It Figures

$9.3 Million

An Arkansas lawyer who controlled an escrow account for a settlement in a case involving the Bisys Group Inc. insurance services firm has pleaded guilty to charges of stealing more than $9 million from the account. Lawyer Steven Eugene Cauley told U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty at a plea hearing in Manhattan federal court that he had suffered a “severe depressive episode” but that was not an excuse for his felonies. Cauley was charged with wire fraud and criminal contempt in April when a judge in New York realized that the lawyer could not account for $9.3 million that was to be distributed in a 2007, $65.8 million settlement against the Bisys Group. Cauley is a partner in the Little Rock, Ark., law firm of Cauley Bowman Carney & Williams LLC. During 2007, he periodically transferred amounts totaling at least $9.3 million from the escrow account to pay business expenses from various ventures or for his personal investments, according to court documents.

5

Hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University have lowered their prediction for the number of hurricanes they expect to hit the Atlantic Basin in 2009 to five, down from an April forecast of six hurricanes. The forecasters say information obtained through May indicates that the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season will be slightly less active than the average 1950-2000 season. They predicted 2009 will have 11 named storms, 50 named storm days, 20 hurricane days, 2 major (Category 3-4-5) hurricanes, and 4 major hurricane days.

$28.5 Million

The city of Clinton, Ark., filed suit against Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. for $28.5 million in federal court on May 31, accusing the poultry processor of potentially turning the city into a ghost town by idling its plant there. The North Arkansas city filed a complaint against Pilgrim’s Pride in federal bankruptcy court in Ft. Worth, Texas, and accused the company of trying to manipulate the price of chicken by idling some of its processing plants. Pilgrim’s Pride was the town’s largest and sole remaining employer before it closed. Pilgrim’s Pride announced in 2008 it was idling the Clinton plant as the company struggled with high feed costs and lower market demand. Also in 2008, Clinton was hit by a tornado that destroyed a boat-making plant that employed 45 persons.

Topics Catastrophe Hurricane