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Companies Re/Max Holdings Inc FollowMarch 29 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday ruled that home sellers accusing the National Association of Realtors and a group of real estate brokerages of conspiring to inflate commission rates can move forward as a class action. In a statement, The National Association of Realtors said it was "disappointed" in the decision and defended industry listing practices. The lawsuit challenges a requirement that sellers make "blanket unilateral offers of compensation" to buyers' brokers when a home goes on sale via a multiple listing service. That system puts pressure on sellers to offer high commissions to attract buyers' brokers, the sellers claimed. The case is Moehrl et al v. The National Association of Realtors et al, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No.

The grand jury has been hearing evidence from the Manhattan District Attorney's office about possible crimes related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The Washington Post, citing two people familiar with the matter, said the grand jury hiatus was due in part to a pre-scheduled two-week break starting April 10, following the April 9 Easter holiday. A law enforcement source told Reuters the grand jury is not expected to reconvene on the Trump case until after Easter, without providing a specific date. Grand jury proceedings are secret. The grand jury is believed to meet generally on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

The grand jury has been hearing evidence from the Manhattan District Attorney's office about possible crimes related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The payment was in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter Daniels said she had with Trump a decade earlier. A law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear exactly when after the holiday the grand jury would hear evidence again in the Trump case. Grand jury proceedings are secret. The grand jury is believed to generally meet on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged crypto firm Beaxy.com and several executives for registration failures on Wednesday, expanding regulators' push to rein in the industry. That structure, which is common throughout the crypto industry, is one that the SEC's chair has criticized for conflicts of interest and risks to investors. On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, accusing the world's largest crypto exchange of violating rules preventing illegal activity. The next day, prosecutors in New York added a Chinese bribery charge to their fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. Another man, Brian Peterson, was accused of acting as an unregistered dealer by providing marketing services to Beaxy.

NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - Fidelity National Financial Inc (FNF.N) will pay $3.5 million to settle New York Attorney General Letitia James' claims that the largest U.S. title insurer illegally conspired with rivals not to solicit each other's employees. Under an agreement made public on Wednesday, Fidelity also agreed to end all "no-poach" agreements within 30 days, and cooperate with James' probe into the title insurance industry. James said no-poach agreements, whether written or oral, reduce competition for workers, resulting in lower wages and benefits and impeding career growth. It promised to notify James' office if it learned of illegal no-poach agreements over the next 10 years. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

March 28 (Reuters) - Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), will be interviewed under oath over the bank's relationship with late sex offender and former client Jeffrey Epstein, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday. Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013 - five years after he pleaded guilty to a Florida prostitution charge. He had been friendly with Epstein but expressed regret for the relationship and has denied any involvement in Epstein's illegal activity. Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE), where Epstein was a client from 2013 to 2018, is also being sued by the financier's accusers. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell at age 66 in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Bankman-Fried is expected to be arraigned on the new indictment on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court. The new indictment said Bankman-Fried ordered the $40 million cryptocurrency payment to a private wallet from Alameda's main trading account, to persuade Chinese government authorities to unfreeze Alameda accounts with more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said the Alameda accounts had been frozen as part of an investigation into an unnamed Alameda counterparty, and Bankman-Fried's prior efforts to lobby Chinese officials to lift the freeze were unsuccessful. They also said Bankman-Fried around November 2021 authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of additional cryptocurrency to "complete" the bribe. Concerns that Bankman-Fried might tamper with witnesses prompted Kaplan to threaten jailing him unless tighter restrictions could be worked out.

Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013, with the last five years coming after he had pleaded guilty to a Florida prostitution charge. The bank is also suing Jes Staley, a former private banking chief and later Barclays Plc (BARC.L) chief executive who had been friendly with Epstein. JPMorgan wants Staley to reimburse it for eight years of compensation and damages it might incur in the other lawsuits. Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE), where Epstein was a client from 2013 to 2018, is also being sued by the financier's accusers. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell at age 66 in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco said in his order that Google "fell strikingly short" in its duties to preserve records. Separately, the plaintiffs will have a chance to urge Donato to tell jurors that Google destroyed information that was unfavorable to it. The lawyers said Google was deleting chat records every 24 hours and "did so even after this litigation commenced." Google is separately fighting claims in a U.S. Justice Department antitrust case in Washington, D.C., federal court of destroyed chat records. The case is In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

