Category Archives: Settlements

Campbell: No Soup for You

In hot water

Investors are boiling over a famous American brand’s communication tactics, or lack thereof. Campbell Soup is being sued by a hedge fund called Third Point, whose main investor is billionaire Dan Loeb. The lawsuit claims that Campbell’s board refrained from disclosing some important information to potential and current investors in their latest strategic review. Third Point claims that there was some significant details excluded and made private by the snack maker. The board at Campbell has fired back, saying that Loeb & Third Point are misinformed and over-stepping their bounds. The lawsuit was filed in state superior court in Camden, New Jersey. Read more

Settlement: SEC Smells Musk

Pay up

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s settlement with the SEC has been approved by a judge. The South African businessman and investor was accused of fraud after tweeting that he had secured funding to take his auto-maker, Tesla, private.Musk will have to pay a hefty $20m fine and is being forced to step down as chairman within the next 6 weeks. The charges against Musk were filed by the SEC in the early fall, shortly after Musk allegedly rejected a potential settlement offer. Tesla stock plummeted around 40 points after his “secure funding” tweet. Musk, often boisterous and grandiose in his ideas, designs, and persona, is no stranger to trouble after he was shown smoking weed in a live broadcast.  Read more

Class Action: Cash or Credit?

Pick a card, any card

Visa and Mastercard are just two companies ordered to pay over $900m in the latest from a class action lawsuit. Other defendants include JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Much of the settlement and disagreement was around card-swiping fees, ie the banks were over-charging for uses of credit and debit cards, everywhere from major retail stores to smaller mom-and-pop shops. In this iteration of the settlement, Visa will pay an additional $600m, Mastercard will pay another $108m, and the other banks will make up the rest, totaling $900m. That amount is to be added on to the remainder of the lawsuit, which now exceeds $6b. The lawsuit was filed in a U.S. Eastern District Court of New York.

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Operating on Autopilot

Hardly working

While some employees wish they could take a quick nap while their bosses are not looking, one California DMV employee took snoozing on the job to a whole new level.  From February 2014 until December 2017, the worker slept at least 3 hours a day at her job.  The daily naps continued for nearly 4 years, with little to no discipline issued to her by supervisors. Continue reading →

Cheaters Never Win

Love hurts

Typically, adultery is mentioned as a cause for divorce, but in the state of North Carolina, it may be grounds for a lawsuit. Francisco Huizar III plans to appeal an order requiring him to pay $8.8 million to the husband of a woman he romantically pursued for 16 months. Despite the debate behind North Carolina’s arguably outdated alienation of affection laws, Keith King felt it necessary to take legal action against the man whom he points to as the catalyst for his shattered marriage to Danielle Swords. Continue reading →