MORE CASH FOR DIGITAL: Digital Lightwave has received another injection of emergency funding and restructured its debt with Optel Capital, an entity controlled by the Clearwater tech company's founder and largest shareholder, Bryan Zwan. Digital, a maker of fiber-optic testing equipment, owes Optel about $25.3-million in principal and $1.8-million in accrued interest. The amount was payable in full July 31, but Optel extended the due date on the principal to December 2005 and on the interest to one year after the debt restructuring is complete. Optel also said it will lend Digital $1.7-million more.
CSFB TO PAY $1-MILLION: Credit Suisse First Boston agreed to pay a $1-million penalty and accept a censure from the Securities and Exchange Commission for failure to supervise a Miami broker who misappropriated more than $8-million from customers. The SEC said broker R. Christopher Hanna took the money from 1997 to 2001 and kept at least $3.2-million of it. He was working for Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, which was later bought by Credit Suisse First Boston.
GRIFFIN TO LEAD HOTELIERS: The Florida Hotel & Motel Association has named Edwin Griffin Jr., former CEO of Meeting Planners International, as its next CEO. He will replace Tom Waits, who is retiring after 25 years as chief of the statewide trade group.
GLAXO TO SUMMARIZE REPORTS: GlaxoSmithKline agreed Thursday to release all findings about its drugs to settle a lawsuit brought by New York in June that accused the pharmaceutical giant of hiding negative studies on Paxil, an antidepressant suspected of causing suicidal tendencies in children. GlaxoSmithKline will put summaries on its Web site of all its studies since December 2000. The company also agreed to pay $2.5-million to the state.
PHARMACIES SUE DRUGMAKERS: Nineteen California pharmacies sued the world's largest pharmaceutical companies Thursday in state court in Oakland, accusing them of conspiring to inflate U.S. drug prices. The pharmacies accuse the 15 drugmakers of inflating U.S. prices while barring pharmacies from buying the drugs for less outside the country. "We are being charged higher prices than foreigners are being charged," said Joseph Alioto, attorney for the pharmacies.
ARRESTS NOTED IN WEB SCAMS: A summerlong effort targeting Internet crime has resulted in dozens of arrests and convictions on charges including use of "spam" e-mail to steal credit card numbers, computer hacking and online fraud, Justice Department officials said Thursday. The suspects were identified during more than 160 federal investigations into a variety of Internet crimes that victimized about 150,000 people and caused an estimated $215-million in losses, the department said. The initiative began June 1 and ended Thursday.
MORE HEATHROW FLIGHTS CANCELED: British Airways canceled more flights Thursday, marking the fourth straight day of disruptions caused by staff shortages and technical difficulties. The airline scrapped a flight from Baltimore to Heathrow Airport and round trips from Heathrow to Amsterdam, Oslo and Zurich. The airline has canceled almost 90 European and U.S. flights in the past three days.
CITIGROUP SUED OVER ENRON: The Bank of New York has filed a lawsuit on behalf of several investment trusts that accuses Citibank and its parent company of a "massive scheme of deception" designed to hide the failing finances of bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp. while making billions of dollars for itself. The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan, does not specify how much the plaintiffs seek, but it states the investors want to at least recoup their investments, which would be as much as $2.4-billion. Court papers say Citibank knew the Houston energy giant's growth in the 1990s was "largely fictional" and its cash flow was much less - and its debt much larger - than what was publicly reported.
ACCOUNTING INSPECTORS FIND ERRORS: The first inspections of the Big Four accounting firms by the board overseeing the industry turned up significant problems in their audits of companies' books and quality control, but the findings don't constitute a "broad negative assessment," an official said Thursday. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, established by Congress amid the wave of corporate scandals to shore up investor confidence, released public versions of reports on its limited inspections of the firms. Other material remained confidential and was provided to the firms, which were given a year to correct the problems.
WORKERS' HEALTH COSTS TO RISE: Employers are facing continued double-digit increases in health care costs in 2005 and likely will require their workers to pay an even greater share of the bill, according to a new survey of more than 900 firms. The survey, released Thursday by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, found that employers expect health care costs to rise 12.9 percent on average next year if they leave benefits unchanged. But companies that participated in the survey, both those that buy insurance and firms that are self-insured, are only budgeting an average increase of 9.6 percent in their health care spending.
SEARS CANADA FIRES CHIEF: Sears Canada fired chairman and CEO Mark Cohen on Thursday over what it characterized as "strategic differences" and enlisted Glenn Richter, CFO of parent company Sears, Roebuck and Co., as chairman. Cohen, whose CEO duties were assigned to Sears Canada executive Brent Hollister, had been in charge of the Canadian business since 2001. Sears said in a brief statement that Cohen's contract "has been terminated by the board as a result of strategic differences over the future direction of the business."
ROYAL AHOLD CHAIRMAN STEPS ASIDE: Karel Vuursteen, former CEO of Heineken NV, will resign as chairman of the supervisory boards of Royal Ahold NV and Randstad Holding NV for unspecified reasons. Vuursteen, 63, will resign from Randstad, the world's No. 4 provider of temporary workers, immediately, while at Ahold, the Dutch supermarket operator, Vuursteen will remain a member of the board until next year. Vuursteen, whose tenure as CEO of Heineken ended in 2002, has said he planned to give up some of his board seats to adhere to proposals from a committee aimed at reforming the way Dutch companies are run.
