Business news in brief | Judge approves Madoff settlement.

Judge approves Madoff settlement
A New York bankruptcy judge approved a
historic $7.2 billion deal Thursday to settle a
lawsuit brought against the estate of one of the
oldest and wealthiest clients of disgraced financier
Bernard Madoff. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton
Lifland signed off on the deal at the urging of a
court-appointed trustee seeking to recover funds
for thousands of investors burned by Madoff ’s
epic Ponzi scheme.
Trustee Irving Picard and federal authorities
reached the settlement last month with the estate
of Jeffry Picower, a businessman and
philanthropist who drowned in 2009 after
suffering a heart attack in the swimming pool of
his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion. Federal
prosecutors have called the forfeiture the largest
in Justice Department history.
Resentencing date set for Black
Prosecutors said at a status hearing for Conrad
Black on Thursday that they do not intend to
retry the former media mogul on fraud
convictions that an appellate court tossed out last
year. Judge Amy St. Eve also set a June 24
resentencing date for Black on the two
convictions that appellate judges had upheld.
Defense attorneys asked the judge for a June date
to give them a chance to file a new appeal with
the U.S. Supreme Court.
Black, who did not speak during the hearing,
once had a media empire that included the
Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of
London and community papers in the U.S. and
Canada.
Marathon spinning off refining business
Marathon Oil said Thursday it will split into two
companies, separating its business of exploring
for and producing oil from its lower-margin
refining operation. The company says the move
will allow it to be more flexible in operational
decisions. Analysts say it ’s a good time to divest
less profitable businesses as energy markets
recover. The Houston company had considered a
spinoff two years ago but shelved it as prices for
oil and gas plummeted in the recession.
The refining company will be known as Marathon
Petroleum Corp. and will be based in Findlay,
Ohio. It ’s expected to be the nation’s fifth-largest
refiner, with refineries in the Midwest, Gulf Coast
and Southeast. Marathon Petroleum will trade on
the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol
MPC starting on July 1.
European inflation worries
The European Central Bank’s president warned
Thursday that inflation may remain high for
months, raising questions about the possibility of
an eventual interest-rate hike, and he urged
governments to bolster measures to tackle the
eurozone debt crisis.
Jean-Claude Trichet’s comments came after the
ECB left its main interest rate unchanged at 1
percent on Thursday for the 20th consecutive
month. The decision was expected although
annual inflation in the 17-nation eurozone rose to
2.3 percent in December, above its target and a
two-year high. The bank ’s mandate is to keep
inflation “close to but below 2 percent.”


Source: Http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/13/2582346/business-news-in-brief-judge-approves.html