Inside these posts: U.S. District Court Chicago

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American Eagle sues S. Side furniture company

Teen clothing giant American Eagle Outfitters Inc. is suing a South Side Chicago furniture company for trademark infringement. Get the full story »

Judge: Motorola can’t transfer Huawei technology

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits Motorola Solutions Inc. from transferring confidential information by Chinese company Huawei Technologies to Nokia Siemens Networks, which is planning to buy Motorola’s networks business in a $1.2 billion transaction.

Huawei sued Motorola last month, arguing that the deal with NSN would represent a misappropriation of Huawei trade secrets. Motorola and Huawei have commercial agreements dating back a decade, during which Motorola bought Huawei network technologies and resold the equipment under its own brand. Get the full story »

Huawei sues Motorola over technology transfer

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. sued Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks Monday, seeking to stop the planned $1.2 billion sale of Motorola’s networks business to the European company.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, marks the first time Huawei has sued a U.S. company. Get the full story »

Ex-Chicago fund manager charged in $3.5M fraud

A former Chicago hedge fund manager accused of engaging swindling more than $3.5 million from approximately 48 victims who invested in funds he purported to operate, has turned himself in to federal authorities.

James Brandolino, 42, of Joliet and formerly of Chicago, was charged with mail fraud in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Prosecutors said he obtained about $4.7 million from 48 high net worth investors since 2003 for purported managed futures trading accounts and a commodity pool investment. He provided about $1.1 million in investor redemptions and allegedly lost roughly half of the total invested funds through trading and misused most of the remaining funds for his own benefit, prosecutors said. Get the full story »

Hearing set in Conrad Black’s bid to remain free

Conrad Black enters a Chicago court room in 2007. (Tribune file)

Will former media mogul Conrad Black eventually head back to prison? Or will the flamboyant, 66-year-old’s long-running legal saga end with a judge setting him free for good? A status hearing Thursday in Chicago isn’t likely to answer those questions definitively, though it could provide clues about what U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve is inclined to do.

Two years into a 6 1/2-year sentence, Black was released last year from a Florida prison while he appealed his conviction for defrauding Hollinger International Inc. investors. Black, whose media empire once included the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London and community papers in the U.S. and Canada, was expected to attend Thursday’s hearing. Get the full story »

Honey executive sentenced to 30 months in prison

A honey import executive who pleaded guilty to conspiring to avoid more than $5 million in U.S. anti-dumping duties has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Hung Ta Fan, who also used the name Michael Fan, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago and was ordered to pay about $5.38 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty to the charges in August. Get the full story »

Ill. man gets 23 years for $77M Ponzi scheme

Tearful, angry victims of a $77 million Ponzi scheme that targeted hundreds of often working-class Italian-Americans crowded into a Chicago courtroom Thursday to tell their stories before a judge handed the convicted swindler a maximum 23-year prison term.

The federal judge rejected prosecutors’ recommendation of a 12 1/2 year sentence for Frank Castaldi — in part because he had reported the two-decade scam himself — saying that would let the 57-year-old accountant and businessman off too easy, given the lives he ruined.

Judge: Zell can’t be made to pay for pension losses

A U.S. District Judge in Chicago ruled Monday that Sam Zell can’t be made to pay for the company’s retirement fund losses because Tribune isn’t directly involved in the lawsuit. Zell was sued by workers who claimed that the billionaire caused the company’s employee stock ownership plan to lose value.

Rush, 6 doctors named in whistleblower suit

A group of doctors at Rush University Medical Center’s prestigious orthopedic department routinely overbooked their schedules and relied heavily on residents to perform surgeries, violating federal Medicare billing rules, according to a newly unsealed whistle-blower lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The suit alleges that in one instance, a surgeon never entered the operating room to supervise a procedure. In others, a surgeon monitored residents performing operations via video feed while simultaneously performing his own operations in nearby rooms.