Legal News

Non-Scotus AM Roundup: Dreier Gets Bail (And a Shave!), More . . .

By Ashby Jones

We delivered the news Monday evening that Marc Dreier, our favorite lawyer-imposter-fraudster, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and five counts of wire fraud. What we should also tell you is that Judge Jed Rakoff approved Dreier’s request for bail pending sentencing, slated for July 13. Click here for the NYLJ story.

Rakoff said that allowing Dreier to remain free was a close call in a case where Dreier “has disgraced the honorable profession of law.” Most exciting to us, however, was the appearance of a new photo, showing Dreier in a natty suit and all cleaned up.

Pepsi Sues Bottler over Secret Board Meeting: Last week, Pepsi Bottling Group rejected a nearly $4.2 billion offer from PepsiCo to buy the remaining two-thirds stake it doesn’t already own, saying the bid “is grossly inadequate.”

Since then, things have only turned uglier. Pepsi filed a lawsuit Monday against the bottler, claiming that it and some of its directors intentionally held a board meeting without including some board members who are also affiliated with PepsiCo. Pepsi alleges that those directors weren’t given notice of the board meeting. Click here for the Dow Jones Newswires story.

PepsiCo alleges that the board’s actions- including the adoption of a shareholder rights plan-at the meeting are invalid because the full board wasn’t present. Such shareholder rights plans, or “poison pills,” are often put in place to thwart takeover efforts.

Impeachment for Kent? Congressional impeachment proceedings will likely begin today against U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, who was sentenced to 33 months in prison Monday for lying to those investigating him for sexual misconduct. Kent retired shortly after pleading guilty in February and is positioned to continue drawing his $174,000 annual paycheck, despite his conviction, unless he resigns or is removed from the bench. Click here for the Houston Chronicle story; here for a separate Chron story on Cathy McBroom, the federal court case manager who helped bring Kent down.

Shareholders to Scrushy: Repay Us! Attorneys for shareholders asked a judge Monday to make HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy pay $2.6 billion for his alleged role in the huge fraud that nearly ruined the rehabilitation company. Click here for the AP story.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 12, 2009 (boomark / email).