COMMERCE CITY – Suncor Energy Inc., the world’s second-largest oil-sands producer, said it has completed maintenance on the crude-oil unit at its Commerce City refinery.
Suncor expects to reach full production capacity by the end of the week, said Brad Bellows, a company spokesman. About 20,000 barrels of production capacity was out of service during the shutdown, he said.
Suncor announced it was shutting the unit for 16 days Jan. 19.
MORE BRIEFS
DOUGLAS COUNTY
Liberty Media swaps CBS stake for station
Media investor John Malone took the latest step to streamline Liberty Media Corp. by swapping a 1 percent stake in CBS Corp. on Tuesday for a television station in Wisconsin and $170 million in cash.
It is the latest move by Malone to simplify Liberty’s corporate structure by swapping passive investments in other media companies for operating businesses.
Liberty’s 7.6 million shares of CBS stock were equivalent to about 1 percent of the company. The deal values the Green Bay TV station at $64 million.
ATLANTA
Hedge-fund chief must pay $19.9 million
Hedge-fund manager Kirk Wright, accused of cheating clients, including four current or former Denver Broncos players, was ordered to pay $19.9 million in a suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, a U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta ordered Wright to forfeit $19.8 million and pay a $120,000 fine, the SEC said in a statement Tuesday.
The SEC alleged Wright falsified statements about the assets and returns of seven funds managed by his Marietta, Ga., firm.
Six current and former professional football players – including Terrell Davis, Steve Atwater, Rod Smith and Ray Crockett – have sued Wright. He also faces criminal mail-fraud charges.
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.
First Data faces suit over patent dispute
Sandata Technologies Inc. sued Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp.’s Government Solutions affiliate, claiming it infringed on three patents covering a telephone-based system for tracking workers.
First Data Government Solutions is using the innovations without permission, Sandata said in a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Wilmington, Del.
NEW YORK
Citigroup to get out from under umbrella
Citigroup Inc. decided it’s better off without Sanford Weill’s umbrella.
The biggest U.S. bank plans to sell its red-umbrella trademark to St. Paul Travelers Cos. and operate under the “Citi” name after failing to get most consumers to think of anything except insurance when they saw the 137- year-old symbol. The deal, announced in separate statements, reunites the Travelers name with a logo that consumers still associate with the insurer.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Bank’s credit-card
plan stirs up criticism
Bank of America said Tuesday it will issue credit cards to Spanish-speaking immigrants who might not have Social Security numbers, triggering complaints that the nation’s largest retail bank is tacitly endorsing illegal immigration.
The program is confined for the time to 51 branches in Los Angeles County. It could expand nationally this year.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., accused the lender of aiding terrorists, while the Department of Homeland Security worried that the program could be exploited by criminals.
BofA spokeswoman Alexandra Trower said the company complies with all banking and anti-terrorism laws governing customer identification, which she said permits the use of taxpayer ID numbers instead of Social Security numbers.
Applicants must have a second form of identification and have had a BofA checking account for at least three months.
RENO, Nev.
Walgreen cleared
in racial-bias claim
A jury Tuesday cleared Walgreen Co. of racial discrimination alleged in a $2.5 million civil lawsuit brought by four black Texas men who say they were wronged in a confrontation at a Reno drugstore four years ago.
The jury in Washoe County District Court deliberated less than an hour after listening to seven days of testimony.
CINCINNATI
Comair says pay cuts will end bankruptcy
Regional airline Comair said a tentative deal with its pilots on wage cuts and other concessions will produce the savings from employees needed to leave bankruptcy protection.
Now the Delta Air Lines Inc. subsidiary must focus on what has to be done to secure its long-term survival.
CHICAGO
Tribune Co. expects decision soon on sale
Tribune Co.’s board, weighing a possible sale of the company after a four-month search for buyers, said it plans to decide by the end of the first quarter.
Directors led by chief executive Dennis FitzSimons met Tuesday to consider an offer by the Chandler family, Tribune’s largest shareholder, which says the Chicago-based company is worth $7.6 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.
Google ending hurdle to free e-mail service
Google Inc.’s free e-mail service will shed the final remnants of its invitation-only restrictions today, extending the reach of an increasingly popular product that has emerged as a vital cog in the online search leader’s expansion efforts.
Invitations will no longer be required to join the nearly 3-year- old Gmail service in the United States, Canada, Mexico and a swath of Asian and South American countries where the company previously limited the number of users.
