SENTENCING: A federal judge sentenced prominent entertainment attorney Terry Christensen to three years in prison and fined him $250,000 for conspiring to illegally wiretap the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. The longtime friend and attorney of Kerkorian was found guilty in August of conspiracy to commit wiretapping, and aiding and abetting a wiretap by private sleuth Anthony Pellicano during a bitter child support battle with Lisa Bonder Kerkorian. Since his conviction, Christensen retired from practicing law, and his name was removed from the Century City firm he founded, which is now known as Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs & Shapiro LLP. Christensen will remain free on bail pending appeal.
TARP FUNDS: Center Financial Corp. became the seventh Los Angeles-area financial institution to receive approval to obtain funds from the government’s $700 billion financial bailout program. The holding company of Center Bank said the U.S. Treasury Department’s Capital Purchase Program will invest in $55 million worth of Center Financial’s senior preferred shares, equivalent to 3 percent of the bank’s total risk-weighted assets as of the end of the third quarter. Separately, Hanmi Financial Corp. confirmed it had applied for $105 million on TARP investments. Both banks largely serve the Korean-American and other ethnic communities.
ACQUIRED: Home-entertainment distributor Image Entertainment Inc. agreed to sell itself to Nyx Acquisitions Inc. for approximately $60.2 million in cash plus assumption of debt, a deal valued at $100 million. Shareholders of Chatsworth-based Image Entertainment will receive $2.75 per share in cash, four times the company’s closing stock price the day before the deal was announced Nov. 21. San Francisco-based Nyx is a division of Q Black LLC, a privately held new-media and global investment group. Two earlier acquisition offers had fallen apart over the past two years, including a $4 per share stock buyout by Lions Gate Entertainment.
STRIKE VOTE: Screen Actors Guild leadership will send out a strike authorization vote to members next month, making it possible for actors to strike as early as January. Marathon meetings with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers failed to break the five-month-old deadlock on a new TV/theatrical contract. A date for the vote has not yet been set, but SAG said it soon would launch an education campaign in support of a strike authorization.
AD DEAL: Video game publisher THQ Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s advertising network Massive Inc. said that they will expand their relationship to put ads in upcoming THQ computer and Xbox 360 games. Massive will be the exclusive provider of in-game advertising for several of Agoura Hills-based THQ’s games for PCs and the Xbox 360, including the “Saints Row” series. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
BANK SEIZURES: Federal regulators seized Newport Beach-based Downey Savings & Loan and Rancho Cucamonga-based PFF Bank & Trust, saying hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans from the housing bubble had rendered the Southern California institutions unsound. The banks’ branches and deposits were acquired by Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, which has largely escaped the mortgage losses plaguing many banks. U.S. Bank recently acquired Mellon Business Bank in downtown Los Angeles.
COSTUME BUY: Jakks Pacific Inc. has entered a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Halloween costume and d & #233;cor company Disguise Inc. and a related company, both subsidiaries of France-based Cesar S.A. San Diego-based Disguise is a 21-year-old manufacturer of Halloween costumes and accessories, with a portfolio that includes licensed characters from Walt Disney Co., Mattel Inc. and Marvel Entertainment. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jakks currently does not offer Halloween costumes.
OIL EXPLORATION: Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it will form a partnership with Mubadala Development Co. of Abu Dhabi and the Sultanate of Oman to develop existing oil and gas fields and explore for new discoveries in Oman. The 20-year agreement gives Los Angeles-based Occidental, which will serve as the operator of the fields, a 48 percent interest in the project. Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala holds a 32 percent interest and the Oman Oil Co. holds the remaining 20 percent. The companies said they expect to invest $500 million in the project over the next four years. Occidental’s net share is expected to be about 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at the peak.
SUPER CELEBS: Diverse Media Group Inc. said it plans to acquire a 50 percent stake in Celebrities In Action Inc., which has a joint venture with Stan Lee’s Pow Entertainment to create superhero character franchises based on real-life Hollywood celebrities. Century City-based Diverse Media said characters will be developed in cooperation with film, music and television and sports stars. Diverse Media will identify and secure the celebrity participation, and Lee will provide the vision for the superheroes.
PASSING: Carlton Varner, an attorney and former chairman of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, died Nov. 21 of Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 61. Varner, who began practicing at the L.A.-based firm in 1972, specialized in antitrust and complex business litigation. He represented clients working in the pharmaceutical, health care and aerospace industries.
COLISEUM CARUSO: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso to the Coliseum Commission, the state and local authority that oversees the Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park. “I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners to enhance this great icon of our city and ensure its future as a dynamic, profitable and appealing venue,” Caruso said in a statement.
CORRECTION
The list of Los Angeles County-based banks in the Nov. 3 edition did not give the correct 2007 net income for Preferred Bank and American Business Bank. Preferred Bank reported net income of $14 million and American Business Bank reported $2 million. The percentage change for the banks’ income from 2007 to 2008 was listed incorrectly as a result. Preferred Bank had a 79 percent decline in net income; American Business Bank had no change.
