Actos Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Bladder Cancer Risk

A class action lawsuit (actos lawsuit) has been filed against Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly on behalf of all users of the diabetes drug Actos, seeking financial compensation and medical monitoring as a result of the drug makers’ failure to adequately warn about the risk of bladder cancer from Actos.

The Actos class action lawsuit was filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on behalf of two users of the drug who developed bladder cancer, and one of their spouses. However, the complaint seeks class certification to include coverage for the millions of individuals who used Actos in the United States since it was introduced in 1999.

Actos (pioglitazone)

Actos (pioglitazone) is a prescription medication approved by the FDA for treatment of Type II diabetes. The drug increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin, and has increased in popularity in recent years, generating an estimated $4.3 billion in sales last year and becoming one of the ten best selling drugs in the United States.

FDA issued warnings

Recently, concerns have surfaced about a potential increased risk of bladder cancer from Actos. In June 2011, the FDA issued warnings indicating that use of Actos for more than one year has been associated with a bladder cancer risk. As a result of the high incidence of cancer identified, French drug regulators forced an Actos recall to be issued in that country, and many have suggested that Actos should be removed from the market in the United States as well.

In recent months, dozens of individuals throughout the United States have filed an Actos bladder cancer lawsuit, alleging that Takeda pharmaceuticals failed to adequately research their medication or warn about the potential risks associated with use.

Lawsuit over Actos filed on September 16

According to allegations raised in the class action lawsuit over Actos filed on September 16, Takeda had a significant financial incentive to suppress, misrepresent and conceal the potential dangers assocaited with Actos to maximize their profits at the expense of the health of patients taking the drug. As a result of the drug maker’s failure to appropriately disclose material information about the known risk of cancer from Actos, the complaint alleges that users did not have adequate information about the risks of using Actos and were therefore unable to avoid exposing themselves to a risk of injury.

“Clearly, the relationship between Actos and bladder cancer has been known, or should have been known, to Defendants,” the class action Actos complaint alleges. “Despite their knowledge, Defendants refused to inform patients, doctors or the medical community about the risks and put their profits before people.”

Plaintiffs indicate that they are bringing the Actos class action to recover money damages, medical monitoring and other relief for all individuals who ingested Actos in the United States or it’s territories since it was introduced in July 1999. Actos was taken by millions of people each week, resulting in a class that could include a millions if the complaint is certified.

U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is expected to decide later this year whether the federal Actos litigation, which currently consists of more than 50 individual lawsuits and this one class action, should be centralized before one judge for pretrial proceedings. If the cases are consolidated, the cases would be managed in a manner similar to how an Actos class action suit would be handled during discovery and pretrial litigation. However, if an Actos settlement or other resolution is not reached, each case would be handled individually for trial.

Article: Actos Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Bladder Cancer Risk
Article Source: BeElected.com
Author: Brown Eyesman

Actos Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Bladder Cancer Risk

Tags; Actos Lawsuit; Actos Cancer; Bladder Cancer; Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Resources; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Actos Lawsuit;Actos Cancer; Bladder Cancer

Victims of the April 20, 2010 oil spillage by the British Petroleum (BP) can now file for oil spill claims.  It was a great disaster for most people whose businesses and companies were along the coastal line.  The extent of the damage caused by the oil spillage was enormous.  It was reported that about twenty five thousand barrels of oil were spilled daily in the Gulf of Mexico.  That is a massive spillage in the history of oil spills so far.  About 11 people were also reported to be killed by the spillage.  Many businesses and companies were grounded.  Company workers lost their job and fishermen lost their source of income.  Because of this, the government instituted a BP claim to compensate people that are badly affected by the occurrence.  It was substantially gathered that a sum of 20 billion US dollar is earmarked for compensation purposes.  Therefore, people that are affected should be bold enough to make their oil spill claims. Filing for oil spill claims will go along way to make life easy for people that are affected and assist them to start life all over again.  However, there are steps involved in filing for oil spill claims.

Steps for filing oil spill claims

The first step is to gather the relevant documents that will prove to the BP claim officers that the oil spill claims is authentic.  People that have business or company owners can bring relevant documents regarding the establishment of the company and the records of staff working with them.  Injured individuals can also obtain medical bill receipts and letters from doctors to ascertain that the injury was actually as a result of the oil spillage.  Business owners or fishermen who lost or experience reduction in their source of income can also file oil spill claims by providing evidences that clearly shows the difference in their income before and after the oil spillage occurred.   The second step to take in filing oil spill claims is to complete claim forms.  The forms are available for download on the internet by visiting the BP claim website.  It is also obtainable at BP claim offices established in Louisiana and Alabama.  There are specific information required to be filled on the BP oil spill claims form.  Such information includes the name, occupation, address and also relevant information regarding the destruction caused by the oil spill. The third step to take in filing oil spill claims is to submit the claim form to BP claim office located in the environment.  BP officers will contact individuals in about 2 days after the claim form is submitted.  The interim payment will also be discussed.

