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MLB sues Florida clinic for doping its players

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:52:00 +0000

MIAMI (AP) — Major League Baseball on Friday sued a now-shuttered South Florida clinic and its operators, accusing them of scheming to provide banned performance-enhancing drugs to players in violation of their contracts.

The lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court seeks unspecified damages from Coral Gables anti-aging clinic Biogenesis of America and its operator, Anthony Bosch. Several other Bosch associates are named in the lawsuit. A phone message left for a Bosch representative wasn't immediately returned, and associates have previously said Anthony Bosch is out of the country.

MLB contends the clinic's operators solicited players to use banned substances knowing that would violate their contracts, specifically the drug prevention and treatment program that became effective in 2003. That program, part of baseball's collective bargaining agreement with players, includes a list of banned substances, lays out penalties for violations and imposes testing requirements.

Because of the alleged conspiracy, the lawsuit contends MLB has suffered "costs of investigation, loss of goodwill, loss of revenue and profits and injury to its reputation, image, strategic advantage and fan relationships," attorneys Allen Weitzman and Matthew Menchel wrote in the complaint.

Gulf businesses weigh whether to sue or settle

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:57:00 +0000

Alabama seafood market owner David Scott faces a difficult decision as he tries to rejuvenate his business after the Gulf oil spill: He can accept a piece of BP's $20 billion claims fund -- relatively fast, easy money -- or sue the oil giant for a bigger payday, wait years and risk ending up with nothing.

Thousands of business owners, fishermen and others along the Gulf Coast are confronting a similar conundrum. Those who accept a check for their long-term losses from the victims' compensation fund will have to give up their right to sue BP.

Scott, who runs Destin Connections Seafood Market in Montgomery, Ala., said business was off more than $49,000 in May and June compared with the year before. He said he is still weighing his options and waiting to see what BP is willing to offer.

"At this point, we've got to give BP a chance to do what they said they were going to do," he said. "I can prove my loss. Sales were just way off, and I couldn't get what I needed, and people weren't coming in to buy either."

Others fear that it could take years for the extent of the economic blow to be known, making it difficult to figure out whether a payout negotiated now will make them whole.

BP public relations strategy no surprise — to lawyers

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:50:00 +0000

To a nation frustrated by the Gulf oil spill, BP's attempts at damage control have sometimes been infuriatingly vague. But from a legal standpoint, that's exactly the point.

With the company facing more than 200 civil lawsuits and the specter of a Justice Department investigation, saying the wrong thing could expose BP to millions of dollars in damages or even criminal charges for its executives.

Inside the company, experts believe, there is a natural tension between public relations people who want BP to project a positive image and lawyers who don't want to be boxed into a corner.

It's a balancing act with billions of dollars -- perhaps even BP's survival -- at stake.

"BP must weigh the cost of admitting things that could be used against it later against the cost now of bad publicity," said Michael Siegel, a University of Florida law professor and former federal prosecutor.

In an effort to clean up its image, the company Wednesday put Bob Dudley, its Mississippi-bred managing director, in charge of the spill response. He replaces CEO Tony Hayward, whose gaffes, notably that he'd "like my life back," have angered Americans.

Most Gulf judges have big oil ties

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:05:00 +0000

More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.

Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean -- and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.

Those three companies are named as defendants in virtually all of the 150-plus lawsuits seeking damages, mainly for economic losses in the fishing, seafood, tourism and related industries, that have been filed over the growing oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Attorneys for the companies and those suing them are pushing for consolidation of the cases in one court, with BP recommending Texas and others advocating for Louisiana and other states.

Attorney seeks to combine 100-plus oil lawsuits

Wed, 19 May 2010 16:46:00 +0000

More than 100 lawsuits filed against BP and other companies involved in the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be combined quickly in a single federal court to avoid legal chaos and delay payment of billions of dollars in damages, an attorney said Wednesday.

Louisiana lawyer Daniel Becnel asked a federal judicial panel in Washington state to order the lawsuits pending in five Gulf Coast states be centralized in New Orleans or a federal court elsewhere in Louisiana, the state so far hit hardest by the spill. There are currently about 130 lawsuits, although that list grows each day.

The panel, formally known as the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, earlier this month said it would not decide on consolidation of oil spill cases until July, but Becnel wants them to reconsider that decision.

Meanwhile, at least eight federal judges have already held hearings on oil spill cases in Louisiana and Texas, with some having to step aside because of conflicts such as family ownership of company stock.

At the same time, environmental groups have sued the federal government, claiming lax regulations and special exemptions contributed to the BP PLC spill and are an ongoing threat for future offshore drilling.

BP hopes tube will siphon Gulf oil to tanker

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:20:00 +0000

Undersea robots tried to thread a small tube into the jagged pipe that is pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico early Friday in BP's latest attempt to cut down on the spill from a blown-out well that has pumped out more than 4 million gallons of crude.

