Business Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

PEOPLE
GOLDMAN PROMOTES NORA JOHNSON TO VICE CHAIRMAN Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the no. 3 American securities firm, promoted Suzanne Nora Johnson to be a vice chairman of the firm, three years after she took over Goldman’s Investment Research Division with the job of eliminating potential conflicts of interest with investment banking.
Ms. Nora Johnson will continue to run research and to be one of 23 executives on the Management Committee, according to a Goldman statement yesterday. She will be one of Wall Street’s most senior women, along with the chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc.’s Global Consumer Group, Marge Magner, and Citigroup’s chief financial officer as of last month, Sallie Krawcheck.
Ms. Nora Johnson became a co-head of research with Andrew Melnick in February 2002, splitting research from sales and trading after regulators demanded that Wall Street firms stop issuing the allegedly tainted reports that led to a $1.4 billion settlement in April 2003 with 10 firms. Melnick retired at the end of last year.
Ms. Nora Johnson, who became a partner in 1992, previously ran Goldman’s global health care investment-banking business. She joined the New York-based firm in 1985 after working as an attorney with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Goldman also named Yoel Zaoui and Christopher French as co-heads of European investment banking, replacing Claudio Costamagna and Gordon Dyal. Costamagna will become chairman of European investment banking, and Dyal will run global mergers and acquisitions, spokeswoman Rebecca Nelson said.
– Bloomberg News
IN THE COURTS
UNIVISION, NIELSEN DROP ‘PEOPLE METERS’ LITIGATION Univision Television Group dropped a suit seeking to stop Nielsen Media Research from using a new television ratings system in Los Angeles that Univision said undercounts Hispanic viewers. Nielsen dropped related litigation against Univision.
Los Angeles-based Univision, the largest American Spanish-language broadcaster, claimed that Nielsen’s so-called people meters caused “dramatic declines” in ratings for Spanish-language viewing in general and its programs in particular.
Ratings distributed by New York-based Nielsen are used to set ad rates.
“Univision and Nielsen are continuing their discussions regarding Univision’s disputes over local people meters,” said Brooke Morganstein, a spokeswoman for Univision. “There is no other litigation.”
The meters, used to gauge national viewing habits for 15 years, are being deployed to measure ratings for local TV stations. The local people meters have been in use in Los Angeles since July, when a California judge ruled against Univision’s preliminary bid to block them.
Nielsen had delayed their use in Los Angeles after media companies, including News Corp., raised concerns about their reliability. Nielsen, owned by Dutch media company VNU NV, introduced the new counting system in June in New York.
After Univision dropped its lawsuit, brought in Los Angeles Superior Court, Nielsen withdrew a motion brought against Univision under a California statute meant to protect public discourse by private citizens, Nielsen said in a statement.
– Bloomberg News
RELIANT, DYNEGY, EL PASO TRADERS INDICTED FOR FRAUD Five former employees of Dynegy Inc., El Paso Corp. and Reliant Energy Inc. were indicted on charges of reporting bogus natural-gas trades between 2000 and 2002.
Charges against the five traders include conspiracy and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby said at a news conference in Houston. All five pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.
Prosecutors and regulators have been investigating false price reports for about three years. Fraudulent reporting about commodities is illegal because it can lead to market manipulation. The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission has collected more than $215 million in fines from companies including El Paso and Enron Corp. for bogus pricing data.
“These were fictitious trades created out of whole cloth for a reason,” Mr. Shelby said. “Most of these companies don’t engage in this type of trading anymore because it was so rife with these types of shenanigans.”
A former Dynegy trader already facing charges of market manipulation, Michelle Marie Valencia, 34, was accused of conspiring with an ex-El Paso trader, Greg Singleton, 37, to fabricate trades. Both were charged with false reporting on three occasions and two counts of wire fraud. Also indicted were former El Paso staffers Donald E. Burwell, 44, and James P. Phillips, 45, and ex-Reliant Energy trader Jerry A. Futch, 41.
– Bloomberg News
INTERNATIONAL
E.U. NATIONS CLING TO BIOTECH BANS ON MONSANTO, BAYER Monsanto Company, Syngenta AG, and Bayer AG failed to win wider access to the European Union’s biotechnology market when a demand that five nations lift bans on some gene-modified foods allowed elsewhere in the E.U. was blocked. The European Commission yesterday didn’t persuade enough national environmental regulators to support its order against Germany, France, Austria, Greece, and Luxembourg. National ministers now have about three months to rule on the request, which covers five corn and rapeseed products that won E.U. approval before health and environmental concerns triggered a 1998 bloc-wide moratorium on new authorizations. The commission this year restarted biotech food approvals for the whole E.U., ending a six-year moratorium opposed by food exporters including America and Canada. St. Louis, Mo.-based Monsanto is the biggest producer in a global biotech crop market that had sales of as much as $4.75 billion last year. Biotech foods range from grain to tomatoes whose genetic material has been altered to add beneficial traits such as resistance to weed-killing chemicals. Opponents want the foods off the market, citing risks such as human resistance to antibiotics and the development of “superweeds” impervious to herbicides.
– Bloomberg News