Tausi Insider

The public hearing that will determine the fate of Rogers Communications Inc.’s RCI-B-T proposed $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. SJR-B-T has turned out to be not so public after all – despite the Competition Tribunal committing to an “open court process.” Because of its potential implications for users of critical wireless and internet services, the merger of Canada’s two largest cable companies has attracted far more public attention than most hearings held by the Competition Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body that adjudicates on matters of civil competition. Many observers describe the hearings thus far as opaque and are calling for more transparency in the tribunal process. Repeatedly, during the first week of hearings, lawyers for both the cable companies and the Competition Bureau, which is attempting to block the merger, asked the judge to go into confidential sessions that have dragged on for hours. In addition, critical documents such as witness statements and t...

Two law firms have filed suit against Barrick Gold Corp. in Ontario Superior Court on behalf of 21 Tanzanians who allege that they or their family members were killed, injured or tortured by police guarding a Barrick gold mine. The case, filed on Wednesday morning, is the first to be pursued against Barrick in Canadian courts for alleged human rights violations at its mines abroad. It follows a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2020 that allowed a Vancouver-based mining company to be sued in British Columbia for alleged abuses in Eritrea. The Tanzanian plaintiffs, Indigenous Kurya villagers who live in communities around Barrick’s North Mara gold mine in northern Tanzania, are accusing the police of five deaths, five injuries and five incidents of torture. They say Barrick is liable because the police are paid and equipped by Barrick under a formal agreement between the company and the Tanzanian Police Force. Barrick says it does not supervise or control the police who patr...

Microsoft MSFT-Q is likely to face an EU antitrust investigation as regulators intensify their scrutiny into its practices in a case triggered by Salesforce.com’s workspace messaging app Slack, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Last year, Slack complained to the European Commission, saying that Microsoft has unfairly integrated its workplace chat and video app Teams into its Office product. Microsoft introduced Teams in 2017, seeking a slice of the fast-growing and lucrative workplace collaboration market. Slack urged the EU competition enforcer to order the U.S. software giant to separate Teams from the Office Suit and sell it separately at fair commercial prices. The Commission last month sent out another batch of questionnaires in a follow-up to those sent out in October last year, a sign that the EU competition enforcer is preparing the ground for opening a formal investigation, the people said. “The Commission is looking at (Microsoft’s) interoperability and bund...

CIBC CM-T says a New York court has issued a liability ruling against the Canadian bank in a lawsuit brought by Cerberus Capital Management LP. Cerberus filed the lawsuit in November 2015. The case related to an October 2008 transaction in which CIBC issued a limited recourse note to Cerberus specifying certain payment streams, and a subsequent transaction in 2011 in which CIBC sold a residual interest in the streams to the private equity firm. Cerberus claimed damages of US$1.067-billion at trial earlier this year. CIBC says it intends to appeal the liability ruling and will dispute Cerberus’s measure of damages at a hearing on Dec. 19. The bank says it expects to recognize a provision in its first-quarter 2023 results, the estimate of which will be determined by developments during the quarter. https://www.tausiinsider.com/new-york-court-issues-liability-ruling-against-cibc-in-cerberus-lawsuit/?feed_id=331230&_unique_id=6452ae79215d0

The Biden administration filed a complaint on Thursday aimed at blocking tech giant Microsoft’s MSFT-Q $69 billion bid to buy “Call of Duty” games maker Activision ATVI-Q, over concerns the deal would deny rivals access to popular games. Microsoft, which owns the Xbox, said in January 2022 that it would buy Activision for $68.7 billion in the biggest gaming industry deal in history. In its complaint, the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces antitrust law, said that Microsoft had a record of buying valuable gaming content and using it to suppress competition from rival consoles. “Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.” Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company would fight the FTC. “Whi...