Conclusion

Filing oil spill claims is not a difficult task.  Infact, there is no cost involved.  Victims of oil spillage disaster should take advantage of the opportunity provided by the government to get accurate compensation for their losses.  It will go along way to reduce the effects of the oil spillage on individuals, businesses and companies affected.

Article: Oil Spill Claims
Article Source: Wowio
Author: William Bohack

Oil Spill Claims

 Tags: BP Claims, Oil Spill Claims, BP Oil Spill Claims

(CNN)

Nothing particularly video-worthy was going on in that moment: It was January 2010, and a bunch of us tech writers, wearing plaid and skinny jeans and funny hats, were waiting in line outside the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco for an Apple news conference.

But a line outside a news conference where Steve Jobs will appear is no normal line. It’s the kind of thing you might just want to record every second of. And so, when our media handlers, wearing bright T-shirts with the simple Apple logo, let us into the building where Jobs would unveil his company’s “magical” iPad, pretty much everyone in the audience raised his or her iPhone in unison and clicked “record.”

I’m sure our collective scramble down a hall toward a dimly lit auditorium was recorded and uploaded dozens of times.

Apple’s revolutionary co-founder, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, had that kind of power over people — even the ostensibly objective technology press corps, which breathlessly hangs on Apple’s announcements as if their gadgets have the power to change the world.

Which, if we’re being honest, they do.

“The world has lost a visionary,” President Barack Obama said in a statement posted Wednesday night on the White House blog. “And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

“So much talk on Twitter of Steve Jobs, but Twitter HQ has been eerily quiet the past few hours save the clicking of keyboards he tailored,” Twitter designer Mark Trammell posted on his popular Twitter feed. All around the world, it seems, people used the technology Jobs created to remark on his impact and his passing — a testament to the personal impact Apple’s suite of iProducts has on many of our lives.

Regardless of your technological tack — whether you’re addicted to that red light that blinks on top of the BlackBerry or swear your allegiance to the Android overlords — it’s hard to deny the industry-changing power of Jobs and the Apple brand. Before the iPhone, an app-running, touch-screen device didn’t exist. It was the first true smartphone, just as the iPad was the first true tablet computer. But way before that, back in a California garage in the 1970s, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak essentially kick-started the personal computer revolution. In part, I owe the fact that I’m able to type this story and send it to you over the Internet to the vision of Jobs and Wozniak.

If the technological history explains part of the hype that surrounds every press conference Jobs presided over, his personal life tells more of the story.

After we iPhone-holding hordes made our way into the auditorium where Jobs would reveal Apple’s tablet computer, I took a seat next to a buttoned-up tech analyst and noticed the music playing over the loudspeakers: Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”

“How does it feeeeeeeel….” Wired wrote on its live blog of the event, quoting the lyrics. (In case you’re not familiar with that phenomenon, tech bloggers, myself included, post — instantly and publicly — pretty much every word Steve Jobs utters at these press conferences. Apple doesn’t allow live video feeds, so these insta-blogs are the only way to get information about new Apple gadgets out to the salivating public in real time).

When Jobs emerged, the audience greeted him with a standing ovation. Again — all iPhones in the air.

As he paced the stage in front of a massive, glowing PowerPoint-style presentation, wearing his trademark mom jeans and black turtleneck, a scruffy beard and Harry Potter glasses on his face, writers hung on his every word.

He told us the iPad would be “truly magical and revolutionary,” and the doubters believed him.

“I went into it prepared to be very skeptical,” Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng told me after the event, “but I was impressed.”

That’s partly because Jobs carried weight like no one else in the industry. His presentations were the rock concerts of the technology world. His ability to connect new gadgets with human wants and desires — their ability not just to make you a productive worker but to connect you with loved ones — took them to another level.

His onstage charisma is something everyone since — most notably Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg — has tried to imitate, without quite the same success.

That’s partly because of style but also because of history.

