A man was sentenced Tuesday to more than two years in prison for his role in a plot to sell forged paintings that he claimed to be the work of a renowned Louisiana folk artist. U.S. District Judge Dee Drell in Alexandria sentenced Robert E. Lucky Jr., 64, of New Orleans, to 25 months in prison and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay nearly $327,000 in restitution.
Lucky pleaded guilty in August to one count of mail fraud. He was charged with conspiring with a Baton Rouge couple, William and Beryl Ann Toye, to sell fake Clementine Hunter paintings to unsuspecting art collectors.
The Toyes were sentenced in October to two years of probation.
Lucky’s attorney didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Prosecutors said Lucky sold many of the forgeries that William Toye, 80, painted.
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Small businesses looking for an infusion of capital won’t have much luck getting it from investment bankers or private equity firms, a new study shows.
In research by the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project, an ongoing research study at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, the majority of investment bankers and private equity firms said there are few small companies that meet their criteria for investment.
The holiday giant’s annual report revealed Manny Fontenla-Novoa received the payout on top of the £1.19 million earned in his last year of employment until he resigned in August following a string of profit warnings.
The £1.17 million payment consisted of salary, pension allowance and benefits, and was owed to Mr Fontenla-Novoa in accordance to his contract terms.
After Mr Fontenla-Novoa resigned, Thomas Cook fell on even harder times, culminating in a cry for help to its lenders and a decision to axe some 200 shops and cut hundreds of jobs as it moves to save the business.
Elsewhere, the report reveals that interim chief executive Sam Weihagen, who was set to retire, was awarded an annual salary of £750,000 with a potential annual bonus of £1.3 million or 175% of salary if he successfully gets the business back on track.
The annual report was published as the group announced a boardroom clearout with the departure of three of its longest-serving non-executive directors.
David Allvey, Bo Lerenius and Peter Middleton, three of its longest-serving board members, will retire after the annual meeting on February 8, as the firm looks to make a fresh start.
Thomas Cook, which has 1,300 shops, has set out a turnaround plan for the UK business, including focusing on fewer and better quality hotels and a drive for more online bookings.
PA
Who knew that nearly 40% of the world’s computer hard drives are made in Thailand?
With hard drive production concentrated so heavily in one country, some might say that it was only a matter of time before a natural disaster or man-made disaster disrupted hard drive manufacturing in Thailand and caused a slowdown in PC production.
Sure enough, the worst flooding in decades in Thailand has brought hard drive production to a near standstill. Indeed, Shara Tibken of Dow Jones Newswires reported that “many tech companies — including hard drive maker Western Digital Corp. (WDC) and component supplier Hutchinson Technology Inc. (HTCH) — had suspended operations in Thailand as rising water flooded their facilities.”
For small business owners and entrepreneurs, the floods in Thailand will result in rising IT costs.
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French biotechnology company Ipsen is making a $45 million dollar investment in its Milford research and development and technical operations facility.
Ipsen develops new therapies and manufactures proteins used in the treatment of hemophilia at the Milford location, which is currently 77,000 square feet and has 150 employees. The new project, now in the design phase, includes the construction of a new three-story, 62,000-square-foot building and the renovation of the two existing buildings.
The company said it expects to break ground on the project in the middle of next year and finish it in early 2014.
Ipsen also announced that it will relocate its U.S. operations headquarters from Birsbane, Calif. to Bridgewater, N.J.