Picard to Continue With Suits Against Mark Madoff - Wall Street Journal

The court-appointed trustee recovering assets for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme will move ahead with lawsuits brought against his elder son Mark Madoff, who killed himself Saturday morning, a lawyer for the trustee said.

"The litigation will take its course and the death of Mark Madoff will not impact that fact," the lawyer, David Sheehan, said in an email Sunday.

That the trustee intends to pursue the suits is not surprising. Among the hundreds targeted in suits by the trustee, Irving Picard, in recent weeks are estates of former Madoff investors.

After the September death of Stanley Chais, a California money manager who fed clients' funds to Mr. Madoff, for example, Mr. Picard said he would continue litigation that sought $1.1 billion from Mr. Chais and related entities. Mr. Chais had denied any wrongdoing.

On Saturday, Mr. Picard said: "This is a tragic development, and my sympathy goes out to Mark Madoff's family."

Almost a year after the multi-billion dollar fraud conducted by his father, Bernard Madoff, was publicly revealed on Dec. 11, 2008, both Mark and his brother Andrew Madoff were sued by Mr. Picard. Mr. Picard accused Mark Madoff in the October 2009 lawsuit of receiving at least $66.9 million improperly through Bernard Madoff's investment company.

His lawyer has called the suit baseless and has sought to have it dismissed.

Last week, Mark and Andrew Madoff were also named in an $80 million lawsuit filed in London against them and other former directors of Madoff Securities International Ltd. by Mr. Picard and Stephen J. Akers, a joint liquidator of the that business, Mr. Picard said. The suit was filed in the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice Commercial Court, he said.

According to Mr. Picard, the lawsuit, which has not been made public under English law, accuses directors and officers of violating their duties to the company by making fraudulent payments, including some that benefited Mr. Madoff and his family.

"The directors had duties, among others, to be honest in recording the purposes and activities of the business," Mr. Akers said in a statement. But instead, he said, they allegedly signed off on false documents and misrepresented the true nature of transactions, "all of which assisted Madoff's fraudulent scheme."

"These are baseless claims against Mark and Andrew Madoff, who were not involved in the financial operations of Madoff Securities International. They were outside directors with [minimal] ownership interests," said Martin Flumenbaum, a lawyer for Mr. Madoff's sons. "They had no knowledge of their father's crimes, including any fraudulent activity related to the London entity."

Also last week, Mr. Picard sued children of Andrew and Mark, alleging that Ruth and Bernard Madoff transferred funds to them. A spokesman for the brothers and their wives declined to comment, as did Susan Elkin, Mark Madoff's former wife, who was also sued.

In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Flumenbaum called Mr. Madoff's suicide "a terrible and unnecessary tragedy. Mark was an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo. We are all deeply saddened by this shocking turn of events."

Write to Michael Rothfeld at michael.rothfeld@wsj.com

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Violent protests against nuclear waste train - ABC Online

By Rachael Brown, wires

Posted November 8, 2010 10:55:00

Police wielding batons have clashed with protesters who disrupted the passage of a train carrying nuclear waste from France to Germany.

The train is returning German nuclear waste for storage after it was treated in France.

The train was stopped in northern Germany by activists abseiling from a bridge over the railway tracks.

Officers used batons and pepper spray on hundreds of protesters trying to sabotage the tracks and the activists retaliated by throwing firecrackers.

During the clash the activists managed temporarily to set fire to an armoured police vehicle.

A police spokeswoman said the fire was quickly extinguished and no officers were hurt.

The train carrying the nuclear waste, dubbed by activists as "the most radioactive ever", is heading for Dannenberg where the 123 tonnes of waste will be loaded onto trucks for the nearby storage facility of Gorleben, in central Germany.

The country's anti-nuclear campaigners have been outraged by a parliamentary vote to extend the lifespan of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants, which were meant to come offline in 2020.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Dannenberg to signal their opposition to the cargo.

Organisers said 50,000 people had turned out but police said the figure was closer to 20,000.

Around 16,000 police have been mobilised to deal with the protests in Germany.

- ABC/AFP

Tags: nuclear-issues, recycling-and-waste-management, government-and-politics, world-politics, activism-and-lobbying, germany

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Supreme Court appears inclined to rule against funeral protesters - Los Angeles Times

Despite free-speech concerns, Supreme Court justices sounded sympathetic Wednesday to a lawsuit filed by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq whose funeral was picketed by protesters with signs like, "Thank God for IEDs."

The justices appeared inclined to set a limit to freedom of speech when ordinary citizens are targeted with especially personal and hurtful attacks. The 1st Amendment says the government may not restrict free speech, but it is less clear when it shields speakers from private lawsuits.

The Phelps family from Topeka, Kan., has picketed at military funerals across the nation and proclaimed that God is punishing America and its troops because of its tolerance of homosexuality.

In 2006, family members traveled to Maryland, where they held antiwar and anti-gay signs at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, and they also put on their website a message that accused his father, Albert Snyder, of having raised his son "to defy the creator" and "serve the devil."

