Associated Press: “One casualty of the new health care law may be paid coverage for families of people who work for small businesses. Insurance companies have already warned small business customers that premiums could rise 20 percent or more in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act.”
Arizona Republic: “Frank Becerra Campos, 66, of San Diego, and two other men ran advance-fee mortgage-rescue companies that collected at least $669,743 in up-front fees from more than 260 homeowners ‘in exchange for loan modification services they utterly failed to provide,’ according to court documents. . . . Under two business names, the men charged up-front fees ranging from $2,500 to $4,500 and promised homeowners their mortgage principal balance and monthly payments would be reduced by about 25 percent, a news release by federal prosecutors said. Court documents said, ‘Not a single homeowner received a reduction in the principal balance on their mortgage loan’.”
Politico: “Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer mocked the Obama administration’s assertion Saturday that the border is more secure than ever. ‘It’s Jay Leno comedy every other week,’ she told POLITICO”
Rural/Metro Corp., a Scottsdale-based company that provides fire and ambulance services for hire in 21 states, filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. Lenders will loan the company $75 million and it will get additional cash of $135 million during its reorganization. Rural/Metro was acquired by Warburg Pincus for approximately $438 million in 2011.
Azcentral.com: “A federal appeals court has rebuffed a bid by the four managers of a bankrupt Arizona company to escape paying a $3.7 million verdict for securities fraud. . . . The judges also called it ‘undisputed’ that all four knew they were committing fraud by lying to investors about the nature of what they were getting. . . . The Arizona Corporation Commission earlier this year ordered Tom Hirsch, Harish Shah, and Howard and Berta ‘Bunny’ Walder, along with an affiliated entity, to pay $189.8 million in restitution and more than $4.6 million in administrative penalties for defrauding investors.”
The lawsuit arises from $190 million in investments made by an Arizona company called Radical Bunny, LLC, into a failed company called Mortgages, Ltd.
Bottom Line: If you offer to sell or sell a security, you must comply with federal and state securities laws or a court will find you liable to repay the losses suffered by the investors. See an experienced securities lawyer before you offer or sell a security such as stock or membership interests in a limited liability company when people are investing substantial amounts of money.