Jobs’ status as a counterculture figure — the kind of guy who loves Bob Dylan, whose company asks fans to “think different,” and who went on a find-yourself pilgrimage in India, where he experimented with psychedelic drugs — puts him in a more sacred place in the public consciousness than other tie-wearing tech execs, who seem like photocopies of each other compared to someone with Jobs’ rich personal history.

No one videotapes the walk into a Microsoft press conference hosted by Steve Ballmer, for instance. I’ve been to those, too.

Jobs story is almost painfully American and it reads like a screenplay: Driven individual from humble beginnings sells Volkswagen bus to found company in his family’s garage; in process, revolutionizes music, digital movies, computing and mobile tech.

“To technology freaks and geeks, he is a ‘demigod’, whose product launches are adulatory affairs regularly likened to religious revivalist meetings,” the British newspaper The Guardian wrote in 2006. “The Jobs life story — humble birth, rise and fall, then miraculous comeback — has even been likened by Apple fanatics to the heroic myths of Odysseus, Jason, Krishna and Christ.”

Maybe all this, in part, explains why the suit-wearing analyst sitting next to me at the 2010 iPad event literally shrieked with joy when Jobs announced some details of that tablet, including a detachable keyboard he could use to file reports on the go.

I don’t claim to fully comprehend the pandemonium that surrounds a Steve Jobs press conference. In June 2010, about six months after the iPad event, I attended Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (known to insiders as WWDC) at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. That massive glass building was cloaked in an Apple logo big enough to have its own ZIP code. Inside, the usual suspects were waiting for a chance to see Jobs unveil the latest-generation iPhone, which turned out to be the iPhone 4.

I was in a pack of tech bloggers waiting behind a velvet rope, just outside the giant conference room where the event would be held. We were talking about all the latest iPhone rumors — would it really be a game changer, etc. — when security guards (really) lifted the velvet rope to let us in. Keep in mind there were maybe 100 writers and photographers covering this event and we were getting let in before anyone else — to choose our seats in a room with at least 2,000 chairs.

Bottom line: We were getting really good seats, no problem.

Still, the moment that rope lifted, there was a mad rush.

I didn’t expect it at all, and almost got knocked out of the way by as these laptop- and camera-toting journalists sprinted — literally sprinted — into the empty news conference.

At the time, I thought this was completely insane.

But, upon reflection, I don’t condone it, but I get it.

They were rushing not to hear about the iPhone 4. They wanted the best chance possible to get close to a man who’s been described as the Thomas Edison of our time. A legend.

A man who, in his own words, “put a dent in the universe.”

You don’t get that kind of opportunity every day.

Reality Television Not So Real

Reality television shows are the new trend. There are multiple reality TV shows out there. Some are informational, inspiring, and true, and others that are damaging, inappropriate, unreal, and negative, especially for the youth of America. Some reality television shows illustrate violence, sexual behaviors, substance abuse, and degrading stereotypes that are feeding drama into society. Adolescents are very easily persuaded and these types of shows need to be censured so that youth have a better perception of life and not what they think life is.

Let’s take for instance, Jersey Shore. This show is targeted at teens and young adults. The show is full of drama, drinking, and hooking up. Is this reality? Is this what real life is about? Cast members have been arrested and let go the next day. Do they show when the cast member shows up to court? What are our teens learning from this REAL LIFE show??

Let’s talk about the adults. Jersey Housewives, Housewives of Atlanta, Orange County, New York and Beverly Hills, is this, what the life of a real housewife is like. Why are so many adults feeding into this drama. Is the drama in your real life not enough?

Now we have Teen Mom. It shows the rough life of a teen and the sacrifices they have made because of getting pregnant young. At first this was the case. Now their salaries are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The original cast is getting older and the show needs new girls. Teen girls are getting pregnant so they can get on the show!! This is ridiculous and the poor kids that will suffer from it, is disgusting. This show went from teaching a valuable lesson, but fame took over and now it’s causing teens to ignore the lesson for the chance of fame.

There are some reality shows that do not feed into the negative lifestyles. The dance and singing revolution has taken over its part of reality television with American Idol, Dancing with the Starts, Americas Best Dance Crew. Weight loss shows have come out that help people who are having problems trying to lose weight. Extreme Home Makeover, finds families who have suffered from the toils of life and helps them rebuild. These all tend to keep out of the negative influences for the most part, and entertain without destructive drama.

Reality television has very few positives. Most of the influences and lessons they portray is that excessive drinking, fighting, and sex are what life is about. There are a very few of them that do have some positive lessons to teach but the negatives still seems to outweigh the positives. Are the TV producers and stations to blame or is it Americans as a people and our society to blame? If we don’t watch it they won’t air it.

