By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc was ordered by a federal judge to face a securities class-action lawsuit accusing it of defrauding investors about a 2006 offering of securities backed by risky mortgage loans from a now-defunct lender.

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer in Manhattan certified a class-action lawsuit by investors led by the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi.

These investors claimed they lost money in the GSAMP Trust 2006-S2, a $698 million offering of certificates backed by second-lien home loans made by New Century Financial Corp, a California subprime mortgage specialist that went bankrupt in 2007.

Thursday’s decision is a setback for Goldman, which had sought to force investors to bring their cases individually.

Class certification lets investors pool resources, which can cut costs, and can lead to larger recoveries than if investors are forced to sue individually.

Goldman spokesman Michael Duvally declined to comment.

Feb 2 (Reuters) – Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, U.S. prosecutors said they seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

According to the government, the 16 websites provided links to give viewers easy access to other sites that hosted pirated telecasts from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (“WWE”) (WWE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and TNA Impact Wrestling. The latter is also broadcast on Viacom Inc’s (VIAB.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Spike TV.

Prosecutors said such piracy costs leagues and broadcasters millions of dollars a year, and some of this cost is passed on to ticket buyers and sports network subscribers.

“These websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue” in what amounts to “virtual thievery,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, who announced the website seizures.

The websites are firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.com, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.tv, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.com, sports95.net, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, xonesports.tv, youwwe.com and youwwe.net.

As prosecutors announced the seizure on Thursday, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, expected to start in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the New York Giants, admitted to reporters his own use of an illegal website.

“Last year, you know, I was rehabbing my foot, you know, in Costa Rica, watching the game on an illegal Super Bowl website,” he said in a video posted Thursday on the NFL website. “And now I’m actually playing in the game. So it’s pretty cool.”

Feb 2 (Reuters) – Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, U.S. prosecutors said they seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

According to the government, the 16 websites provided links to give viewers easy access to other sites that hosted pirated telecasts from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (“WWE”) (WWE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and TNA Impact Wrestling. The latter is also broadcast on Viacom Inc’s (VIAB.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Spike TV.

Prosecutors said such piracy costs leagues and broadcasters millions of dollars a year, and some of this cost is passed on to ticket buyers and sports network subscribers.

“These websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue” in what amounts to “virtual thievery,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, who announced the website seizures.

The websites are firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.com, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.tv, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.com, sports95.net, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, xonesports.tv, youwwe.com and youwwe.net.

As prosecutors announced the seizure on Thursday, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, expected to start in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the New York Giants, admitted to reporters his own use of an illegal website.

“Last year, you know, I was rehabbing my foot, you know, in Costa Rica, watching the game on an illegal Super Bowl website,” he said in a video posted Thursday on the NFL website. “And now I’m actually playing in the game. So it’s pretty cool.”

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, federal prosecutors said they have seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

According to the government, the 16 websites provided links to give viewers easy access to other sites that hosted pirated telecasts from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (“WWE”) and TNA Impact Wrestling. The latter is also broadcast on Viacom Inc’s Spike TV.

Prosecutors said such piracy costs leagues and broadcasters millions of dollars a year, and some of this cost is passed on to ticket purchasers and sports network subscribers.

“These websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue” in what amounts to “virtual thievery,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, who announced the website seizures.

The seized websites are firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.com, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.tv, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.com, sports95.net, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, xonesports.tv, youwwe.com and youwwe.net.

The defendant charged in the case is Yonjo Quiroa, 28, who faces one count of criminal infringement of a copyright.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – The judge overseeing MF Global Holdings Ltd’s (MFGLQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) bankruptcy rejected requests by some former customers to convert the case to a Chapter 7 liquidation or conduct their own probe into the futures and commodities brokerage’s sudden collapse.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan cited the potential cost to creditors and disruption of several federal investigations in setting aside the request by three commodity customers led by Sapere Wealth Management LLC.

MF Global filed for protection from creditors on October 31 amid a liquidity shortfall, as investors and trading clients worried about then-Chief Executive Jon Corzine’s $6.3 billion (3.9 billion pounds) bet on European sovereign debt.

Investigators are trying to track down a sum of missing customer money that has been estimated as high as $1.2 billion.

Corzine, who had previously served as a governor and senator from New Jersey, testified before the U.S. Congress in December that he did not know where the missing money is.

The three former customers, which claimed to have had $241 million in their commodity accounts, had sought to liquidate the parent under a bankruptcy law concerning commodities brokers. This could have allowed commodity customers such as themselves to be repaid first.

Feb 1 (Reuters) – Vivendi SA (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) has won the dismissal of much of what remained in a nearly decade-old U.S. lawsuit accusing the French media company of misleading shareholders about its finances in connection with a giant merger.

