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Continued: Court orders hedge fund founder to pay up

Court orders hedge fund founder to pay up

A federal court ordered the former president and founder of a hedge fund to pay nearly $300 million for defrauding clients. Paul Eustace, president and founder of Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management Co., was indicted in November on two criminal counts of commodities fraud. The government said he stole $200 million from clients from 2001 to 2005. On Tuesday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Eustace, of Oakville, Ontario, was ordered to pay $279 million in restitution and a $12 million civil penalty. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania also banned Eustace from trading indefinitely.

Circuit City not ruling out sale, executive says

Circuit City Stores Inc. said Tuesday it's still considering a sale of the company four months after the consumer electronics retailer first announced it was reviewing options to improve shareholder value. The Richmond, Va.-based firm remains committed to its turnaround plan but "the board continues to pursue strategic alternatives," Chief Executive Philip Schoonover said in a statement announcing the appointment of James Marcum, 49, as vice chairman of the company.

Cell phone sales down by 13 percent

U.S. consumers have been buying fewer cell phones but paying higher prices for them, according to a research firm. The NPD Group said in a report Tuesday that 28 million cell phones were sold in the United States in the second quarter, a decline of 13 percent from the same period a year ago.

GM offers employee discount to everybody

General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it will extend employee discounts to everyone on almost all its 2008 and some 2009 models as it seeks to clear its remaining inventory of 2008 vehicles. The Detroit automaker said it will offer employee prices on all 2008 vehicles except its medium-duty trucks. Employee discounts generally are 10 percent below invoice price but vary by model.

General Dynamics to buy Jet Aviation

General Dynamics Corp. said Tuesday it will buy Jet Aviation for about $2.25 billion in cash, part of the defense contractor's push to expand its private civilian jet business and tap into robust demand for luxury planes overseas. With the purchase, Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics pairs its existing private aircraft maker, Gulfstream, with Jet Aviation's global network of maintenance and service centers that can fix planes and outfit them with custom features.

Apple blames batteries for overheating iPods

Apple Inc. said Tuesday that batteries from a single supplier are to blame for the meltdown of some models of its iPod Nano digital music player. Its written statement came in response to a Japanese government report that two iPod Nanos overheated in Tokyo, scorching paper and a straw mat. Apple said the flaw affected first-generation Nanos, sold from September 2005 to December 2006, in very rare instances. It said, "There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage and no reports of incidents for any other iPod Nano model."

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Blog: Patent Pending

Lights out at U energy conference. Irony police notified.

Just as Lawrence Kazmerski, a top official at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was about to give the keynote address at the University of Minnesota's annual E3 conference at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, the lights went out, bathing the audience in darkness and a deep sense of irony.

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