Lehman Brothers Proposes End To Bankruptcy

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc defended on Tuesday a proposed plan to end the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, but said it will alter certain language to resolve objections from the U.S. Trustee.

Lehman filed court papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan asking Judge James Peck to approve the outline for its $65 billion payback plan in the face of 18 objections from various parties, including one from the office of U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis.

If Peck green-lights the outline at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, it will be sent to creditors for a vote. Lehman, which has negotiated nonstop with creditor groups in an attempt to gain widespread support for its plan, hopes to end its bankruptcy and begin paying back creditors by early 2012.

The trustee argued in an August 11 objection that the outline was too vague on certain issues, including the post-bankruptcy role of the committee installed to oversee fee requests from professionals in the case.

Lehman said it will add language explaining that the committee will continue to exist post-bankruptcy and will be disbanded after professionals submit their final fee applications.

US Files Suit Against Goldman Sachs

Regulators filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., accusing the investment bank of violating federal and state securities laws in the sale of $1.2 billion in mortgage-backed securities.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks damages in excess of $491 million. It is the fourth securities lawsuit to be filed in recent months by the National Credit Union Administration, which has been negotiating for months with a variety of banks that sold mortgages securities to failed credit unions it has taken over.

The lawsuit alleges that the securities sold by Goldman Sachs to two failed corporate credit unions were "destined to perform poorly."

Sec Charges Former Professional Baseball Player Doug Decinces And Three Others With Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former professional baseball player Doug DeCinces and three others with insider trading ahead of a company buyout. The SEC alleges that DeCinces and his associates made more than $1.7 million in illegal profits when Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott Laboratories Inc. announced its plan to purchase Advanced Medical Optics Inc. through a tender offer.

The SEC alleges that DeCinces, who lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., received confidential information about the acquisition from a source at Santa Ana, Calif.-based Advanced Medical Optics. DeCinces immediately began to purchase shares of Advanced Medical Optics in several brokerage accounts, buying more throughout the course of the impending transaction as he received updated information from his source. During this time, DeCinces also illegally tipped three associates who traded on the confidential information – physical therapist Joseph J. Donohue, real estate lawyer Fred Scott Jackson, and businessman Roger A. Wittenbach.

DeCinces agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle the SEC’s charges, and the three others also agreed to settlements.