NATIONAL BRIEFING

Friday, February 20, 2009

LEGAL

Allen Stanford Found in Virginia

FBI agents found R. Allen Stanford, the suspected mastermind of a $9.2 billion financial fraud, in Fredericksburg, Va., and served him with court papers, authorities said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Stanford, his three companies and two associates with fraud Tuesday after determining that he was allegedly misleading customers in the sale of certificates of deposit and other financial products.

Federal agents raided his office buildings in Houston, a judge froze his assets and a receiver was put in charge of his companies. But Stanford, a billionaire who spends much of the year in Antigua, where the bank at the center of the alleged fraud is based, could not be found.

The lawyer representing him in the SEC investigation had weeks earlier ended his association with Stanford and disavowed any earlier statements.

The investigation into Stanford has focused on what the SEC has called "impossible" returns on his investment portfolio, generating questions about whether he was running a Ponzi scheme.

The SEC has worked with criminal authorities on the case, but no criminal charges have yet been filed against Stanford. The SEC often files civil charges before criminal charges are filed.

TELECOM

Sprint Nextel Loses $1.6 Billion

Sprint Nextel said it lost $1.6 billion during the fourth quarter, down from a $29.3 billion loss during the comparable period a year earlier, which included a $29 billion write-down of the value of its 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications. Revenue fell 14 percent, to $8.4 billion, missing analysts' expectation of $8.55 billion.

The nation's third-largest wireless carrier said it lost 1.27 million customers during the quarter, including 1.1 million "postpaid" customers, who are on contracts and are considered the most valuable subscribers. The numbers were a slight improvement from the third quarter, when Sprint lost 1.32 million customers.

For all of 2008, the company said it lost $2.8 billion, compared with a loss of $29.4 billion in 2007. Revenue fell 11.2 percent, to $35.6 billion.

MEDIA

N.Y. Times Suspends Dividend

The New York Times board is suspending the newspaper publisher's quarterly dividend in a move to preserve cash as advertising income continues to decline amid the recession. The company had slashed its dividend from 23 cents to 6 cents in November.

AUTOMOTIVE

Mitsubishi Ends Chrysler Deal

Mitsubishi Motors North America will end a contract with Chrysler to build a midsize pickup truck at the end of 2010.

A Mitsubishi spokesman said Chrysler now builds the Raider pickup for Mitsubishi at its Warren, Mich., truck plant. The Raider is a rebranded Dodge Dakota, and neither the Mitsubishi nor the Dodge have sold well of late.

Mitsubishi sold 2,935 Raiders last year, down 65 percent from the previous year. Dakota sales were down 49 percent, at 26,044, according to Autodata.

EARNINGS

CVS Caremark said its profit rose 17 percent in the fourth quarter as drugstore customers bought more CVS-brand products. Earnings were $952.8 million, compared with $815 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Revenue rose 10 percent, to $24.14 billion. For the year, profit increased 18 percent, to $3.21 billion, while revenue rose 15 percent, to $87.47 billion.

Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.