Article: Reality Television Not So Real
Article Source: Wowio
Author: Wowio

Reality Television Not So Real

I want the audience to understand that Guitar Hero is not only entertaining but is fundamental. Do you frequently miss your mouth when trying to brush your teeth?

Are you stressed and need to expel some frustration? Are you competitive my nature or are just you looking to spice up family night? If you answered yes to one or more of the questions, then I have the solution for you. This groundbreaking phenomenon is Guitar Hero. More specifically Guitar Hero World Tour. Not only will you love this game but it will bring you the fundamentals you will appreciate in everyday life.

First off, let’s talk about your stress. Whether from work, family, or your nosey neighbor, guitar hero will help relieve some of your everyday frustrations. How you may ask ? Every day stress can cause you to want to pound on something, scream out loud or simply just take your mind off of what happened earlier. With guitar hero world tour, you can do it all. You wanna scream, pick up the microphone and wail out a tune. You wanna pound or stomp your feet get behind that drum set. If you want to just take your mind off of things pick up that guitar and imagine yourself as Bon Jovi.

Now let’s get that tooth brush back in your mouth. Believe it or not, Guitar Hero does help with your hand-eye coordination. You will have notes that slide down your television screen and you either have to strum, pound, stomp, or sing as they hit the line at the bottom. Not only does this help with hand-eye coordination, this allows you to focus on timing and rhythm. No more being made fun off for singing off

tune and ahead of everyone else. Guitar hero helps your rhythm and timing by showing you when you are off beat or not in tune. Do not get me wrong. This game is not easy and takes patience and practice. Tired of watching reruns of Brady Bunch or playing monopoly on family night? Bust out guitar hero and enjoy some laughs and fun with your family. There are four positions that can play at a time and if you have a big family then have a few people sing. Never know you could be the next Jackson five. My son and I love this game and it has given us something to do that we both enjoy. Although he is still learning he is flying through the songs with me. Can’t stand your family? Your probably not the only one. No worries, call some friends. I started out playing this game to find something I could do with my boyfriend that he enjoyed. We spent endless nights playing this game and competing for high score. I have also started playing with my girls.

The competiveness is gone but it is pure entertaining when Vanessa starts singing. Shana is not a guitar god but she has bloomed into quite the drummer. Are you sold yet?

Before I demonstrate I must fill you in on the cons of this game. Possible side effects may include but are not limited to, carpal tunnel symptoms, cramping of the hands, legs and arms, sleepless nights, and random thoughts of green red yellow blue and orange. These side effects will vary from person to person and are not fatal. Please do not drive and listen to the radio until you know how this game will affect you. If you have spent more than 24 hours playing please stop immediately and call your dr. You might have developed an addiction. We do not suggest playing this game under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Some people may experience anger, rage, and feelings of failure. Everything has side effects. Who cares about cramping when you have calves of steel from that bass pedal.

Let me demonstrate,

You can be a rock star in no time I am going to how you how it works. There are four components to the band. There are drums bass guitar lead guitar and microphone. First you choose whether you are going to play on a tour with a group and play a season or you’re going to just play by yourself. Once you pick you will have to log in as the instrument you are going to play. Next comes the choice of difficulty. You will want to start on easy and work your way up. Next screen will show a list of songs. I suggest you start at the beginning because the list goes from least difficult to most difficult. Once you have chosen your tune the game begins. You will have different color notes like I stated before that move down the screen to a line at the bottom. When those notes hit the line you must either hit that color note on the drum set, or strum and hit that color key on the guitar. Let me show you. You continue to do this throughout the song. If you are having a hard time you can practice on practice mode and not have people boo you or you can review the tutorials for short cuts on how to better your game. Eventually you will finish the list on easy and move on to medium, hard and expert. Expert takes time not everyone starts expert as I did. The microphone works a little differently. There is a row at the top of the screen that shows you the words and there is a line under it that helps you follow the tune. Your voice is the dot on the line and you must keep it as centered on the line and sing the word as it crosses the screen. This screen is similar to karaoke. Remember practice makes perfect.

Now that you have a background on what it can do to help you in your everyday life, let me review. Guitar Hero World Tour can help you relieve stress. It can also help with your hand-eye coordination, timing, rhythm, and focus. Guitar Hero is for everyone; friends and family. It is great for family night and also for a little friendly competition. Now that I have showed you the pros and cons of Guitar Hero, you can see that the pros clearly outweigh the cons. So wipe that tooth paste off the side of your face, stop beating your children and spouses when you can beat a drum, and get that Brady Bunch tune out of your head. So get up off that couch and head down to your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart today and get yourself Guitar Hero World Tour. You’d be glad that you did.

