Title insurer to repay Colo. homebuyers for kickbacks
The nation’s largest title insurance company plans to refund 2,080 Colorado homeowners a total of $103,000 as part of a multimillion-dollar national settlement for giving kickbacks to builders in exchange for business.
First American Title Insurance Co. of Santa Ana, Calif., will send checks averaging $58 each to Colorado homeowners, vice president and attorney James Dufficy said Thursday. The money will go to people who purchased houses from Los Angeles builder KB Home from December 2002 through January.
The company volunteered to pay a $24 million settlement to approximately 120,000 homeowners in five states after investigators with the Colorado Division of Insurance discovered the kickbacks.
State officials said at least two other large title companies – Fidelity Financial Co. and America Financial Group Inc. – also provided kickbacks. Those companies so far have refused to pay settlements.
Title insurance, which typically costs home sellers between $500 and $1,000, protects lenders and owners against losses from property-ownership disputes.
Qwest outreach effort targets tribal areas
Qwest announced Thursday an expanded outreach effort aimed at promoting low-cost telephone service to those living on the more than 60 tribal lands across its 14-state region.
The effort, combined with new federal guidelines, will make more residents eligible for Qwest’s Tribal Lifeline and Tribal Link-Up telephone assistance programs.
Children’s foundation names new president
The Kempe Children’s Foundation, a leader in the treatment, research and prevention of child abuse, on Thursday named Pat Loewi as its new president and chief executive.
Loewi has served as president and CEO of Colorado Special Olympics. She also was a founding owner of radio station 96.5 FM, “The Peak,” where she conceived and directed the Peak Foundation, the nation’s first charitable foundation associated with a commercial radio station.
Chamber offering health insurance plans
The Boulder Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday that it is offering health insurance options to its members.
The plans, administered through Humana Inc., were made possible through the cooperation and collaboration of several key players, including Meyers-Dining Group, Boulder Community Hospital, Humana and the Boulder Chamber.
Convicted tax evader jailed until sentencing
A federal judge on Thursday ordered that convicted tax evader Paul Harris be incarcerated immediately. Harris, 63, of Elizabeth, was convicted Wednesday with Lester Retherford, 70, of Ca on City, of an offshore tax-evasion scheme that shielded nearly $9 million in income for small-business owners.
His attorneys had argued that Harris should be allowed to remain free on bond until his sentencing, but U.S. District Judge Walker Miller disagreed.
Harris faces up to 10 years in prison.
Regal agrees to buy 22-theater chain
Regal Entertainment Group, the world’s largest owner of movie theaters, agreed to buy theater chain Eastern Federal Theaters for about $127.6 million in cash.
Regal will add 22 theaters and 238 screens in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina with the purchase of Eastern Federal, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter.
New York AG probes banks’ mortgage rates
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is probing at least five banks to determine whether they charged blacks, other minorities and seniors excessive mortgage rates, a person familiar with the inquiry said.
Spitzer sent data requests on home loans to Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., said the person, who declined to be identified.
Marvel to produce films on comic heroes
Marvel Enterprises Inc. will begin producing movies based on its comic book characters and team up with Paramount Pictures to distribute the films, the companies announced Thursday, in a deal Marvel said will boost its revenues.
New York-based Marvel was able to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1998 in part because it licensed some of its most famous comic book figures to Hollywood studios.
Tyco ex-CEO begins cross-examination
Prosecutors began their cross-examination of former Tyco International Ltd. chief L. Dennis Kozlowski on Thursday, seeking to show he was not allowed to dip into company coffers on his own personal whims.
“Tyco was not your company, was it?” Manhattan prosecutor Ann Donnelly asked the former CEO.
“Tyco belongs to the shareholders,” Kozlowski answered.
Kozlowski, 58, and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz, are being retried on grand-larceny charges after their first trial ended in a mistrial.
Sears Holding begins laying off employees
Hundreds of employees at Sears Holdings Corp. headquarters are getting pink slips this week as the retailer carries out layoffs it warned would happen when the company was formed by the March acquisition of Sears, Roebuck and Co. by Kmart Holding Corp.
