Isle of Man

The Securities Commission says there may be more legal action against four Lombard Finance and Investments directors, including former National Party cabinet minister Sir Douglas Graham, Radio New Zealand reported. Sir Douglas and the other directors, former Labour Party cabinet minister, Bill Jeffries, Michael Reeves, and Lawrence Bryant face penalties of up to $500,000 each for allegedly misleading investors. The civil action by the Securities Commission comes two years after Lombard Finance was placed into receivership, owing $127 million to about 4400 investors.
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Canwest Global Communications Corp. will make changes to the way the court-supervised sale of its newspapers and online businesses will work, a company spokesman said Monday. A committee of noteholders had complained the bidding process for Canwest LP, which holds the big city dailies like the Ottawa Citizen and the Montreal Gazette, was not robust enough, the Canadian Press reported. Canwest spokesman John Douglas said the company worked with the group and a mutual agreement has been reached.
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Hundreds of creditors are lining up to be paid by CanWest GlobalCommunications Corp., as the company attempts to restructure, ranging from a small karate studio in Toronto owed about $25 to some of Hollywood's most powerful television producers that may be owed millions, The Globe and Mail reported. CanWest, which filed for protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, is trying to restructure its debt, which reached close to $4-billion this year. The list of parties the company owes money to was released in a 50-page spreadsheet that details how diverse those debts are.
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American International Group Inc. is close to selling its Japanese headquarters for about $1 billion, in a deal that would mark one of the largest divestitures the insurance company has made to pay off its government debt, people familiar with the matter said. At least two suitors have been vying for the property, but the expected buyer is a Japanese insurance company, The Wall Street Journal reported. AIG owes the U.S. government about $45 billion as part of a rescue package that could total as much as $173.3 billion.
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