Category Archives: Business Law

Information about legal issues affecting small businesses, including big business. The latest news, videos, and discussion topics on Legal Issues involving business and money.

Blog, Business Law, International, Legal News

PROOF in Brief + Celeb Legal News Roundup + Jill Stanley

Week Ending 9.8.2017

  • A French court ruled that topless photos taken of Kate, Duchess of York were an invasion of privacy. The photos were taken back in 2012 with a long lense as Kate and William were vacationing at a private estate. Interesting timing given it’s 20 years since Lady Di’s death which many still attribute to paparazzi. (Note: charges were ultimately dropped against paps in connection with her death.)
  • Usher responds to California lawsuit filed by 3 plaintiffs alleging he may have exposed them to Herpes. In his answer, Usher denied the allegations but the singer has still not released medical evidence proving he does not have the disease  Click here to read the complaint filed against him.
  • Dallas Cowboy Ezekiel Elliott just got a little luck. A federal judge granted the NFL Players Association request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop his six-game suspension stemming from the NFL’s finding that there was “substantial evidence” that Elliott committed acts of domestic physical violence against his former girlfriend,Tiffany Thompson.
  • The Mel B/Stephen Belafonte lawsuit continues with more damaging allegations. This time about a sham marriage that Belafonte purportedly arranged so the couple’s former nanny (with whom both he and Mel B are alleged to have had sexual relations) would not be deported. Read More 
  • The family of Aaron Carter is very worried about him and the very real risk of suicide they feel may be present; they’ve had cops called to Aaron’s home several times recently. Read More
  • Fox News host, Charles Payne, will return to his show now that the Network has completed its investigation into sexual harassment claims. Payne was suspended earlier this summer pending the outcome of that investigation.

Sourced From http://proofwithjillstanley.com/proof-in-brief/

Blog, Business Law, Criminal, Immigration, International, Legal News

Turkey says U.S. indictment of former minister amounts to “coup attempt”

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said on Monday its former economy minister, indicted in the United States for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran, acted within international law and that charges against him amounted to a coup attempt through American courts.

Former minister Zafer Caglayan “has protected Turkey’s interests as Turkish economy minister, and has acted within the laws of our country and international laws while doing that,” government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said.

The charges against Caglayan were “a repetition of the December FETO coup attempt … through the American judiciary”, Bozdag said, referring to 2013 leaks about alleged government corruption which were blamed on President Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents.

Caglayan and the ex-head of a state-owned Turkish bank were charged on Wednesday with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on Tehran’s behalf.

Read Full – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-spokesman/turkey-says-u-s-indictment-of-former-minister-amounts-to-coup-attempt-idUSKCN1BM24A

Blog, Business Law, Civil Rights, Criminal, Drug Companies, International, Legal News, Organized Crime, Supreme Court

How Anti-Mafia Laws Could Bring Down Legal Pot

By Amanda Chicago Lewis

RICO laws were written to combat organized crime kingpins – but now they’re being used against state-legal marijuana businesses

Most people have strong feelings about marijuana’s distinctive dank odor. Suspicious landlords sniff for it. High-school hot-boxers roll down all the windows of their cars and drive around for hours trying to get rid of it. Mainstream candle and soap companies seek to recreate it for high-end, non-psychoactive mood settings. And now, it’s quietly becoming clear that the powerful smell of legal cannabis could become its ultimate undoing ­– the thing that causes the entire legalization experiment to disappear in a poof of smoke.

Earlier this summer, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado decided that the “noxious odors” from a pot farm could be lowering nearby property values and creating a nuisance. The decision came out of a civil suit by the farm’s neighbors under federal racketeering law, and could set a landmark precedent. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and this decision makes clear that private citizens can now circumvent state law and do what Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants but has yet to do: challenge the legitimacy of states and businesses participating in legalization. Next year, the suit will go back to district court, and unless other appeals courts issue contradictory rulings and the Supreme Court decides to take up the case, the 10th Circuit decision will stand – providing a road map for people who hate marijuana to initiate the collapse of legal weed in America.

Everything about this case is important, from its far-reaching implications to the mysterious, well-funded organization behind it. But before we get into the details, the key thing to realize here is this neighborly dispute is a microcosm for what’s wrong with America’s tangled marijuana policy: The commercialization of cannabis has had real consequences for people and places that want no involvement with the drug. Attempting, as we have, to cordon off the states and businesses and entrepreneurs and government agencies that interact with pot is delusional.

Legal weed cannot be neatly contained. Markets and odors don’t work that way. Neighbors know this. Interstate pot traffickers know this. Attorney General Jeff Sessions knows this. The question is: when will we change federal law to reflect reality?

Full Read – http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/how-anti-mafia-laws-could-bring-down-legal-pot-w499585

Blog, Business Law, Supreme Court

Warner Bros. Can’t Dodge Sylvester Stallone’s Fraud Lawsuit

Sylvester Stallone has scored an early and significant ruling in his lawsuit against Warner Bros. over profits from the 1993 science-fiction film Demolition Man. Not only has a Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejected the studio’s bid to throw out breach of contract and fraud claims, but the actor is being permitted to bring a potentially big claim that Warners’ accounting practices are likely to deceive the public, including others in Hollywood with profit participation agreements.

Through his loan-out company Rogue Marble, Stallone filed his lawsuit in April.

“The motion picture studios are notoriously greedy,” stated the complaint. “This one involves outright and obviously intentional dishonesty perpetrated against an international iconic talent. Here, WB decided it just wasn’t going to account to Rogue Marble on the Film. WB just sat on the money owed to Rogue Marble for years and told itself, without any justification, that Rogue Marble was not owed any profits.”

According to the lawsuit, Warner Bros. initially asserted that nearly $67 million was unrecouped on Demolition Man and therefore nothing was owed to Stallone, who was to get 15 to 20 percent of defined profits on the film. After being challenged, the studio sent Stallone a check for $2.82 million. The actor wasn’t satisfied.

There are many legal actions targeting “Hollywood accounting,” including the must-watch one from Frank Darabont over The Walking Dead. What makes Stallone’s case provocative — besides an A-list actor suing the same studio that distributed 2015’s Creed, which earned Stallone an Oscar nomination — is a claim of unfair business practices.

Full Read – http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-bros-cant-dodge-sylvester-stallones-fraud-lawsuit-1026520

Blog, Business Law, Criminal, Legal News

Judge Rules MGM Must Face Lawsuit Over James Bond Box Set Missing Two Bond Films

“Will the real ‘James Bond’ please stand up?”

Thus begins the decision by a Washington federal judge who on Thursday found enough puns in the extensive catalogue of James Bond films to move a lawsuit against MGM and and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment forward.

Mary Johnson is suing on behalf of herself and other completistswho insist the distributors of James Bond films were deceptive in marketing a box set purporting to include “all” of the films but missing Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). Those two films weren’t MGM films for reasons recounted in our earlier story, but are owned by MGM now.

The defendants, staring at a putative class action claiming a violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and breaches of express and implied warranty, argued that any reasonable consumer would review the box-sets’ outer packaging and then open the box-sets to review their inner contents and figure out what really was included in the Bond box set.

“At this time, the Court will Live and Let Die,” writes U.S. District Court judge Ricardo Martinez, meaning he thinks some claims should live and others should be shot down by a Walther PPK.

MGM tried to convince the judge that the words “all” and “every,” enjoyed by class action lawyers everywhere, aren’t actionable and that fans of David Niven are out of luck.

Full Read – http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rejects-mgms-bid-toss-lawsuit-james-bond-box-set-missing-two-bond-films-1026846