BlueRay sued in billing dispute
A Spokane electrical contractor alleges BlueRay Technologies Inc. owes it at least $81,939 in unpaid bills and finance charges stemming from work at the high-definition disc maker’s downtown plant, according to a lawsuit filed last week.
Arc Electric & Lighting Corp. claims BlueRay last paid in November for work and supplies contracted on a “time and material basis” at the Commercial Building, leaving a balance, according to the suit filed Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court. The company asks for undetermined monetary damages, prejudgment interest of 1.5 percent per month and attorney’s fees.
Steven Schneider, a local attorney for Valencia, Calif.-based BlueRay, contended there was a dispute over the work performed.
“It’s simply a matter of being charged for work that wasn’t done or for work that’s outside of the contract that wasn’t agreed to,” he said.
– Parker Howell
Group Health move will double size
Group Health is moving into a new South Hill medical center that will double the size of its operation and expand pharmacy, X-ray and lab areas.
The move begins Thursday night and the new medical center, at 4102 S. Regal – about a mile down the street from the current location – will be opened at noon Monday. It was built, according to a company press release, to accommodate Group Health’s growing number of patients in South Spokane.
Patients who need care Friday will be referred to Group Health’s Riverfront Medical Center.
Group Health has 578,500 members in Washington and Idaho.
– John Stucke
WASHINGTON
Allied Van Lines files Chapter 11
Moving company Allied Van Lines Inc., along with its corporate parent Sirva Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, the latest victim of a heavy debt load and the downturn in the U.S. housing industry.
The company, which is based in Westmont, Ill., listed assets of $924 million and debts of $1.2 billion. The company has more than 100,000 creditors.
The company said it intends to stay in business during its bankruptcy case and expects to exit Chapter 11 in a few months.
– Associated Press
Ex-Dow Jones exec settles charges
Former Dow Jones & Co. board member David Li and two others will pay $24 million to settle insider trading charges.
Federal regulators accused them of being involved in an illegal-trading scheme ahead of news of a $5 billion takeover offer for the financial news company.
In a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the SEC alleged that on April 12, 2007, Li, chairman of the Bank of East Asia, learned of the then-secret takeover offer for Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Li illegally tipped his close friend Michael Leung about the offer, the agency said.
Leung, with the help of his daughter and son-in-law, bought $15 million of Dow Jones shares in their brokerage account at Merrill Lynch, standing to reap $8 million in illicit profits, the SEC said.
– Associated Press