Arena Group former CEO ROSS LEVINSOHN claims in a new lawsuit that his former employer owes him more than $40M after he was fired for attempting to stop a major investor from violating laws as he tried to take over the company. Levinsohn filed his claim in L.A. Superior Court, charging Arena Group, which lost its license to publish Sports Illustrated last week, with “whistleblower retaliation, wrongful termination, breach of contract, negligence and more.” He claims he still has not been told why he was fired and has not been paid the severance he is owed. Levinsohn blamed his firing and the twists in Arena’s fate on investor MANOJ BHARGAVA, who dropped $100M into Arena Group last year, then orchestrated the ousters of several execs just weeks later (THE WRAP, 3/26).
NAMES: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged yesterday that four current and former minor league baseball players illegally traded on Jack in the Box Inc.’s $575M purchase of Del Taco Restaurants Inc. The players, JORDAN QSAR, AUSTIN BERNARD, GRANT WITHERSPOON and CHASE LAMBERT, allegedly made about $190,000 by trading in advance of the purchase. According to the SEC, Qsar was told about the upcoming purchase by a former teammate on the baseball team at Pepperdine Univ. who was working on the due diligence of the acquisition for Jack in the Box. Qsar went on to tell Bernard, Witherspoon and Lambert, who had played baseball together, about the potential acquisition. Each then “purchased out-of-the-money call options” on Del Taco stock, which was then trading on the Nasdaq with the symbol TACO (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 3/26)....Fox Corporation and the United Football League visited the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square on Tuesday ahead of the UFL's launch on March 30. UFL co-owner DANY GARCIA and Fox broadcaster CURT MENEFEE were on hand to ring the stock exchange's Opening Bell (Nasdaq).