In a Jan. 27 opinion made public on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell in Manhattan threw out claims by individual shareholders who had bought ordinary Vivendi shares on the Paris Bourse.

The judge cited a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), that limited the ability of investors to raise fraud claims over the purchase of foreign securities.

Holwell had last February thrown out a majority of other claims in the lawsuit, which was first filed in 2002 and originally estimated at $9.3 billion. [ID:nN2268450]

James Sabella, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the case, declined to comment.

(Reporting By Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Derek Caney)

((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com)(646)(223-6317)(Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.reuters.com@thomsonreuters.net)) Keywords: VIVENDI/SHAREHOLDER LAWSUIT

Feb 1 (Reuters) – United Retail Group Inc, which operates 433 Avenue stores that sell plus-size women’s apparel, on Wednesday filed for bankruptcy protection and said it plans to be sold after being burdened by falling sales and expensive store leases.

The Rochelle Park, New Jersey-based company said the private equity firm Versa Capital Management LLC has agreed to buy inventory, an Ohio distribution facility and leases for at least 300 stores, subject to higher bids in the Chapter 11 process.

United Retail said it has begun closing 14 stores, and has identified 100 “chronically underperforming” stores where it hopes to get out of or renegotiate its leases.

It joined a variety of clothing retailers to file for bankruptcy in recent years as shoppers curb spending, such as Goody’s Family Clothing, Gottschalks, Steve & Barry’s and Syms.

In a court filing, United Retail Chief Executive Dawn Robertson, a former president of Gap Inc’s (GPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Old Navy unit, said “Avenue’s current cash needs are significant and liquidity continues to be strained.”

She said Redcats USA Inc, a unit of Paris-based retail conglomerate PPR SA (PRTP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) that bought Avenue in 2007 for $199 million, has concluded that Avenue is “not core” to its business of selling plus-size apparel online.

Robertson said sales fell 4 percent last year to $300.6 million, and losses quadrupled to $28.1 million as measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization

By Jonathan Stempel and Basil Katz

(Reuters) – Federal prosecutors expanded their insider trading case against former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) director Rajat Gupta on Tuesday, saying the illegal activity lasted longer and involved more trades than alleged.

A new indictment filed in Manhattan federal court expanded the period in which Gupta, 63, supposedly provided illegal tips to his friend Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group hedge fund founder now serving an 11-year prison term following his insider trading conviction.

The charges now relate to trades that prosecutors said Rajaratnam made between March 2007 and January 2009 in the stock of Goldman and Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), where Gupta was also a director.

Gupta, a former chief of the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, is the most prominent corporate executive to face insider trading charges in a wide-ranging federal probe since Rajaratnam was arrested in October 2009. He has pleaded not guilty.

Gary Naftalis, a lawyer for Gupta, said in a statement the new charges are baseless and rely on circumstantial evidence.

“The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of all of these charges, and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity,” Naftalis said. “(Gupta) did not trade in any securities, did not tip Mr. Rajaratnam so he could trade, and did not share in any profits as part of any quid pro quo.”

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday said Halliburton Co is not liable for some pollution claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, setting back BP Plc’s effort to hold other companies responsible for part of the $42 billion cleanup.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said BP must indemnify Halliburton, which provided cementing services for the Macondo oil well, for third-party compensatory claims under their contract, even if Halliburton is found grossly negligent.

The indemnification relates to claims arising from pollution or contamination that did not originate from Halliburton property located above the land or water.

Halliburton would still be responsible for punitive damages, as well as civil fines under the federal Clean Water Act.

“This is a very positive step for Halliburton, however outstanding issues still remain,” wrote Angie Sedita, a UBS Securities LLC analyst who has a “buy” rating on that company. “The claim of fraud against Halliburton and thus a breach of contract does appear to leave an open issue in the court’s eyes.”

Barbier issued a similar ruling on January 26 that required BP to indemnify Transocean Ltd, which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, on compensatory damages claims.

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – The federal judge overseeing MF Global Holdings Ltd’s (MFGLQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bankruptcy appointed one law firm to represent brokerage employees who claimed to be fired unfairly, ending a “vitriolic battle” for that role.

Outten & Golden will lead litigation accusing James Giddens, the trustee liquidating the company’s broker-dealer unit, of firing the unit’s roughly 1,066 workers without providing 60 days notice required under federal and New York state labor law.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn rejected a request of by firm Harwood Feffer to lead the case, noting that its own lawsuit was filed later and “appears to be a nearly-word-for-word copy” of the original Outten lawsuit.

The “vitriolic battle” has left defense lawyers “happily standing on the sidelines,” and should be ended to avoid duplicate litigation, Glenn wrote.

Harwood Feffer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit is among a variety of litigation spawned by the October 31 bankruptcy of MF Global, a large futures and commodities brokerage then led by former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine.