Stanford Group Co.’s court-appointed receiver fired about 1,000 workers

Stanford Receiver Fires 1,000 of Firm’s Workers
85 percent of the firm’s employees, to help conserve the value of the estate for investors.

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All of the terminations were effective today, according to a statement posted on the Web site of the receiver, Ralph Janvey. The workers’ salaries and benefits were discontinued immediately, and they won’t receive any severance pay or bonuses, according to the statement. “A small number” of employees in Houston will be retained to assist in winding down operations and settling the receivership estate.

“After a review of the circumstances, the receiver concluded that continuing employment for these employees is not in the interest of conserving and preserving the value of the estate because there are insufficient resources to continue to compensate all present employees,” according to the statement.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, two associates and three affiliated companies on Feb. 17, accusing them of orchestrating an $8 billion fraud involving the sale of high-yield certificates of deposit through Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.

Last month, U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas froze all of Stanford’s corporate and personal assets and appointed Janvey, a Dallas lawyer, as receiver for the companies. Yesterday, Godbey ordered the release of accounts valued at less than $250,000 that aren’t linked to suspected fraud.

Decisions about Stanford’s employees outside the U.S. will be announced in the next few weeks, Janvey said in the statement. Janvey said most of Stanford’s businesses and operations will be wound down.

The case is SEC v. Stanford International Bank, 3:09-cv-00298-N, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

The European Central Bank has cut its key interest rate to 1.5% from 2.0%

Jean-Claude Trichet, President, ECB
Overall inflation rates have decreased significantly and are now expected to remain well below 2% over 2009 and 2010.


Euro rates hit record low of 1.5% .The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut its key interest rate to 1.5% from 2.0%, the lowest since it started setting euro rates in January 1999.

It followed a cut in UK rates by the Bank of England. US and Japanese rates are, in effect, already at zero.

At a news conference, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet slashed his forecasts for eurozone growth.
The ECB is now predicting GDP this year in the 16-nation bloc will shrink by between 2.2% and 3.2%.

Its last prediction, made in December, was that growth would be between no change and a fall of 1% in 2009.

For 2010 it was predicting growth of between 0.5% and 1.5%. It is now forecasting growth of between 0.7% and minus 0.7%.

Non-standard measures

The revisions reflect Mr Trichet's view that the global economy has "weakened substantially in recent months" but that it will "gradually recover" in 2010.
But there were no new measures announced to help stimulate the eurozone economy, with Mr Trichet stressing that he was already using various "non-standard measures" and saying that the ECB's rate-setters were considering various others.

Slowing growth was confirmed by revised economic growth figures issued earlier on Thursday.

GDP for the last three months of 2008 was down 1.3% from the same quarter of the previous year, worse than the initial estimate of 1.2%.

The figure for the previous quarter was left unchanged at a 1.5% fall.

Thursday's decision was the ECB's fifth rate cut since October 2008, which has brought eurozone rates down from 4.25%.

Mr Trichet said that interest rates could still fall further from their current level, although he pointed out that they are already at a very low level.

He also said that inflation would stay below the ECB's target of below, but close to, 2%.

"Overall inflation rates have decreased significantly and are now expected to remain well below 2% over 2009 and 2010,"

Supreme Court rejects limits on drug lawsuits

Justices rule 6-3 to uphold jury verdict of $6.7 million for woman who lost arm after injection. By Adam Liptak WASHINGTON — In a setback for business groups that had hoped to build a barrier against injury lawsuits seeking billions of dollars

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a $6.7 million jury award won by a Vermont musician against WyethSupreme Court Upholds $6.7 Million Damage Won By Vermont Amputee Against Wyeth.
Majority of the justices ruled that Wyeth failed to prove that Diana Levine's state liability lawsuit against Wyeth obstruct federal regulation on drug labeling.

The firm had argued that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the label for Phenergan, an anti-nausea drug given intravenously on Levine in 2000 to relieve her severe migraine but led to the amputation of her right arm. Levine accused Wyeth of failing to put on the Phenergan label a warning that administering the drug through IV-push method may cause gangrene. Wyeth said it cannot change the label without consent from the FDA.

Levine, who could not longer play the guitar and piano, said she will use the award to make her car and home more adaptable, according to WCAX.com.