Article: Guitar hero, making Rock Stars
Article Source: Wowio
Authour: Wowio

Guitar Hero, making Rock Stars

Kid Rock, who played Jiffy Lube Live in August with Sheryl Crow, announced Monday he’s going on a tour of mid-size clubs. Naturally, he’s playing another Live Nation venue, the new Fillmore in Silver Spring. Kid Rock is on the road promoting “Born Free,” which was released last year.

The show at the Fillmore is November 20. The announcement did not include ticket price or on-sale date. At another location, tickets started at $58.30.

After doing a bunch of European shows, Oxes is putting on a Baltimore show on November 5 at the G-Spot. Apparently, the band has two new vinyl records they’ll be putting out via Friends Records. Then, they go back to Europe on December 9, when they’ve been invited to perform at the All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Battles, Caribou and Les Savy Fav.

Baltimore’s Ami Dang has joined up with Two Boots Pizza, now relocated to Mount Vernon, for a weekly music series on Saturday nights. The first night was this past Saturday, and featured Dave Fell and DJ IVDB. Wing Dam and Which Magic perform this Saturday and, on October 22, Dang and her drummer, Kate Levitt, will perform.

The weekly show is from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Admission is free; donations are encouraged.

Rams Head Live announced a couple of new shows also. The great Aimee Mann, who was in Baltimore in April, will perform at Rams Head on Stage in Annapolis January 23. Tickets are $45.

And, singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett, who is one of the artists to appear in the new Buddy Holly tribute album, will perform at Rams Head Live in Baltimore December 15. Tickets for that show are $45 and go on sale October 13.

The Goo Goo Dolls will stay on the road for a Fall tour. There are no dates in Maryland, but there are a few in the Mid-Atlantic – the band will be at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville October 26, The National in Richmond on November 7, the Soverign Performing Arts Center in Reading, PA November 8 and the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, DE November 9.

The band is out promoting new album “Something for the Rest of Us.” Tickets for the Charlottesville show start at $42.70.

Announced last week: Drake, who’ll release his second album “Take Care” next month, is embarking on a promotional Fall tour. He will perform at the Patriot Center in Fairfax November 15. Tickets, already on sale, start at $29.75.

Stuart Schuffman, who shot an episode of his IFC show “Young, Broke & Beautiful” in Baltimore in April, has shifted venues for the Baltimore reading of his new book, “Young, Broke & Beautiful: Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply.”

He was originally scheduled to appear at Centerstage, but he will instead be at The Get Down on October 17. Schuffman has described the event as “1/2 book reading/signing/Q&A and 1/2 dance party.” Free, with donations are encouraged.

Article: Kid Rock, Oxes, Goo Goo Dolls, Ami Dang, Drake, and more
Article Source: Baltimore Sun
Author: Erik Maza

Kid Rock, Oxes, Goo Goo Dolls, Ami Dang, Drake, and more

The bill, while similar to one moving through the Senate, would allow more freedom to five Gulf Coast states affected by last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill to spend millions of dollars in BP fines headed their way, said Rep. Jeff Miller.

“It would give local governments more say in how and where the money is spent,” said Miller, the Republican from Chumuckla who represents Florida’s 1st Congressional District. “We believe that way the money will be spent more efficiently on more appropriate projects.”

Specifically, Miller said the House bill, unveiled at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, is designed to limit the power of the federal government to dictate how the BP dollars are spent.

“It has provisions that provide more flexibility to spend the money on economic development instead of restricting it to environmental projects,” Miller said. “The biggest objection (to the Senate bill) for the House sponsors is that there’s not enough to be done to help the economy.”

The RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act bills in both chambers call for 80 percent of BP’s fines collected under the Clean Water Act to be dedicated to the restoration of the Gulf Coast ecosystem and the economies of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Rep. Steve Southerland, who represents Florida’s 2nd District, said the House’s version of the RESTORE Act could help soften the “historic environmental and economic” blow to the Gulf region.

“It is my hope that we can help accelerate the recovery of our coastal communities by directing Clean Water Act funds directly to the areas most critically impacted by the accident,” said Southerland, R-Panama City.

