to jurors indicated payments of $100,000 and $125,000 made to the auditor in 2005 and 2006. Prosecutors allege Stanford used the account to bribe the auditor with millions of dollars to hide the bank's fraud. While questioning Amadio, Robert Scardino, one of Stanford's attorneys, told jurors Stanford was a "risk taker" and that some of his businesses made money and some didn't. Scardino said despite the economic crash of 2008, Stanford continued paying depositors who withdrew their CDs until his businesses were put in receivership. Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ. An insider's guide to politics and policy, available on the iPad or as a PDF download,http://www.nian10.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3495753.
By DAVID KOENIG, Associated Press DALLAS (AP) The parent of American Airlines wants to eliminate about 13,000 jobs 15 percent of its workforce as the nation's third-biggest airline remakes itself under bankruptcy protection. The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move strongly opposed by the airline's unions and the U.S. pension-insurance agency, and to stop paying for retiree health benefits,toms shoes sale. AMR Corp,cheaptomsshoessalei.com. said Wednesday that it must cut labor costs by 20 percent. It will soon begin negotiations with its three major unions, but the president of the flight attendants' union quickly rejected the company's ideas as unacceptably harsh. CEO Thomas W. Horton said Wednesday that the company hopes to return to profitability by cutting spending by more than $2 billion per year and raising revenue by $1 billion per year. AMR lost $884 million in the first nine months of 2011, and $904 million for December alone. It has lost more than $11 billion since 2001. "We are going to use the restructuring process to make the necessary changes to meet our challenges head-on and capitalize fully on the solid foundation we've put in place," Horton said in a letter to employees. AMR's 88,000 employees have braced for bad news for weeks. AMR, American and short-haul affiliate American Eagle filed for bankruptcy protection in November,cheap toms shoes,http://www.domovie.tv/bbs//home.php?mod=space&uid=99824&do=blog&id=1336620. Horton said in December that the company would emerge from bankruptcy with fewer workers. Laura Glading, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said the proposal was more drastic than she expected. She claimed that the annual reduction in employee costs, which AMR put at $1.25 billion,http://ns10.freeheberg.com/~mglivemx/index.php?file=Guestbook, would be closer to $2.8 billion. "This is an absolute outrage," Glading said. "There's nothing in here that's remotely acceptable." Transport Workers Association President James Little declared, "We're going to fight this." His union represents American's mechanics and bag handlers, who would be hit hardest 40 percent would be laid off. The job cuts would include 4,600 maintenance workers, 4,200 baggage handlers, 2,300 flight attendants, 1,400 management and support employees and 400 pilots. If American and its three unions can't agree on changes, the company could ask a bankruptcy judge in New York to throw out existing labor