Founder Artak Hamazaspyan and a company he controlled, Beaxy Digital Ltd, raised $8 million in an unregistered offering of the Beaxy token (BXY), and Hamazaspyan also misappropriated at least $900,000 for personal use, the SEC said. The regulator also said executives Nicholas Murphy and Randolph Bay Abbott facilitated trading on the Beaxy platform since October 2019 through the company they managed, Windy Inc, the regulator said in a statement. Another executive, Brian Peterson, and his companies provided market making services for the Beaxy platform, acting as unregistered dealers, the SEC said. The other executives and firms, who did not admit or deny the SEC's findings, could not be reached immediately for comment. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Chris Prentice; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - The New York grand jury hearing evidence about former President Donald Trump's role in a hush-money payment to a porn star is not expected to meet on Wednesday and is unlikely to consider the case again this week, a law enforcement source said. It is unclear when the grand jury would take up the matter again, said the source, who was granted anonymity to discuss secret grand jury proceedings. The Manhattan District Attorney's office has been presenting evidence since January to the grand jury about possible crimes related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump has denied an affair took place, and lawyer Robert Costello, who met with Cohen in 2018, has said Cohen told him he acted alone. Costello testified before the grand jury last week.

The scheduled April 25 trial relates to Trump's alleged rape of Carroll in late 1995 or early 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. In his Oct. 12 post, Trump said he did not know Carroll, that she made up the rape claim to promote her memoir, and that the claim was a "hoax," "lie," "con job" and "complete scam." Trump said his post amounted to commentary about Carroll's earlier lawsuit and his defenses, and therefore was protected. But the judge said Trump's post was neither a "report of any judicial proceeding" nor a "fair and true report" of such a proceeding that would justify immunity. The case is Carroll v Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No 22-10016.

[1/3] The Gateway Arch is seen across from snow covered banks of the Mississippi River during cold weather in St Louis, Missouri, U.S. February 11, 2021. "Big corporations like Kia and Hyundai must be held accountable for endangering our residents and putting profit over people,” said St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones. Many Hyundai and Kia vehicles have no electronic immobilizers, which prevent break-ins and bypassing the ignition. Since May 2022, St. Louis police received more than 4,500 reports of thefts of Kia or Hyundai vehicles. Sixty-one percent of vehicles stolen in St. Louis have been Kias and Hyundais, St. Louis said.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which on Tuesday accused the largest U.S. retailer of illegally firing a North Carolina deli worker with Crohn's disease. According to a complaint filed in the Charlotte, North Carolina federal court, Walmart did not excuse several absences though Tucker provided doctor's notes, and rejected her requests for periodic leave or a transfer to a job nearer the bathroom. Crohn's disease is an chronic bowel disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract, and can lead to diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and weight loss. Tucker was a long-term employee who needed "flexibility" from Walmart because of her debilitating health condition, EEOC lawyer Melinda Dugas said in a statement. The case is EEOC v Wal-Mart Stores East LP, U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina, No.

March 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday affirmed the Boy Scouts of America's $2.46 billion settlement of decades of sex abuse claims, rejecting appeals by some of the group's insurers and abuse claimants. The Boy Scouts settlement, approved in bankruptcy court in September, was supported by 86% of abuse claimants and the Boy Scouts' two largest insurers. The Boy Scouts organization said it was "enormously grateful" to abuse survivors who spoke out about their experiences and who voted to support the settlement. The judge rejected insurers' appeals that argued the Boy Scouts organization colluded with abuse claimants to shift liability to insurers. The Boy Scouts also contributed additional insurance rights, which may be worth more than $4 billion, to the fund will pay abuse claims, according to Andrews' ruling.

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of conspiring to pay a $40 million bribe to Chinese government officials. The indictment said Bankman-Fried ordered the $40 million cryptocurrency payment to a private wallet from Alameda's main trading account, to persuade Chinese authorities to unfreeze Alameda accounts with more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said the Alameda accounts had been frozen as part of an investigation into an unnamed Alameda counterparty. They also said Bankman-Fried later authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency to "complete" the bribe. Under the new conditions, Bankman-Fried would be barred from using electronics except for a phone with no internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions.

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried said they reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors on Monday on revised bail conditions, after a judge raised the prospect of sending the indicted FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder to jail pending trial. The laptop will have monitoring software to track user activity and Bankman-Fried won't have administrative access to prevent tampering with the restrictions. In Monday's letter, Bankman-Fried's parents agreed to restrict his access to their devices, while also signing sworn affidavits to not bring prohibited electronic devices into their home. If there's reasonable suspicion of a violation, Bankman-Fried must submit his devices for a search, the letter added. But in January, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Bankman-Fried attempted to contact current executives at now-bankrupt FTX.

