Lawyers representing the state of California questioned French tycoon Francois Pinault in Paris on Friday over his alleged role in the illegal buyout of bankrupt insurer Executive Life.
Pinault's questioning was led by Gary Fontana, an attorney for the California Department of Insurance, which is suing Pinault for US$1 billion and the French state and other parties for US$2 billion.
Pinault, who controls the retail and luxury empire Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA, declined to comment as he arrived at the courtroom.
The civil suit follows a deal with California prosecutors last November in which Pinault, the French state, bank Credit Lyonnais and insurer MAAF agreed to pay US$772 million to settle criminal charges against them.
Pinault contributed US$185 million to the settlement and the French government paid US$475 million, averting the embarrassment of defending itself against criminal charges.
MAAF and others took over Executive Life on behalf of then-state owned Credit Lyonnais in 1991-1992 after the insurer went bust, taking policyholders' investments with it. US law barred banks from controlling insurance companies at that time.
Pinault, who had spied a potential bargain in the form of the failed insurer's junk bond portfolio, subsequently bought Executive Life from a Credit Lyonnais subsidiary.
Pinault's holding company, Artemis, acknowledged that he made a multibillion dollar profit by selling the portfolio when markets picked up but denied he had done so in the knowledge that the buyout had broken US law.
Fontana has already interrogated French officials and former MAAF and Credit Lyonnais employees after talks on a possible out-of-court settlement failed to make progress.
The pressure is now increasing on both sides ahead of the court action, scheduled for February in Los Angeles.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS