regarding fraud claims in Dallas, Texas go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or contact a lawyer at 214-855-0034.

 

Supreme Court Weakens Anti-Corruption Law Against Corporations

The Supreme Court on Thursday scaled back an anti-corruption law used by federal prosecutors to bring to justice crooked politicians and executives.

The 6-3 decision potentially undermines the high-profile convictions of former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and Canadian newspaper magnate Conrad Black.

In a unanimous opinion in the Skilling case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that it is clear Congress in 1988 intended to address bribes and kickbacks in a 28-word "honest services" statute, which is based on the idea that people are entitled to the honest services of their elected officials and the executives in charge of big companies.

However, the statute covers only bribery and kickback schemes and not the less precise conflict-of-interest cases that prosecutors brought against those officials, the justices wrote.

Skilling's conduct "entailed no bribe or kickback," Ginsburg wrote. "Construing the honest services statute to extend beyond that core meaning, we conclude, would encounter a vagueness shoal," she wrote.

Three of the justices - Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - said they would have found the honest services law unconstitutional and would have overturned it.

For more information regarding business law in Dallas Texas, go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com

  

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas Sues Pfizer Over Fraudulent Claims

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, along with its parent organization and three sister health insurers, is going after the drug maker Pfizer and four individuals over what court documents claim were "deceptive marketing strategies" of three drugs.

The issue, according to records in federal district court in Marshall, is that the plaintiff health insurers paid for prescriptions of the drugs — Bextra (anti-inflammatory), Geodon (anti-psychotic) and Lyrica (anti-epileptic) — when other medications were available that cost less and were just as safe and effective.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas alone paid "millions of dollars" for the drugs at issue in the suit, court records say. However, the lawsuit does not attach specific numbers on precisely how much the plaintiffs will be seeking in the action.

Among other things, the defendants disseminated "misleading" information about those three medications' safety and efficacy, and paid "illegal kickbacks to health care professionals to induce them to promote and prescribe these drugs," court documents allege.

 
For information regarding fradu claims in Texas, visit http://www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com

 

Bank of America To Settle Fraud Case Involving Home Foreclosures

Bank of America will pay $108 million to settle federal charges that Countrywide Financial Corp., which it acquired nearly two years ago, collected outsized fees from borrowers facing foreclosure.

It's the latest evidence of misconduct at Countrywide, once an industry giant that has since fallen. Last year, three top executives, including former CEO Angelo Mozilo, were charged with civil fraud and insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The settlement, which seeks to refund money to about 200,000 borrowers, was announced Monday by the Federal Trade Commission. It is the largest mortgage industry settlement for the agency, which oversees non-banking functions such as debt collection.

The FTC's chairman, Jon Leibowitz, accused Countrywide of "callous conduct, which took advantage of consumers already at the end of their financial rope."

Bank of America purchased Countrywide in July 2008. The actions in the case took place before the acquisition.

The Charlotte, N.C.,-based bank, which did not admit or deny the charges, said it agreed to the settlement "to avoid the expense and distraction associated with litigating the case."

Countrywide hit borrowers who were behind on their mortgages with fees of several thousand dollars at times, the FTC said. The fees were for such services as property inspections and landscaping that far exceeded market rates. Countrywide created subsidiaries to hire vendors, which marked up the price for such services, the agency said.

"Countrywide profited from making risky loans to homeowners during the boom years, and then they profited again when the loans failed," Leibowitz said.

It will take several months to contact the affected borrowers, Leibowitz said. He called Countrywide's record-keeping "beyond abysmal."

For more information regarding civil fraud in Texas, go to http://www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com

 

What must a lawyer or attorney show to prove a fraud claim in Dallas, Texas?

The elements of a fraud cause of action in Texas are:

1. defendant made a material representation to the plaintiff;

2. the representation was false;

3.  defendant knew the representation was false or made it recklessly;

4.  defendant intended plaintiff to rely on the representation and the plaintiff did rely; and

5.  the representation caused injury.

For more information, contact a Dallas Fraud Lawyer or Attorney at 214-855-0034 or www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com.