Former CannTrust CEO Peter Aceto, centre, leaves Old City Hall with his lawyer, Frank Addario, left, in Toronto, on Dec. 14, 2022. Eduardo Lima/Tausi Insider The prosecution of three former high-ranking officials of CannTrust Holdings Inc. has collapsed after a key government witness conceded that the fundamental allegation against the trio – that they permitted unlicensed growing at their company’s cannabis facility – is incorrect. In court on Wednesday, a lawyer for the Ontario Securities Commission announced that the regulator was withdrawing its case against former CannTrust chief executive officer Peter Aceto, former chairman Eric Paul and Mark Litwin, a former director. The lawyer, Dihim Emami, said the OSC had reassessed the case and was now “of the view there’s no reasonable prospect of conviction.” Lawyers for the three men opposed the commission’s move, asking Justice Victor Giourgas, instead, for a verdict and a complete acquittal. But Mr. Emami asked the court for a one-d...

Former CannTrust CEO Peter Aceto, centre, leaves Old City Hall, in Toronto, on Dec. 14. Eduardo Lima/Tausi Insider An Ontario court has acquitted three former cannabis leaders charged with offences linked to unlicensed growing at a Niagara-area greenhouse. The ex-CannTrust Holdings Inc. executives Peter Aceto, Eric Paul and Mark Litwin were freed of their charges a day after the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) revealed it no longer had a reasonable prospect of convicting the men. The OSC asked the Old City Hall court in Toronto on Wednesday to adjourn the matter until Thursday, so it could review case law Litwin’s lawyer said would support the case being wound up. His client, along with Aceto and Paul, were each charged with fraud and authorizing, permitting or acquiescing in the commission of an offence. Litwin and Paul were also facing insider trading charges, and Litwin and Aceto were charged with making a false prospectus and false preliminary prospectus. The men pleaded not ...

Former CannTrust CEO Peter Aceto, left, leaves the Old City Hall courthouse after being acquitted on all charges in Toronto on Dec. 15. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press Legal experts say the acquittal of three former cannabis executives should prompt the Ontario Securities Commission to do some “deep soul searching.” The Thursday acquittal of ex-CannTrust Holdings Inc. CNTTQ chief executive Peter Aceto, chairman Eric Paul and vice-chair Mark Litwin came a day after the regulator revealed it no longer had a reasonable prospect of convicting the men on charges linked to alleged unlicensed cannabis growing at a Niagara area facility. The trio, who pleaded not guilty in October, were each charged with fraud and authorizing, permitting or acquiescing in the commission of an offence. Litwin and Paul were also facing insider trading charges, and Litwin and Aceto were charged with making a false prospectus and false preliminary prospectus. Industry observers were eagerly anticipating the ou...

Commissioner of Competition Bureau Canada Matthew Boswell in Ottawa on Dec. 14. Dave Chan/Tausi Insider Wherever Matthew Boswell goes for work, he carries around a folder affixed with a sticky note that is inscribed with a quotation: “Canada has been identified as a country that does not place sufficient importance on competition in the conduct of its affairs.” It’s not exactly “live, laugh, love,” but we’re talking about a federal official here. The quotation comes from a 2008 report commissioned by the federal government called Compete to Win , and it serves as both motivation and a reminder of how little has changed. “That’s been the situation for decades,” Mr. Boswell says in an interview. “That’s why we see a very concentrated economy and we see multiple oligopolies that control our economy in different sectors.” Mr. Boswell, head of the Competition Bureau since 2019, hardly needs the reminder. As he sees it, he’s been living with the flaws in the country’s approach every day f...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves the courthouse in New York, on Dec. 22. Yuki IWAMURA/The Associated Press Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal case over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange has been reassigned to a judge recently known for handling defamation lawsuits against former U.S. President Donald Trump and a sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan replaces his colleague Ronnie Abrams, who recused herself on Friday after learning that the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where her husband is a partner, advised FTX in 2021. Known for his no-nonsense demeanor in the courtroom, Kaplan, a judge since 1994, oversees two civil lawsuits by former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll accusing Trump of defaming her by denying he raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room 27 years ago. Trump has sought the dismissal of both lawsuits, including a battery claim. Kaplan also recently oversaw Virginia Giuffre’s civil lawsuit ac...

