Articles by Jonathan Stempel

Supreme Court Rejects ‘Pharma Bro’ Shkreli’s Appeal of $64.6 Million Penalty

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear former pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli’s challenge to a $64.6 million financial penalty imposed by a judge after he raised a lifesaving drug’s price by more than 4,000%. The justices turned …

US DOJ Charges British Man Over ‘Hack-to-Trade’ Scheme

A British man has been arrested and charged by U.S. authorities with hacking into the computers of five companies to obtain details about their expected earnings, and making $3.75 million of illegal profit by trading before results were released. The …

Judge Dismisses Shareholder Lawsuit Against Tesla, Musk Over Self-Driving Promises

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk on Monday won the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding shareholders by overstating the effectiveness and safety of the automaker’s self-driving technology in order to boost its stock price. U.S. District Judge …

Judge Rules eBay Not Liable for Selling Harmful Products

A federal judge dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing eBay of violating environmental laws by allowing the sale of hundreds of thousands of harmful products on its platform, including pesticides and devices to evade motor vehicle pollution controls. …

American Eagle Outfitters Sues Amazon for Infringing ‘Aerie’ Trademarks

American Eagle Outfitters sued Amazon.com on Wednesday, accusing it of intentionally infringing the clothing and accessories retailer’s “Aerie” and “Offline by Aerie” trademarks by directing customers to knock-off merchandise. In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, American Eagle said …

SEC Intends to Seek Sanctions Against Elon Musk in Twitter Probe

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday it intends to seek sanctions against Elon Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered testimony for the regulator’s probe into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter. In a filing in …

Big Oil Companies Defeat Consumer Lawsuit Over Production, Prices

Several oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Chevron defeated an appeal on Monday by consumers who accused them of colluding with former U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut oil production, boosting prices at the pump. In …

Walgreens Paying $106.8 Million to Settle Prescription Billing Fraud Charges

Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to pay $106.8 million to settle charges it fraudulently billed the U.S. government for prescriptions that were never dispensed, the Department of Justice said on Friday. The Justice Department said Walgreens violated the federal False Claims …

23andMe Settles Data Breach Lawsuit for $30 Million

23andMe will pay $30 million and provide three years of security monitoring to settle a lawsuit accusing the genetics testing company of failing to protect the privacy of 6.9 million customers whose personal information was exposed in a data breach …

Buffett’s Insurance Leader Ajit Jain Sells Large Part of Berkshire Stake

Ajit Jain, the longtime top insurance executive at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N, sold more than half of his Class A shares in the conglomerate this week. According to a Wednesday night regulatory filing, the 73-year-old Jain sold 200 Berkshire …