March 27 (Reuters) - A former National Enquirer publisher testified on Monday before a Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about former President Donald Trump's role in a hush-money payment to a porn star, said a person familiar with the matter. The grand jury's proceedings are shrouded in secrecy and the timing of a grand jury vote is unclear. [1/8] An officer from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Canine Unit checks outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, U.S., March 27, 2023. Costello testified before the grand jury last week. Trump faces several other criminal investigations, including one tied to the Jan. 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol.

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared inclined to uphold a federal law that made it a crime to encourage illegal immigration, signaling agreement with President Joe Biden's administration that the measure does not violate constitutional free speech protections. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Hansen's conviction for violating the provision, which bars inducing or encouraging noncitizens "to come to, enter or reside" in the United States illegally, including for financial gain. The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen's convictions on mail and wire fraud charges. The 9th Circuit decision applies in the group of western states over which it has jurisdiction including Arizona and California, which border Mexico. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction of a group of other states, also ruled against the law in a separate case.

If successful, Amgen would claim ownership of all antibodies that inhibit the PCSK9 protein, the mechanism of action for both Repatha and Praluent. Other companies could then do the same with their own antibody treatments in other disease areas. The case might also affect newer technologies used in medicine, such as CRISPR gene editing and messenger RNA, she said. A Washington, D.C.-based federal appeals court that covers U.S. patent cases invalidated Amgen's patent claiming ownership of all PCSK9 inhibitors as a whole in 2021. Amgen sued Sanofi and Regeneron in 2014.

[1/2] The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, January 5, 2023. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle on Friday came in a prospective antitrust class action that has estimated damages of between $55 billion to $172 billion. Amazon has denied the plaintiffs' claims, arguing that its "Fair Pricing Policy" has procompetitive benefits and that U.S. antitrust law encourages such a policy. Attorneys general in California and Washington, D.C., also have sued Amazon over pricing policies. The case is Frame-Wilson et al v. Amazon.com Inc, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, No.

REUTERS/Eduardo MunozMarch 27 (Reuters) - A Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about former President Donald Trump's role in a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels was expected to reconvene on Monday, a law enforcement source said. The grand jury, which has been meeting since January, could indict Trump over the handling of the payment, which would make him the first U.S. president to face a criminal charge in court. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been presenting evidence about the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump's 2016 election campaign. Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has said he made the payment at Trump's direction to buy her silence about a sexual liaison she says she had with Trump in 2006. Trump faces several other criminal investigations, including one tied to the Jan. 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol.

March 27 (Reuters) - Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and executives, including CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao, have been sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for regulatory violations, according to a court filing on Monday. Binance's compliance program has been "ineffective" and the firm, under the direction of Zhao, told employees and customers to go around compliance controls, the CFTC said. It also accused Binance's former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim of aiding and abetting Binance's violations. "For years, Binance knew they were violating CFTC rules, working actively to both keep the money flowing and avoid compliance. Its core Binance.com exchange, the world's biggest, processed trades worth about $23 trillion last year, according to data provider CryptoCompare.

Donziger's lawyers argued that this appointment violated separation-of-powers principles set out in the Constitution delineating the authority of the three branches of the U.S. government. In 2011, an Ecuadorian court entered an $18 billion judgment that was later reduced to $9.5 billion against Chevron for contamination resulting from oil production. In 2014, Kaplan concluded in that case that the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron in Ecuador was obtained fraudulently through a corrupt process, rendering it unenforceable in the United States. When Chevron suspected Donziger was violating a related ban on trying to monetize or profit from the judgment, Kaplan ordered him to turn over electronic devices and email accounts for examination. After federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to take the case, Kaplan in an unusual move tapped a private lawyer, Rita Glavin, to lead the prosecution of Donziger.

The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen's other convictions and ordered that he be resentenced. The 9th Circuit decision applies in the group of western states over which it has jurisdiction including Arizona and California, which border Mexico. Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled against the law in a separate case. The Justice Department told the justices that the 9th Circuit decision wrongly relied on "hypothetical scenarios that the statute would not encompass." These groups argued that the law threatens attorneys, doctors, scholars and anyone else who speaks in support of immigration.

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