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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

Dozens of migrant workers in Vancouver have allegedly been defrauded of thousands of dollars by an immigration consultant who promised the workers permanent residency through a federal immigration program that the workers say did not exist. The alleged scam is now the subject of a potential class-action suit that is making its way through the B.C. court system. The lawsuit contends that the actions of the alleged perpetrator of the scam were not only financially ruinous for the workers – most of them migrants from Mexico – but resulted in some of them unknowingly working without visas while waiting for their work permits to be processed. This meant that they were losing their opportunity to apply for genuine immigration status in Canada. The Vancouver-based immigration consultant who is being accused by workers of fraud, Liza Lucion, was indefinitely suspended by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) – the regulatory body for immigration consultants – this pas...

Dozens of migrant workers in Vancouver have allegedly been defrauded of thousands of dollars by an immigration consultant who promised the workers permanent residency through a federal immigration program that the workers say did not exist. The alleged scam is now the subject of a potential class-action suit that is making its way through the B.C. court system. The lawsuit contends that the actions of the alleged perpetrator of the scam were not only financially ruinous for the workers – most of them migrants from Mexico – but resulted in some of them unknowingly working without visas while waiting for their work permits to be processed. This meant that they were losing their opportunity to apply for genuine immigration status in Canada. The Vancouver-based immigration consultant who is being accused by workers of fraud, Liza Lucion, was indefinitely suspended by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) – the regulatory body for immigration consultants – this pas...

Twitter Inc has been hit with another lawsuit stemming from the recent purging of half its workforce, this one accusing the social media company of disproportionately targeting female employees for layoffs. The proposed class action filed late on Wednesday in San Francisco federal court said that after Twitter was taken over by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, it laid off 57 per cent of its female workers compared to 47 per cent of men. Twitter laid off roughly 3,700 employees in early November in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, and hundreds more subsequently resigned. The gender disparity was more stark for engineering roles, where 63 per cent of women lost their jobs compared to 48 per cent of men, according to the new lawsuit. The lawsuit filed by two women who were laid off by Twitter last month accuses the company of violating federal and California laws banning workplace sex discrimination. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shannon Liss-Riordan...

Photo : Lester Balajadia ( Shutterstock ) It’s been nearly 20 years since Keurig machines and K-Cups became a countertop staple in countless American homes (though they’ve been available for offices since the 1990s ). And while some find the single-use pods convenient, their relatively high cost and the mediocre flavor of the beverages they result in have made them unappealing to other consumers. And then there’s the environmental impact of all the stacks of small plastic pods that have been accumulating in landfills over the years. That’s another story completely—and the reason behind a class-action lawsuit brought against Keurig, which the company settled earlier this year. Here’s how to find out whether a piece of that is yours, and if it is, how to claim your money. Why is there a class-action lawsuit against Keurig? According to the original complaint filed back in 2018, a group of consumers (the plaintiffs) allege that Keurig engaged in “unlawful, unfair, and deceptive busi...

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc META-Q has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users’ personal information. The proposed settlement, which was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users. Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposed settlement the largest to ever be achieved in a U.S. data privacy class action and the most that Meta has ever paid to resolve a class-action lawsuit. “This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a joint statement. Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to ...

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...

Google parent Alphabet GOOGL-Q filed on Wednesday a redacted version of its motion to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit against it, which argued that the company broke antitrust law to maintain its monopoly in search and search advertising. The filings on Wednesday show that the company is mounting a vigorous defence against the antitrust cases, which, if successful, could force the tech giant to spin off assets. In December, Google asked Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss both the antitrust case that the Justice Department filed in 2020 along with 11 states as well as a related complaint brought by 35 states led by Colorado. The motions were sealed and redacted versions were filed on Wednesday. The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed by the Trump administration, alleged that Google violated antitrust law when it paid billions annually to Apple, LG Electronics Inc and other smartphone makers to ensure that Google search was the default...

Caisse de Depot et Placement president Charles Emond ponders a question at legislature committee on finances on Aug. 17, 2020 at the legislature in Quebec City. Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press It’s time for Quebec’s pension giant to tell all about its botched investment in Celsius Network. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has previously portrayed its funding of the New Jersey-based cryptocurrency lender as an investing mistake, with chief executive officer Charles Emond suggesting the pension-fund manager bought into the business too soon. Now, however, New York Attorney-General Letitia James is suing Alex Mashinsky , former CEO and co-founder of Celsius Network, for defrauding investors by making a litany of false statements, concealing the company’s “dire financial condition” and breaking securities laws in a slew of U.S. states. It’s an eye-popping list of allegations. Sure, none has been tested in court. But with more details emerging about the comical claims that ...

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...

Twitter Inc has secured a ruling allowing the social media company to force several laid-off workers suing over their termination to pursue their claims via individual arbitration than a class-action lawsuit. U.S. District Judge James Donato on Friday ruled that five former Twitter employees pursuing a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after its acquisition by Elon Musk must pursue their claims in private arbitration. Donato granted Twitter’s request to force the five ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The San Francisco judge left for another day “as warranted by developments in the case” whether the entire class action lawsuit must be dismissed, though, as he noted three other former Twitter employees who alleged they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit ...

