Breaking news: Affinity Bank seized by regulators
In the first bank failure in the Tri-Counties in almost 20 years, Ventura-based Affinity Bank was seized by federal regulators Aug. 28. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took Affinity into receivership and said San Diego-based Pacific Western Bank will assume Affinity’s ten branches and $922 million in deposits. Pacific Western also agreed to buy essentially Read More →
Legal discord over music festival
[Editor’s note: See correction below.] A battle of the band bookers is breaking out in Santa Barbara. The organizers of the West Beach Music & Arts Festival face a civil lawsuit from another concert organizer who demands nearly $500,000. Jackie Kane also alleges that the West Beach organizers froze her out of her share of Read More →
Breaking news: Pacific Capital aims for reverse stock split
Pacific Capital Bancorp, parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, wants to execute a reverse split of its stock to bolster its sagging stock price. The region’s biggest independent banking company said Aug. 17 that it will hold a special shareholder meeting in Santa Barbara on Sept. 29 to vote on the reverse split. The Read More →
Dole tests waters for $500M IPO
Westlake Village-based Dole Food Co. said Aug. 14 that it has filed papers to become a public company again and plans to raise as much as $500 million. With $7.6 billion in 2008 revenue, Dole is the largest private company in the Tri-Counties. The company was public until 2003, when owner and real estate magnate Read More →
Countrywide's Mozilo accused of fraud
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo as well as company president David Sambol and Eric Sieracki. Mozilo, who founded Countrywide in 1969, is separately charged with engaging in insider trading of Countrywide stock when he set up his highly controversial executive stock sale plans Read More →
King
Two massive San Luis Obispo County developments owned by John King have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, putting on hold a foreclosure auction slated for June 1. King is developing Vaquero de los Robles, a luxury resort near the Paso Robles airport, and Spanish Springs, a development planned near Pismo Beach. The two projects Read More →
News-Press heads into trial with Labor Board
Ampersand Publishing, parent company of the Santa Barbara News-Press, went before a federal labor judge May 26 for what’s expected to be a 20-day trial over charges of bad-faith bargaining with and illegal firing of a union worker. The trial is the second in two years in which attorneys from the National Labor Relations Board Read More →
