Free Republic

When the news was just coming out that Sarah Palin was going to speak before the CLSA. I was asking Will Sarah Palin Punk the Living Borat out of the CLSA?Well a spokesman (Jonathan Slone) has come out and put blame on Palin for the news black-out. There are other sites like Conservatives 4 Palin who are peddling the Breitbart version of Slone's remarks, but the bottom line on the story is the CLSA didn't have to say what Palin said. Period. These sites had better ask, what did Sarah say if there is no press and who will leak...

The state Republican Party has launched a television ad attacking state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi for mishandling the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Co. The ad targeting Garamendi, a Democrat running against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, for lieutenant governor, began running Aug. 28 in the Sacramento and Los Angeles media markets. (snip) ANALYSIS: The GOP advertisement attempts to weaken Garamendi, a former gubernatorial candidate and statewide officeholder, by exploiting what is perhaps his greatest political vulnerability. Garamendi has long been dogged by criticism for allegedly mishandling the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Co. In 1991,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out a $700 million punitive damages award won by the state of California in a lawsuit stemming from the takeover of failed insurer Executive Life by French investors. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz concluded Tuesday that the state's Department of Insurance was not entitled to receive the $700 million awarded by jurors in July as part of their judgment against French company Artemis SA, according to a summary of the order posted on the court's Web site. "This order addresses only the question of whether plaintiff (Insurance Commissioner) John...

Executive Life Insurance policyholders have feuded with state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi over his 1991 seizure and resale of the company. They may find themselves in the same leaky boat, however, as the long-running financial, legal, diplomatic and political wrangle over billions of dollars in insurer assets nears a climax. Thousands of policyholders, many of them retirees and disabled who are dependent on income from annuities, are increasingly unlikely to receive a substantial recovery from the French businessmen who acquired Executive Life and its fat portfolio of junk bonds. And that means Garamendi is increasingly unlikely to get political relief...

The state's giveaway sale of Executive Life and the insurer's fat portfolio of junk bonds is the gift that keeps on giving - political headaches, that is. State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who seized the troubled insurer in 1991 and then approved its sale, desperately wants to deflect the onus for the multibillion-dollar debacle that left tens of thousands of disabled and retired annuitants twisting in the wind. But try as he might to shift the burden onto the French buyers, it appears they will at most cede only a tiny fraction of their huge profits from the transaction. A...

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge urged both sides to resolve their differences after a jury found that a French company owned by billionaire Francois Pinault conspired to defraud California regulators as part of a scheme to take over failed insurer Executive Life. However, while ruling on the state's lawsuit, the jury cleared Pinault himself of any involvement in the scheme. Jurors also considered three allegations that the firm, Artemis SA, had caused harm to Executive Life policyholders. They found in favor of the defense on two of those counts. The rulings carried no immediate financial judgments. U.S. District Judge...

Even after sitting through eight weeks of complex testimony — some of it in French — the jury in the Executive Life Insurance Co. trial has been in no hurry to go home. Defying some early predictions of a quick verdict in the civil case, which pits state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi against one of the richest men in France, the jury has been deliberating since April 18 and has given little indication that a decision is imminent. In what could be a sign that judicial patience may be getting a bit strained, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz told...

LOS ANGELES, Jan 20 (Reuters) - French bank Credit Lyonnais and a French government agency pleaded guilty on Tuesday to U.S. felony charges stemming from the takeover of a failed California insurer as part of a $772 million settlement reached last month. Credit Lyonnais, which is now owned by bigger rival Credit Agricole SA. (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) , pleaded guilty to misleading U.S. banking regulators about the extent of its interest in companies that took over the failed Executive Life Insurance Co. The guilty plea will be used in a $3 billion civil case brought by the insurer’s 300,000...

PARIS (AFP) - France has struck a draft deal with US authorities under which French parties would pay 770 million dollars to settle a long-simmering row over the contested purchase of a US insurer by a French bank. Finance Minister Francis Mer said Thursday an out-of-court settlement was in sight covering the purchase of failed California insurance company Executive Life by Credit Lyonnais bank a decade ago, a transaction that US authorities say was illegal. He said on RTL radio that an "agreement in principle" had been reached that should "be finalized by Monday." US sources close to the matter...

Talks collapsed over Mr Pinault's possible cooperation US prosecutors are to pursue a criminal probe into French bank Credit Lyonnais' purchase of insurer Executive Life. Prosecutors allege that the bank used illegal front companies to take over Executive Life in 1991. The announcement of an investigation follows a failure of the French and US Governments to agree a settlement. A successful prosecution could result in Credit Lyonnais losing its valuable US banking licence, as well as possible sanctions against individuals. At the centre of the case is French tycoon Francois Pinault, who allegedly looked after Executive Life's assets in...