Commercial Law

The unraveling of a $50-billion dollar Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff has brought a new magnitude to an old but hardy scam. Here's a look at how Ponzi schemes work.

In the current environment, factors such as a shortfall in assets, lack of debtor-in-possession financing and absence of potential buyers may make liquidation the only recourse in bankruptcy. With fewer dollars to satisfy claims, creditors may resort to litigation, alleging fraud as a means for obtaining recoveries. This could lead to additional exposures for directors and officers at companies facing bankruptcy.

The first part of this article, which appeared in the December 2008 Issue, discussed cases that address the preference for stability over sense, mitigation and interpretation of leases. The cases in Part Two herein address enforcement and violations.

Today, landlords are particularly worried about tenant bankruptcies. True, this has always been a concern for commercial landlords, but previously their focus may have centered on smaller, start-up businesses rather than the large anchor tenants that are currently seen knocking on the bankruptcy court's door.

There are several different types of rent relief, ranging from an all inclusive "gross" rent, to a temporary reduction in base rent, or converting the economic terms of the lease from fixed rent payments to a "percent in lieu" deal, where the tenant's rental obligation is based on a percentage of gross sales generated at the premises. This article describes the options.

Eli Lilly & Co. will pay a combined $1.42 billion, including the largest criminal fine in history ' $515 million ' to settle charges that it illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa for off-label use, federal prosecutors announced on Jan. 15.

This article explores a social networking site user's right to privacy, an adversary's right to obtain information from that site, and the admissibility of the information.

In today's BlackBerry-driven, online business world, losing one's e-mail ' and access to other online forms of communication ' has to be worse than REM's fear of losing one's religion. Yet that is just the fate that may await our next President, who has already publicly confessed (on national television, no less, though you can certainly find the story on the Internet) his steadfast inability to shake his smoking addiction under the stress of a Presidential campaign.