Page 5 - Celeste Bott News Today

Two property developers conspired with the president of a now-shuttered Chicago bank to embezzle millions in funds through purported real estate loans they had no intention of paying back and instead used the money for their own personal expenses, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury on Monday.

The Seventh Circuit kicked off its new term Thursday with arguments from two former Merrill Lynch traders convicted of a scheme to submit thousands of false orders on gold and silver futures who contend their wire fraud convictions violated their due process because the public was not given fair notice the practice was criminal.

The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday threw out a $57 million attorney fee award in a $181 million deal for chicken buyers in sprawling antitrust litigation, saying that the district court failed to consider bids made by class counsel in auctions in other cases and fee awards in different circuits.

An Illinois attorney has filed a countersuit in an employee benefit fund administrator's federal benefits litigation alleging he failed to disclose conflicts of interest and recommended unlawful transactions that triggered a federal investigation, arguing the fund and its managers were to blame for its mismanagement.

An Illinois federal judge has dismissed a named plaintiff's claim in a suit brought by a proposed class of F-150 drivers alleging that Ford Motor Co. installed faulty transmissions in their vehicles, sanctioning him for spoliation of evidence for trading in his truck with no notice to Ford, nearly two years into the litigation.

State and federal courts have handed down rulings in Illinois cases so far this year that have altered the legal landscape for biometric privacy claims in the state, opened up an area of uncertainty for False Claims Act litigants and upheld a state statute tacking 6% prejudgment interest onto personal injury and wrongful death verdicts.

Former USA Volleyball coach Rick Butler, his wife and the youth volleyball club they ran have sued Edelson PC and the mother of a player who led an unsuccessful class action accusing the coach of failing to disclose sex abuse allegations, claiming in Illinois state court that they knew the core allegations of the lawsuit were false and accusing them of "improper and devious litigation tactics."

A Seventh Circuit panel has held that state workers challenging COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by various Illinois agencies do not have standing to dispute an amendment that a trial court judge said only clarified an existing health care law, saying the law couldn't have injured the plaintiffs if it didn't "change their substantive rights and obligations."

The U.S. Department of Labor has asked an Illinois federal judge to prevent trustees from entirely draining a multi-employer benefit fund — after the agency accused them of misappropriating more than $2.8 million in assets and seemingly approving "gargantuan" legal fees charged by Baker Botts LLP.

An Illinois federal judge warned BNSF Railway on Friday that if he favors its bid for a new damages trial and throws out the $228 million verdict in the first case under Illinois' biometric privacy law to go before a jury last year, evidence it persuaded him to exclude from the first go-round on the company's finances could come into play.