Southerland said the bill will not only address the environmental impact to the region, but also the economic impact to the counties along the Gulf directly impacted by the Deepwater Horizon spill in April 2010.

“Some of the funds will go to find out what impact the spill had on our fisheries,” he said.

35 percent

Under provisions of the House bill, 35 percent of the funds would be divided among the five Gulf states.

The bill also would make 30 percent of the money received available for “development and implementation of a comprehensive restoration plan,” according to a news release issued Wednesday.

The bill envisions the plan to be formulated and money allocated by a council composed of federal and state officials.

It calls for another 30 percent of funds to be allocated through an “impact driven formula” and disbursed “according to plans submitted by the Gulf Coast states and approved by the council.”

The final 5 percent of the funds would go toward establishing an endowment and centers of excellence to advance science and technology in the Gulf region.

Miller said last week that he wasn’t sure the Senate bill, which has passed out of one committee, would get anywhere in a chamber clogged by partisan politics. He repeated that opinion Wednesday.

“I don’t know if they could pass a resolution on Mother’s Day right now,” he said.

Miller said the House version “has a better chance of passing the House than the Senate bill would” because of the economic provisions included.

Under legislation sponsored by state Sen. Don Gaetz, 75 percent of whatever of BP’s fines that make it to Florida will go Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Wakulla and Franklin counties.

It will be divided among the counties using a formula established by a recently formed regional coalition.

Article: Northwest Florida’s Area congressmen sign on to RESTORE Act
Article Source: News Herald
Author: TOM McLAUGHLIN

Northwest Florida’s Area congressmen sign on to RESTORE Act

BP has won another round in its ongoing feud with a shareholder of a Russian subsidiary as a Siberian court overturned a ruling related to searches of the company’s office in Moscow earlier this year.

The Arbitration Court in the city of Omsk found in favour of the UK supermajor in its appeal against a July ruling in a separate Russian court which allowed bailiffs to descend on the offices of BP Exploration Operating Company (BP EOC) on 31 August.

Monday’s ruling by the Omsk court overturns the 19 July ruling in Tyumen in favour of a minority shareholder in TNK-BP, the oil giant’s joint venture in Russia, even though that search order had itself been effectively quashed by the Tyumen court in mid September.

BP EOC wrote in a statement on Monday that it “believes that there was no merit to the [19 July] order of Judge Loskutov” as, amongst other reasons, “the claim to secure evidence from BP EOC should not have been reviewed by the Arbitration Court of Tyumen region since it falls under another court’s jurisdiction, namely the Moscow Arbitration Court”.

Bailiffs descended on the offices of BP EOC on 31 August, turfing staff out and occupying the building for two whole days. Although they did not take any documents away with them they sealed documents for later examination.

The raid was directly related to a case brought against BP in Tyumen by a minority shareholder of its joint venture in the country, TNK-BP, who was aggrieved by the collapse of BP’s $16 billion deal with Rosneft in May.

Monday’s ruling in favour of BP is another blow to TNK-BP minority shareholder Andrei Prokhorov who is looking to sue the supermajor for $4.9 billion over alleged losses suffered by the joint venture in the wake of the failed deal with Rosneft.

BP has consistently denied Prokhorov’s claims, saying “there were in fact no damages in the form of lost profits” for TNK-BP as the latter “was not considered as a possible member of the strategic partnership with Rosneft and could not become a partner ‘due to the lack of required competence’, as has frequently been stated by Rosneft.”

BP lashed the 19 July ruling further on Monday by claiming: “The judge accepted a claim from a person who was not entitled to request the securing of evidence prior to a lawsuit since A Prokhorov did not furnish proof that he or other claimants owned at least 1% of TNK-BP Holding shares, which is a prerequisite to file any lawsuit against members of the board of directors.”

The statement argued further: “The ruling was upheld despite the lack of proof of any need to secure the evidence in question. BP EOC believes that A Prokhorov did not provide justified proof that there is any threat of information loss or concealment.”

In mid September an arbitration court in Tyumen cancelled an order to search the Moscow premises of BP EOC after appeals were made by both the BP offshoot and Rosneft. That left the 19 July ruling still standing, however, which BP appealed, leading to Monday’s ruling.

Lawyers acting for TNK-BP told Upstream last month that they would appeal the mid-September Tyumen ruling but a spokesperson for the firm would not make any comment regarding Monday’s development in Omsk.

Article: BP EOC: BP in Russian office raid victory
Article Source: UP Stream Online
Author: Eoin O’Cinneide

BP EOC: BP in Russian office raid victory