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Wal-Mart pleads guilty in hazardous waste
Lawyer World News |
2013/06/01 11:08
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $81.6 million after pleading guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges of improperly disposing of fertilizer, pesticides and other hazardous products that were pulled from stores in California and Missouri because of damaged packaging and other problems.
The retail giant entered the plea in federal court in San Francisco to misdemeanor counts of violating the Clean Water Act and another environmental law regulating pesticides. The fine also settled Environmental Protection Agency allegations.
In Kansas City, Mo., the company pleaded guilty to improperly handling pesticides.
The plea agreements ended a nearly decade-old investigation involving more than 20 prosecutors and 32 environmental groups that has cost Wal-Mart a total of $110 million.
Court documents show illegal dumping occurred in 16 California counties from Del Norte to Orange between 2003 and 2005. Federal prosecutors said the company didn't train its employees on how to handle and dispose hazardous materials at its stores.
The result, prosecutors say, was that waste was tossed into trash bins or poured into sewer systems. The waste also was improperly taken to one of several product return centers throughout the U.S. without proper safety documentation, authorities said. |
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Court stays out of Planned Parenthood funding case
Law Firm Legal News |
2013/05/27 11:08
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Indiana will likely stop defending a law that stripped Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case Tuesday, an attorney who represents the nation's largest abortion provider said.
Indiana is among more than a dozen states that have enacted or considered laws to prevent taxpayers' money from funding organizations that provide abortion. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 23 that the law targeting Planned Parenthood went too far because it denied women the right to choose their own medical providers.
I assume at this point the state will give up in its claim that that portion of the statue is valid under the Social Security Act, said Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who granted the initial preliminary injunction to temporarily block the law, precipitating the state's appeals.
Neither the state senator who sponsored the bill or the Family and Social Services Administration - the agency tasked with enforcing the law - had immediate comment.
My office always contended this is ultimately a dispute between the state and federal government, not between a private medical provider and the state, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said in a statement. Zoeller's office handled the state's appeal. |
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Court: US can keep bin Laden photos under wraps
Trending Legal Issues |
2013/05/23 11:52
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A federal appeals court is backing the U.S. government’s decision not to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by U.S. commandos.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia turned down an appeal Tuesday from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, which had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the images.
The court said that the CIA properly withheld publication of the images. The court concluded that the photos used to conduct facial recognition analysis of bin Laden could reveal classified intelligence methods — and that images of bin Laden’s burial at sea could trigger violence against American citizens. |
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Missouri man sentenced for murder of attorney
Trending Legal Issues |
2013/05/23 11:52
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A St. Louis man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering a lawyer who was beaten, stabbed and strangled in a 14-minute struggle.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports 46-year-old Cleophus King entered the plea Wednesday in the March 2008 killing of Luke Meiners, an assistant St. Louis County counselor.
King’s accomplice, Ferguson resident Ronald Johnson, received the same sentence after pleading guilty in 2010.
Prosecutors said Johnson lured Meiners — an acquaintance — to King’s home by saying he needed a ride there to laundry. In fact, prosecutors said, the two had planned in advance to rob Meiners and killed him when he resisted.
Johnson and King used Meiners’ vehicle to dump his body in Venice, then stole electronics from his University City apartment. |
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Los Angeles jeweler pleads guilty in KPMG case
Court and Trial |
2013/05/23 11:51
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The owner of a Los Angeles jewelry store pleaded guilty Monday for his role in an insider-trading case involving a former senior partner at accounting firm KPMG.
Bryan Shaw, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and was scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 16 when he faces a maximum of five years in prison.
In this guilty plea, Mr. Shaw continued his path to fully accepting responsibility for his actions and doing the right thing, said Shaw's attorney Nathan Hochman.
Authorities said Shaw made more than $1 million in illicit profits by trading in advance of company announcements on earnings results or mergers for KPMG LLC clients, including Herbalife Lt., Skechers USA Inc. and Uggs maker Deckers Outdoor Corp.
In exchange, Shaw gave former KPMG accountant Scott London bags filled with cash, along with a $12,000 Rolex watch and jewelry for his wife, among other items, prosecutors said. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed civil charges in the case, estimates London received at least $50,000.
London, 50, who was fired from KPMG, also is charged with conspiracy and is scheduled to be arraigned next week. |
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