IN BRIEF

Goldman Sachs to put $3 billion into fund

Goldman Sachs Group said Monday it is leading a group of investors that includes Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and Eli Broad in injecting $3 billion into a Goldman hedge fund that lost about 28 percent of its value last week.

The investment bank said its Global Equity Opportunities fund, one of its largest hedge funds, “suffered significantly” as global markets sold off on worries about debt and credit, dragging its value down to $3.6 billion, from about $5 billion last month.

Goldman Sachs will invest $2 billion. Other investors will contribute about $1 billion to the fund, whose computer-driven “quantitative” investment strategies were disrupted by triple-digit swings in the financial markets.

“This is not a rescue,” Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said. “Given the dislocation in the market, we believe this is a good investment opportunity for us and other investors.”

Sears Holding shares rise on buyback news

Sears Holdings Corp. rose the most in more than a year after the biggest U.S. department-store company said it plans to buy back $1.5 billion in stock.

Chairman Edward Lampert, the hedge-fund manager who transformed Sears into a retail and investment firm since taking over in 2003, is purchasing shares after the stock slumped 31 percent from a record of $193 in April. Sears also said second- quarter profit dropped as much as 42 percent, within analysts’ reduced forecasts, after it cut prices on seasonal clothing.

The buyback comes after Sears already spent $3 billion on stock since 2005 as Lampert uses the company’s cash while he looks for acquisitions. Sales have declined at both the Sears, Roebuck and Kmart stores since Lampert combined them in 2005.

Labor practice law firm to merge with giant

Smith & Kotchka, a 25-year-old Las Vegas law firm specializing in labor matters, will merge its practice with legal giant Lionel Sawyer & Collins starting Sept. 1.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Greg Smith and Malani Kotchka operate Smith & Kotchka. The firm declined buyout overtures from other firms.

Kotchka was an associate at Lionel Sawyer & Collins from 1979 to 1982, when she left to form her own firm with her husband. The practice represents management in both the public and private sector on labor and employment issues.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

HCA to pay $20 million to resolve lawsuit

Hospital operator HCA has agreed to pay $20 million to shareholders who sued the company over claims that executives made false statements about the company’s growth, which had the effect of inflating HCA’s stock price.

Under the preliminary settlement that was approved by a federal judge in Nashville, HCA does not admit wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge William Haynes Jr. is set to consider making the settlement final after an Oct. 12 hearing.

Beginning in November 2005, several lawsuits were filed on behalf of shareholders and consolidated into one action in January 2006. The lawsuits claimed company leaders misstated HCA’s financial status between January and July 2005.

RALEIGH, N.C.

Ex-Adelphia execs report to prison

The price for looting one of the nation’s largest cable television companies is: Years at a low-security federal prison in North Carolina, living hundred of miles from home in a dormitory, working seven hours a day in the prison kitchen, warehouse or outside as a groundskeeper.

Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas, 82, was sentenced to 15 years and his son, Timothy Rigas, 51, was sentenced to 20 years for their role in the collapse of Adelphia. They were convicted in 2004 on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud.

They had remained free while their appeals navigated the court system, a repose that ended in June when U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand gave the father and son until Aug. 13 to report to prison.

Web gambling figure asks for dismissal

Betonsports Plc. founder Gary Kaplan, who’s charged with racketeering and illegal interstate gambling, asked a federal judge to dismiss his indictment.

Kaplan’s lawyer called the government’s racketeering theory “flawed,” in papers filed Monday with U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson in St. Louis, and said its interpretation of U.S. laws barring Internet gambling, a $12 billion industry, criminalizes legal conduct. Kaplan has been held without bail since March.

The U.S. is prosecuting Kaplan under the federal Wire Act.

WASHINGTON

Interest rates decline in Treasury auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday’s auction, with rates on six-month bills dropping to the lowest level in more than a year.

The Treasury Department auctioned $21 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.63 percent, down from 4.77 percent last week, and $17 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 4.71 percent, down from 4.73 percent last week.

NEW YORK

After volatile start, Treasurys finish higher

U.S. government issues finished Monday higher, after spending the afternoon repairing the damage from volatile early trading.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note was up $2.81 per $1,000 in face value, or 0.28 points, from its level at 5 p.m. Friday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 4.76 percent from 4.80 percent.

The 30-year bond rose 0.41 points. Its yield fell to 5 percent from 5.03 percent.