The company was trying to move the 6-inch tube into the leaking 21-inch pipe, known as the riser. The smaller tube will be surrounded by a stopper to keep oil from leaking into the sea, which could be in place later Friday, BP said. The plan is for the tube to siphon the oil to a tanker at the surface.

Since an April 20 drilling rig explosion set off the catastrophic spill, BP PLC has tried several ideas to plug the leak that is spewing at least 210,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf a day. The size of the undulating spill was about 3,650 square miles, or the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, said Hans Graber, director of the University of Miami's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing.

In the fateful hours before the Deepwater Horizon exploded about 50 miles off the Louisiana shore, a safety test was supposedly performed to detect if explosive gas was leaking from the mile-deep well.

Lawyers: Rig workers were asked to deny injury

Tue, 11 May 2010 18:30:00 +0000

Workers aboard an exploding offshore drilling platform were told to sign statements denying they were hurt or witnessed the blast that rocked the rig, killed 11 and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the ocean, their attorneys said Tuesday.

Survivors floated for hours in life boats in the Gulf of Mexico following the disaster on the Deepwater Horizon, and were greeted by company officials onshore asking them to sign statements that they had no "first hand or personal knowledge" of the incident, attorneys said.

"These men are told they have to sign these statements or they can't go home," said Tony Buzbee, a Houston-based attorney for 10 Transocean workers. "I think it's pretty callous, but I'm not surprised by it."

Guy Cantwell, a spokesman for rig owner Transocean Ltd., refused to answer whether Transocean or any company attached to the firm had supplied the statement, claiming it was inappropriate to comment on litigation.

"Our focus has been on the crewmembers and their families, working with all parties in the response efforts and conducting a Transocean investigation into the incident," he said Monday.

Tax evader who blamed Holocaust gets 10 months

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:10:00 +0000

A tax evader was sentenced Friday to 10 months in federal prison after claiming his Jewish parents' experience fleeing the Nazi Holocaust drove him to compulsively hide more than $10 million in secret accounts at Swiss bank UBS AG and other offshore tax havens.

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan imposed the longest sentence to date for a UBS client against 65-year-old Jack Barouh, even after giving him credit for cooperating in the ongoing investigation and belatedly attempting to come clean with the Internal Revenue Service.

Barouh pleaded guilty in February, the latest in a string of convictions won by the Justice Department after UBS last year admitted orchestrating tax evasion among rich U.S. clients and paid a $780 million fine. UBS also separately agreed to turn over more than 4,450 names of wealthy Americans suspected of dodging taxes through secret UBS accounts.

Jordan noted that Barouh has sought psychiatric help for the Holocaust compulsion, which his attorney described as the desire to "hide and hoard" assets to guard against a potential repeat of the Nazi attempt to exterminate Jews during World War II. After Barouh's family fled Austria, they settled in Bogota, Colombia, where Barouh was born.

It’s Suge Knight vs. Kanye in Fla. courtroom

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:08:00 +0000

A rap music smackdown looms in a federal courtroom between Marion "Suge" Knight and Kanye West over a shooting at a star-studded Miami Beach party.

Knight was shot in the right leg in August 2005 by a still-unknown assailant at the Shore Club. West was hosting the party in advance of the MTV Video Music Awards. No arrests were ever made.

More than four years later, Knight is claiming in a lawsuit that West and the Shore Club's owners failed to provide adequate security. Knight is seeking more than $1 million, including a 15-carat diamond earring he lost in the chaos.

West's attorney did not respond to a request for comment. West and the Shore Club ownership deny Knight's claims of negligence in court papers.

A Miami trial date is set for Dec. 6.

U.S. to Haitians: Don’t come here

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:06:00 +0000

U.S. authorities are readying for a potential influx of Haitians seeking to escape their earthquake-wracked nation, even though the policy for migrants remains the same: with few exceptions, they will go back.

So far, fears of a mass migration have yet to materialize. However, conditions in Haiti become more dire each day and U.S. officials don't want to be caught off guard.

Between 250 and 400 immigration detainees are being moved from South Florida's main detention center to clear space for any Haitians who manage to reach U.S. shores, according to the Homeland Security Department. The Navy base at Guantanamo Bay could house migrants temporarily -- far from suspected terrorists also being held there -- and a Catholic church is working on a plan to accept Haitian orphans.

Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith said Monday that orphans who have ties to the U.S. -- such as a family member already living here -- and Haitians evacuated for medical reasons are among those who can gain special permission to remain in the U.S.

The mass migration plan, known as "Operation Vigilant Sentry," was put in place in 2003 because of previous experiences with Caribbean migrations, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, spokesman for the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast that would manage any Haitian influx.