What Happened Last week, the chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., India's fourth largest information technology company, admitted to a stunning fraud. Fraudulent entries in the company's financial statements totaled in excess of US$ 1 billion, as compared to the actual financial state of the company. In response to the fraud, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd., a local affiliate of Bank of America Corp ...
Attorneys and Government Policy Advisors in Dykema's Infrastructure and Project Finance Practice Area, seek to keep our clients and contacts abreast of pending legislation, new developments and other topics. Our intent is to provide you with timely, relevant, and useful information that will help you with your business goals ...
Recently, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced a new program to facilitate the issuance of shortterm commercial paper (“CP”) by eligible issuers. The program was launched on Monday, October 27, 2008. The program is being administered by a new special purpose financing vehicle (“SPV”) that is referred to as the Commercial Paper Financing Facility, or “CPFF ...
A few years ago, Rick Rein got a call from a Chicago-area bank that had lost $1 million to a con artist who cashed a fake check that looked so authentic it easily passed through the bank's computer system. The fraudster wired the money to an obscure bank in Florida, then out of the country before the bank realized a month later the check was phony. Mr ...
Part I of a III Part Primer: An Introduction This newsletter is the first of a three part report prepared for our public finance clients with respect to “public private partnerships.” Also known as “PPP” or “P3” projects, there is an increasing amount of press regarding these projects, some of which is contradictory and some of which is just plain confusing ...
The United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. et al. is one of the most important securities law decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in many years. It establishes new guidelines in cases where investors seek to hold third parties (such as vendors, as well as attorneys or accountants) liable for participating in securities fraud ...
CMS recently released new regulations intended to curb the ability of a physician to earn a profit on either the technical component (TC) or professional component (PC) of tests ordered by the physician, but performed by another party. The regulation is effective January 1, 2008 and applies to all Medicare-covered diagnostic tests including imaging and anatomic pathology, but excluding clinical laboratory tests ...
Dykema attorneys were recently involved in an interesting infrastructure project finance transaction relating to the rehabilitation of a portion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Dykema represented the lender in this transaction. To complete the transaction, a fairly unusual structure had to evolve ...
It is generally accepted that mentoring is important to the retention and professional development of attorneys – particularly minority attorneys. However, despite touting their mentoring programs, it appears that few, if any, law firms and corporations “get it right.” Assigning a mentor often results in a few lunches between two people who may or may not have anything in common ...
Long before the creation of limited liability companies, the best practice for companies or individuals that operated multiple distinct businesses or held multiple significant assets, such as real estate, was to segregate each distinct business or asset into a separate entity so that the liabilities of one of the businesses or assets would not affect the other businesses or assets ...
Respondents to Dykema's 2006 M&A survey generally maintain a positive outlook on the future of the U.S. mergers and acquisitions market. Responses were received from both company executives and their outside advisors. Survey respondents are looking toward strategic buyers as an increased presence in the coming year, but also forecast significant involvement by financial and foreign buyers ...
There are a number of legal mechanisms that can improve the economics and liability of industrial and commercial development projects for developers willing to take advantage of them. This article will explore some of the incentives available to developers that will assist in maximizing profits and freeing-up capital that would otherwise be devoted to conventional construction or permanent loan financing. 1. Tax Incremental Financing Districts (“TIF’s”) ...
Lessons in Using Employee Non-Compete Agreements An increasing number of companies are requiring their employees (new and existing) to sign so-called “non-compete” agreements. Many of these agreements prohibit employees from working for their employer’s competitors for a period of time after the termination of employment. Some are less restrictive—prohibiting former employees from performing certain duties or dealing with the former employer’s customers ...
The considerable publicity surrounding the new Bankruptcy Act has focused on the impact of the legislation on individuals seeking bankruptcy relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code.1 There are also important changes that will have a significant impact on business bankruptcy cases. The new provisions will require suppliers, lenders, debtors, landlords and other constituents to rethink strategies that have previously been routinely employed in business bankruptcy cases ...
Recently, in Clark v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that an employee’s lawsuit for age discrimination under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) was timebarred because of the six-month limitations period contained in the employee’s job application. The court upheld the contractual limitations period at issue even though the ELCRA explicitly provided that an individual has three years to bring a claim under that statute ...
This quarterly newsletter summarizes some of the recent administrative actions that will go into effect this year and which will impact funds and their advisers, beginning with the EDGAR requirements that mutual funds and separate account issuers designate new codes for each series and class when making their EDGAR filings ...
ALERT Hospital May Be Excluded For Physician Recruiting On May 8, 2006 the OIG announced that it intends to exclude San Diego-based Alvarado Hospital from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and all other federal health care programs because of payments the Hospital made under relocation agreements involving placement of newly-recruited physicians in established physician practices ...
SEC and PCAOB To Take Action on Section 404 Internal Controls Reporting Matters The SEC recently announced a series of actions it and the PCAOB intend to take to improve the implementation of the internal control reporting requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These actions include: • Providing Guidance for Companies ...
EDGAR Identifiers for Series and Classes Last July, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to Regulation S-T to require mutual funds and insurance company separate accounts issuing variable annuity contracts or variable life insurance products to obtain identifiers and electronically identify in their filings made through the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system to which of their series or classes the filing relates. See Rel. No ...
Certificate of Need Strategies for New Nursing Home Beds Special Population Beds are Re-Approved At its March 2006 meeting, the Michigan Certificate of Need (“CON”) Commission took action to re-approve several state-wide pools of nursing home beds that are set aside to serve special populations, including: Alzheimer’s Use 60 beds Hospice 30 beds Religious Use 20 beds The Commission reserved 22 special population beds on a non-specified basis for future use ...
Keeping in Shape – Trademark Protection of Product ConfigurationsThe development of unique and distinctive product configurations allows the producer of the product to achieve more bang for its marketing dollar. The consumer not only cognitively associates the manufacturer’s word mark with the product, but also its configuration. In this context, the oft cited example is the Coca-Cola bottle shape ...
