Executives Suits

Abbey Healthcare Group Inc. charges in legal documents that its former president defrauded the Costa Mesa company, wasn't entitled to $1.2 million in severance pay and wrongly pocketed $67,000 in expense money three days before his Jan. 27 firing. The home health care company's assertions are part of a counterclaim against Victor M.G. Chaltiel, who had sued the company over his dismissal. The case is pending before an arbitrator in Los Angeles.

For several days, Occidental Petroleum Corp. has been roiled by speculation that its CEO search was really a power play by Executive Chairman Ray Irani to push out his onetime protege, Chief Executive Stephen Chazen. On Monday the Westwood company's board of directors took the unusual step of saying there is "no fight at the top" of the oil and gas producer, but made clear that the two men who have run Occidental for the last decade were on their way out in one way or another. The board's statement, billed as unanimous, went on to say that the 78-year-old Irani played no role in the February decision by independent directors to identify a successor for Chazen, 66. Chazen acknowledged Monday that he didn't ask to leave Occidental but said, "I respect the board's decision to seek a new generation of leadership.

Lopez Sues GM Over Stolen-Documents Accusation: A former General Motors executive who defected to Volkswagen is suing the U.S. car maker for libel over accusations that he stole GM documents, Volkswagen said. General Motors Corp. said last week that it filed a criminal complaint in Germany against Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, the company's former purchasing chief. Volkswagen said the charges were not true.

Considering the powerful audience that New York trio Fun. performed for last month, its set during next week's Grammys telecast must feel like a house party gig. "When President Obama asks you to play, there's no way you can say no," said Nate Ruess, the group's singer, about Fun.'s set at the president's inaugural ball in Washington, D.C. "Just before we met him I had to keep reminding myself, 'Don't call him Obama!' I wound up going with 'Mr. President' instead. " Those are the kinds of welcome new quandaries now facing Ruess and his band.

Comsat Corp. said that it sued its former chief executive, Bruce Crockett, alleging a scheme linking him to businessman Herbert Denton and two companies that proposed a fight for control of Comsat. Bethesda, Md.-based Comsat, a global provider of communications services and products, is seeking more than $20 million in damages and injunctive relief from the defendants. The defendants include Providence Capital Inc. and Wyser-Pratte Inc. and a number of unidentified individuals.

Julian Robertson Jr., one of the nation's biggest hedge-fund managers, is suing New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos. for $1 billion over an allegedly defamatory profile in BusinessWeek. Robertson, chairman of Tiger Management Corp., also based in New York, filed papers in a New York state court accusing BusinessWeek's publisher, McGraw-Hill, reporter Gary Weiss and Editor in Chief Stephen Shepard of making "false and defamatory statements" in the weekly magazine's April 1, 1996, edition.

Health Net Chairman Roger Greaves and five other top executives with the big health maintenance organization are suing the state Department of Corporations for blocking their company's plan to award Greaves and 28 other executives $65 million in stock incentives.

Executives Indicted Over Baby Products: Some of the Luv N' Care brand pacifiers and rattles broke too easily, creating pieces that could choke a baby, while others had protruding pieces that a child might choke on, according to the criminal indictment. Nouri Edward Hakim, his brother Joseph H. Hakim and their companies are charged with violating the federal Hazardous Substances Act. The companies are Luv N' Care Ltd., Luv N' Care International Inc. and Panda Knits Inc.

Another former top executive of Baldwin Builders has begun legal wranglings with the beleaguered Newport Beach home builder. Former Orange County division President Geoff Fearns, who resigned from the company in November, has filed an arbitration action against Baldwin. The action accuses the company's owners of breach of contract, forced resignation and fraud.

Escalating a long-running international dispute over purloined trade secrets, General Motors Corp. on Friday sued its former purchasing czar and the chairman of Volkswagen for allegedly conspiring to steal vital vehicle product and pricing data. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, breathes fresh life into a three-year battle that began in 1993 when the big German auto maker lured Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua away from Detroit for a top job with VW in Wolfsburg, Germany.

During his more than three decades in real estate David Pogue played many roles, but environmental expert was never one of them. That didn't stop his company, Los Angeles real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis, from naming him the company guru of all things eco-friendly nearly two years ago. Pogue suddenly found himself in charge of making the firm and its projects more energy efficient and environmentally conscious, an abrupt switch from his previous...

In acquiring legendary Universal Pictures, Comcast Corp. would make its Hollywood debut during a particularly turbulent time for the movie business. Not only are all studios grappling with declining DVD sales and shifting consumer habits in entertainment, but Universal is also struggling to correct course from a prolonged box-office slump, runaway production costs and turmoil in the executive suites. Comcast wouldn't be able to exert much influence over the operations of Universal until well into next year after its merger with NBC Universal is finalized.

Betting against your company's stock can be a losing proposition, two former vice presidents at Countrywide Financial Corp. learned Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the duo in Los Angeles federal court, alleging that they used inside knowledge of an upcoming earnings report to make money when the mortgage company's stock fell in 2004.

New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer on Thursday filed a civil suit against American International Group Inc., accusing the nation's largest insurance company and two former top executives of using "deception and fraud" to boost the company's stock price. The suit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan accused AIG's former chief executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, and former chief financial officer, Howard I.

The management training seminar at Ajinomoto Co. was nothing out of the ordinary until the participants were directed to a tiny house on the food company's campus here. There they took turns sitting on a tatami mat as a tea master, dressed in a red kimono, served them green tea. It wasn't break time. It was a crucial part of the program: to teach foreign managers about Japanese ways and to groom non-Japanese for senior management.

French insurer MAAF defaulted in a civil lawsuit in which it was accused of defrauding the state of California of billions of dollars in the purchase of Executive Life Insurance Co., spokesmen for both sides said. Norman Williams, a spokesman for the California Department of Insurance, said the state planned to ask a jury to order MAAF to pay a share of $3.7 billion in damages claimed in the suit, which also targets the French government and French bank Credit Lyonnais.

As Vice President George Bush will no doubt remind voters five or six times a day from now to November, the current expansion is the longest peacetime episode in our economic history. The 1961-69 upswing was propelled after mid-1965 by rising expenditures on the Vietnam War. Good news for average Americans? Hardly.