A Maryland court awarded Snyder $5 million in damages, but the award was thrown out on free-speech grounds.

Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer, usual defenders of the 1st Amendment, said they thought people could be sued for outrageous personal attacks.

Kennedy said "certain harassing conduct" was not always protected as free speech. "Torts and crimes are committed with words all the time," he said, referring to legal wrongs that result in lawsuits. "The 1st Amendment doesn't stop state tort law in appropriate circumstances," Breyer added.

Though the case is about funeral protests, Breyer said the court's ruling will have an effect on the Internet, because it tests whether vicious personal attacks — often made by bloggers — can lead to lawsuits.

Snyder sued the Phelps family under a common provision of state law that permits claims for an intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On Wednesday, the justices seemed to agree that a general protest sign, such as "Stop the War" or even "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" would be protected as free speech. The Phelps family crossed the line when it targeted the dead Marine's father with their protest, argued Sean E. Summers, a lawyer for Snyder. "We have personal, targeted epithets directed at the Snyder family," he said.

Justice Elena Kagan, the newest member of the court, drew the attention of her colleagues with her opening question to Margie J. Phelps. The Kansas lawyer who was defending her family began by saying that their protests were intended to provoke "public discussion" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kagan quickly pressed her. Would it be permissible, she asked, for the protesters to pick out "a wounded soldier and follow him around," holding "offensive and outrageous signs" near his home and calling him a "war criminal?" In such a case, "does he have a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress?" Kagan said.

Phelps hesitated, but then answered. "My answer, Justice Kagan, is no, I don't believe that person should have a cause of action."

That answer appeared to turn the argument against Phelps and the funeral protesters. Later, Justice Samuel A. Alito pressed her with another such example.

Suppose protesters stopped a grandmother whose son had been killed in the war, and they "speak to her in the most vile terms" and say they were happy he was killed. Is this protected free speech? Alito asked.

Phelps responded calmly, but avoided a direct answer. It might be illegal "stalking" or "fighting words," she said.

Alito dismissed the "fighting words" defense. "It's an elderly person. She's really not in a position to punch this person in the nose," he said.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took the free-speech side during much of the argument. She noted that protesters were kept well away from the funeral in this case, and they were sued only because of their disturbing message. But she too seemed troubled by the protests.

"This is a case about exploiting a private family's grief," she said. "The question is: Why should the 1st Amendment tolerate exploiting this Marine's family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message?"

Breyer and several others said they were searching for a middle ground that would allow the Snyders to win, but not threaten wide-open public debate. "What I'm trying to accomplish is to allow this tort to exist, but not allow it to interfere with an important public message," he said.

It will be several months before the court makes a ruling in the case.

david.savage@latimes.com

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Prosecutor Considering Adding Bias Discrimination to Criminal Charges Against ... - ABC News

A series of tweets and Internet postings in the weeks before the suicide of a Rutgers University student appear to show that the freshman's sexual orientation had been an issue from the start.

Authorities in New Jersey are investigating the events that led to the death of Tyler Clementi and are considering whether they can pursue more charges against his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and another student, Molly Wei, who allegedly filmed Clementi engaged in a sexual encounter with another man and broadcast it on the Internet.

Ravi tweeted on Aug. 22, "Found out my roommate is gay," according to Forbes.com, and then posted a link to a gay men's website where Ravi said Clementi had placed posts.

Gawker reported it was that same website, JustUsBoys, that Clementi was believed to have turned to once he found out that Ravi had secretly filmed Clementi's sexual encounter with another man.

"So my question is what is next," the posted cti2mo, believed to be Clementi, wrote on Sept. 21. "I could just be more careful next time ... make sure to turn the cam away."

And then, in the same post, "I'm kind pissed at him (rightfully so I think, no?)"

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who resigned from office after disclosing he was gay, said he was "filled with great sadness and pain" after learning of Clementi's suicide and the online torment he faced.

"Coming to terms with your sexual orientation is very much an individual journey. ... You say to yourself, 'I'm different. I'm distinct,'" he said. ""For some gay Americans it's still that much difficult."

The explosion of social media in the last several years has made it that much easier, he said, for gay youth to become a target.

"I think this is actually a very difficult time," he said.

McGreevey said he'd like to see more adults held responsible for the bullying of gay and lesbian youth, much in the same way children are protected against racial or religious discrimination.

"Authority has to instruct children that it's not only morally wrong," he said, "but it won't be tolerated and there are consequences of that happening."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also spoke out, calling Clementi's suicide an unspeakable tragedy and saying on Thursday that he couldn't imagine how the two students accused of secretly filming Clementi could sleep at night "knowing that they contributed to driving that young man" to suicide.

The governor spoke hours after a body that was pulled from the Hudson River was identified as Clementi. The student leaped to his death after his roommate allegedly secretly filmed him during a sexual encounter with a man and posted it live on the Internet.

The medical examiner's office said an autopsy revealed the 18-year-old had drowned and suffered blunt impact injuries to his torso.

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