By Jonathan Stempel and Sruthi Ramakrishnan

(Reuters) – Sprint Nextel Corp on Monday said it has sued Dish Network Corp to block its tender offer for Clearwire Corp, on the eve of a key deadline in a takeover battle that also includes Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank Corp.

The lawsuit filed on Monday in Delaware Chancery Court accuses Dish of trying to “fool” and “coerce” Clearwire shareholders into tendering their shares, and rejecting Sprint’s competing effort to buy the 49.8 percent it did not already own of the wireless broadband provider.

NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) – New York City has settled a
lawsuit in which the federal government accused it of improperly
reducing retirement benefits for current and former police
officers who served in the military after Sept. 11, 2001.

Monday’s settlement calls for pension benefits for New York
City Police Department (“NYPD”) officers to be calculated in
accordance with a 1994 federal law that protects the rights of
civilian employees who are called to active duty.

June 14 (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co must face a
lawsuit accusing the largest U.S. bank of illegally imposing
marked-up or unnecessary fees on delinquent mortgage borrowers,
a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland,
California on Thursday rejected the bank’s attempt to dismiss
fraud and unjust enrichment claims by the plaintiff borrowers,
who hope to represent classes of borrowers nationwide.

June 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission has settled civil charges accusing eight former
directors of Morgan Keegan bond mutual funds of failing to
police the portfolio managers they oversaw, allowing toxic
mortgage assets to be overvalued prior to the financial crisis.

While the SEC imposed no fines and required only that the
directors cease and desist from future violations, co-director
of enforcement George Canellos said the settlement sends a
“clear warning” that fund directors and trustees uphold their
duty to ensure that funds properly price securities they own.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Revlon Inc with misleading shareholders about a transaction with its controlling shareholder, billionaire Ronald Perelman, and the cosmetics company agreed to pay a fine of $850,000.

Revlon did not admit or deny wrongdoing in settling civil charges that it withheld information that could help helped shareholders evaluate the fairness of a 2009 “going private” transaction with Perelman’s MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – A South Dakota meat processor that sued ABC News over a series of reports that called its signature product “pink slime” has won the right to move its $1.2 billion defamation and product disparagement lawsuit back to the state court where it began.

Wednesday’s decision to move the case by U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is a defeat for ABC News, a unit of Walt Disney Co, and returned the lawsuit by Beef Products Inc (BPI) and two affiliates back to the Union County Circuit Court in that state.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in New Jersey on Wednesday unveiled criminal charges against eight people accused of trying to steal at least $15 million from U.S. customers in an international cybercrime scheme targeting accounts at 15 financial institutions and government agencies.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said the conspiring hackers gained unauthorized access to computer networks, diverted customer funds to bank accounts and pre-paid debit cards and used “cashers” to make ATM withdrawals and fraudulent purchases in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and elsewhere.

June 12 (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in New Jersey on
Wednesday unveiled criminal charges against eight people accused
of trying to steal at least $15 million from U.S. customers in
an international cybercrime scheme targeting accounts at 15
financial institutions and government agencies.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said the conspiring hackers
gained unauthorized access to computer networks, diverted
customer funds to bank accounts and pre-paid debit cards and
used “cashers” to make ATM withdrawals and fraudulent purchases
in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and elsewhere.

June 11 (Reuters) – Walgreen Co, the largest U.S.
drugstore chain, has agreed to pay a record $80 million in civil
penalties to resolve allegations that it violated federal rules
that govern how prescription painkillers are distributed.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday said the
settlement is the largest in its history.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – A former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) finance executive on Monday pleaded guilty to an insider trading charge, admitting to buying stock options in a biotechnology company that the drugmaker was preparing to buy.

Robert Ramnarine, 46, admitted to one count of securities fraud for trading in Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc options before Bristol-Myers agreed to buy that company last June for $5.3 billion, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey said.