Former OPSEU boss Warren 'Smokey' Thomas speaks to reporters at Queens Park in Toronto in a file photo on Jan. 21, 2019. Chris Young/The Canadian Press The former president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union — Warren ‘Smokey’ Thomas — has called the recent allegations of financial improprieties made against him by the union “bogus” and is vowing to defend them. Mr. Thomas released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, just a day after OPSEU filed a lawsuit accusing him and two other former union executives of improperly using millions of dollars in cash and assets for personal enrichment. The statement, issued by Mr. Thomas’s lawyers, said that the lawsuit was riddled with “errors, falsehoods and untrue allegations.” “Mr. Thomas rejects the claims against him and intends to defend his good name,” the statement read. The union alleges that Mr. Thomas, who served as president of OPSEU for 15 years before retiring from the union last April, along with Eduardo Almeida, the...

B.C. Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman speaks during an announcement at Burns Bog, in Delta, B.C., on June 29, 2020. DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press A British Columbia judge has tossed out a lawsuit that accused the B.C. government of violating its own rules to account for greenhouse gas emission targets. In dismissing the lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club of British Columbia, Justice Jasvinder Basran finds the environment and climate change minister has “reasonably complied” with the Climate Change Accountability Act. It requires the government to publish annual reports outlining progress toward emissions targets for 2025, 2040 and 2050, but the Sierra Club alleged both the 2021 report and the oil and gas sector target for 2030 didn’t include that data. Basran agrees the case represents “an appropriate legal question” because wording of the act indicates the legislature “intended for these reporting obligations to be enforceable by the courts,” but he says...

Donald Trump speaks to media mogul Rupert Murdoch as they walk out of Trump International Golf Links, in Aberdeen, Scotland, on June 25, 2016. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch will be questioned under oath on Thursday and Friday in a defamation lawsuit over his network’s coverage of unfounded vote-rigging claims during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Election technology company Dominion Voting Systems says Fox News Network amplified false claims that its machines were used to rig the election against Republican Donald Trump and in favour of his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who won the election. Dominion is seeking $1.6-billion in damages. Murdoch, 91, is the most high-profile figure to face questioning in the case. Fox has argued that it had a right to report on election-fraud allegations made by Trump and his lawyers, and that Dominion’s lawsuit would stifle press freedom. Fox referred Reuters to an earlier statement saying: “There is nothing more newsworth...

The U.S. Justice Department and eight states filed an antitrust suit against Google GOOGL-Q on Tuesday, seeking to shatter its alleged monopoly on the entire ecosystem of online advertising as a hurtful burden to advertisers, consumers and even the U.S. government. The government alleges that Google’s plan to assert dominance in online ads has been to “neutralize or eliminate” rivals through acquisitions and to force advertisers to use its products by making it difficult to use competitors’ offerings. It’s part of a new, if slow and halting, push by the U.S. to rein in big tech companies that have enjoyed largely unbridled growth in the past decade and a half. The antitrust suit was filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference Tuesday that “for 15 years, Google has pursued a course of anti-competitive conduct” that has halted the rise of rival technologies and manipulated the mechanics of online ad auctions to force adver...

A Quebec Innu community is suing Hydro-Quebec for $2.2-billion, claiming the Churchill Falls hydroelectric station has destroyed a significant part of their traditional territory. The lawsuit filed Friday in Quebec Superior Court by the Innu of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam claims the megaproject’s reservoirs and more than 1,000 kilometres of transmission lines “flooded and destroyed” part of their traditional territory and disrupted the community’s traditional activities. The band council says construction of the 5,428-megawatt station in Labrador and its transmission facilities in the 1960s and early 1970swas done without the consent of the community near Sept-Iles, Que. A 1969 agreement that allows Hydro-Quebec to purchase the majority of the electricity generated at the station and reap most of the profits ends in 2041. The community is asking the court to recognize its Aboriginal title to the affected territory and wants an injunction to prohibit the Crown corporation from making any n...

A landmark lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department against Alphabet’s Google GOOGL-Q over its dominance of advertising technology could help rivals and websites that sell ad space, but leaves an uncertain future for the advertisers themselves, experts told Reuters. The Justice Department’s complaint against Google on Tuesday called for the company to divest Google Ad Manager, a suite of tools including one that lets websites put ad space up for a sale and another that served as an ad marketplace that automatically matched advertisers with those publishers. If the Justice Department lawsuit succeeds, “advertisers and publishers could have more leverage with more options with expanding players – and consequently more competition,” said Neil Begley of Moody’s Investors Service. Apple Inc, AAPL-Q which is steadily growing its nascent advertising business and promoting it as privacy-focused, could be a winner if Google ads become less effective, said Brian Mandelbaum, chief executive of ad...