Federal prosecutors are investigating an alleged cybercrime that drained more than $370-million from crypto exchange FTX hours after it filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday citing a person familiar with the case. The criminal probe into the stolen assets, launched by the Department of Justice, is separate from the fraud case against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the report added. A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office said he could not confirm or comment on the issue, while DoJ and FTX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. FTX filed for U.S. bankruptcy last month and Bankman-Fried stepped down as chief executive, after traders pulled billions from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Bankman-Fried of causing billions of dollars of losses related to FTX, which a U.S. prosecutor called a “fraud of epic proportions.” Bankman-Fried founded FTX ...

The Competition Bureau’s continuing and, to date, fruitless crusade against telecom takeovers now has a price tag. Lawyers for the federal regulator and its opponents at Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T, Shaw Communications Inc. SJR-B-T and Quebecor Inc. QBR-B-T have billed more than $30-million for their services. The meter is still running, as the two sides prepare for the bureau’s appeal of last month’s Competition Tribunal decision that came down squarely in the telecom companies’ favour. Taxpayers are likely to pay a significant portion of those fees. The cost that can’t be measured, yet one that dwarfs the legal bills, is the price Canada pays for being a country where stuff just doesn’t get done. From cellphones to pipelines to national securities regulators, government red tape and petty agendas are getting in the way of doing business. CEOs and institutional investors look at a $20-billion Rogers bid for Shaw that’s coming up on its second birthday and see a transaction th...

Tetsuya Yamagami, the alleged assassin of Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe, enters a police station in Nara, western Japan, on Jan. 10. The Associated Press Japanese prosecutors formally charged the suspect in the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe with murder, sending him to stand trial, a court said Friday. Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested immediately after allegedly shooting Mr. Abe with a homemade gun as the former leader was making a campaign speech in July outside a train station in Nara in western Japan. He then underwent a nearly six-month mental evaluation, which prosecutors said showed he is fit to stand trial. Mr. Yamagami was also charged with violating a gun control law, according to the Nara District Court. Police have said Mr. Yamagami told them that he killed Mr. Abe, one of Japan’s most influential and divisive politicians, because of Mr. Abe’s apparent links to a religious group that he hated. In his statements and in social media postings at...

Elon Musk is set to become the rare CEO to fight a securities class action at trial next week, where he will defend his 2018 tweet announcing he had “funding secured” to take Tesla Inc TSLA-Q private. Musk is essentially doubling down after suffering an initial setback last year, when the judge in San Francisco federal court ruled that his tweet was “false” and “reckless.” As a result, the jury will need to determine only if the statements impacted Tesla’s share prices, if Musk acted knowingly, and the amount of any damages. “Everything is lined up for a plaintiffs’ win here,” said Minor Myers, who teaches corporate law at the University of Connecticut. Judge Edward Chen’s ruling in May means that shareholders are “starting with runners on base,” he said. An attorney for Musk, as well as Tesla and several directors who are also defendants, declined to comment. They have denied that Musk’s statements violated the law. They will argue at trial that the stock price rose because Musk rev...

The U.S. Justice Department’s top antitrust official recently won approval from the department to oversee investigations involving Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL-Q, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the decision to allow Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust, to oversee matters involving the search engine and advertising company. The Justice Department and Google declined to comment on Friday. In November 2021, Google asked the Justice Department to consider requiring Kanter to recuse himself because of his work for a long list of Google critics like Yelp Inc, which Alphabet described as “vociferously advocating for an antitrust case against Google for years.” Bloomberg News reported in May that Kanter had been barred from working on Google investigations as the department considered whether he was required to be recused. On Wednesday, Google argued a U.S. judge should toss out a Justice Department ant...

Experts warn tools that allow employers to monitor how their employees spend their time while working from home could backfire by eroding trust. Elise Amendola/The Associated Press Employers and work-from-home staff must tread a fine line between trust, monitoring and micromanaging, experts say, in the new age of remote employment. Their comments come days after British Columbia’s Civil Resolution Tribunal ordered an accountant to pay her former employer more than $2,600 after tracking software showed she engaged in “time theft” while working at home. The worker had gone to the tribunal claiming she was fired without cause. Sandra Robinson, an organizational psychologist and professor in the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, says that offering flexibility to ensure a happy workforce is a key reason employers continue with remote or hybrid work arrangements, long after pandemic restrictions have lifted. Yet Robinson warns some tools that allow employers ...