Slim Suits for Men Launches a Bespoke Advisor Service

Jul 28, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

(Reuters) – New details from court documents and sources close to the Libor scandal investigation suggest that groups of traders working at three major European banks were heavily involved in rigging global benchmark interest rates. Some of those traders, including one who used to work at Barclays Plc in New York, still …

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/slim-suits-men-launches-bespoke-advisor-071121086.html

Slim Suits for Men Launches a Bespoke Advisor Service

Jul 28, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

(Reuters) – New details from court documents and sources close to the Libor scandal investigation suggest that groups of traders working at three major European banks were heavily involved in rigging global benchmark interest rates. Some of those traders, including one who used to work at Barclays Plc in New York, still …

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/slim-suits-men-launches-bespoke-advisor-071121086.html

Son of Fraudster Marc Dreier Drops Dorm-Room Spat Suit

Jul 17, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

Spencer Dreier, whose father, Marc Dreier, is serving a 20-year sentence for cheating hedge funds
out of $400 million, agreed with an ex-roommate to drop mutual
claims of assault and defamation tied to a dorm-room fight.

Dreier sued Ben Clorite, his former roommate, in May 2009
for defamation, battery and emotional distress. After a fight in
their room, Clorite posted a libelous online allegation that
Dreier was obstructing the investigation into his father’s
crimes and trying to destroy evidence, Spencer Dreier claimed.

After jury selection and a week of a trial in federal court
in Manhattan that included testimony by both men, they agreed to
drop the case yesterday, Clorite’s lawyer, Jerome Coleman, said
today in a phone interview.

“The parties have amicably reached a confidential
settlement agreement that they find has resolved the claims
underlying this lawsuit favorably,” Coleman read from a joint
statement by the two men. He declined to comment further.
Dreier, who represented himself, declined to comment.

The elder Dreier pleaded guilty in May 2009 in Manhattan
federal court to money laundering, conspiracy, securities fraud
and wire fraud. He defrauded hedge funds in an effort to prop up
his now-defunct 250-lawyer New York firm, Dreier LLP.

Spencer Dreier sought more than $4 million from Clorite in
the suit. Clorite countersued for assault and defamation,
alleging Dreier lied to officials of their school, Union College
in Schenectady, New York, in an effort to get him expelled. Both
men left the college in the spring of 2009, in their freshman
year.

The case is Dreier v. Clorite, 09-07553, U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Emily Grannis in New York at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for
Michael Hytha at [email protected].

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/son-of-fraudster-marc-dreier-drops-dorm-room-spat-suit.html

Men in suits guarding every door, separate bedrooms and Tom insisting on calling her Kate: How Katie Holmes ‘cracked’ in the house of Scientology

Jul 2, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

By
Lucy Buckland

PUBLISHED:

02:54 EST, 1 July 2012

|

UPDATED:

21:53 EST, 1 July 2012

As her marriage dissolved, Katie Holmes’s every move has been tracked by a team of mystery men.

Unknown people in two cars have been seen tailing Ms Holmes, prompting speculation they are rogue members of the controversial Scientology doctrine.

However, lawyer for the Church Gary Soter told TMZ that the Scientology movement is ‘not following Katie or conducting surveillance on her in the wake of her divorce with Tom Cruise’.

And it has been claimed this tracking has been going on for weeks – even before Friday’s shock announcement the pair will divorce.

Scroll down for video
afd76 article 2166901 13DBF624000005DC 387 634x680 Men in suits guarding every door, separate bedrooms and Tom insisting on calling her Kate: How Katie Holmes cracked in the house of Scientology

Church-goers: Tom and Katie Holmes on their way to the Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles when they were first married

According to TMZ , ‘there have been several ‘mysterious’ men and vehicles around Katie’s New York apartment and following her
when she’s out.

‘Specifically … a white Cadillac Escalade and black Mercedes SUV have been seen near Katie’s NYC apartment for the past week.’

The site claims sources believe these cars’ occupants are not journalists, but their identity has never been established.

Today it has been claimed life behind closed doors for Katie was far from the romantic love story her Hollywood husband Tom
Cruise painted it to be.

Are they watching Katie? A white SUV has been spotted parked near a building where the actress has visited several times this week

Who are they? The mystery occupants of a black Mercedes have also been seen in places where Katie has been

Today it was being suggested the pair
had been living in separate sections of their sprawling LA apartment,
with Katie opting to live in a large communal area in the Scientology
Celebrity Centre – rather than face her increasingly controlling
husband.

After Katie
announced her plans to divorce her husband of five years, their lives
have been blown open with a picture suggesting a controlling, often manipulative
Cruise of taking charge of his wife’s movie roles, appearance
and even changing her name.

The Sunday Mirror reports
the Top Gun star told his wife she must be called ‘Kate’ instead of
‘Katie’ and carefully picked her film roles – making sure the starlet
didn’t opt for something he didn’t agree with.

Also
their building, in the huge towering Scientology complex in LA was
carefully guarded with sources revealing ‘men in suits’ stood guarding
every door and even ‘escorting’ people to their own rooms.

Tug of love: Katie in New York with Suri last week

Support act: The church offers courses and advice to couple’s with marital problems

Trapped: Katie and Cruise lived in separate sections of the sprawling Scientology centre in Clearwater

‘Katie
was really embarrassed about it and didn’t seem to like people to see
the way she lived behind closed doors. Everyone knew they stayed in separate sections of the apartment,’ a family friend said.

Cracks began to emerge after former Dawson’s Creek star Katie started to fear for her daughter Suri, six, when she realised Tom’s devotion to Scientology could not be wavered.

And Katie, who filed for divorce in New York – where it is thought she stands a better chance of getting custody of Suri, was thought to have ‘finally snapped’ after seeing a shot of her husband posing provocatively on the cover of W magazine with two women draped over him.

But it was his unwavering commitment to following the Scientology doctrine which sowed the seed of discontent according to family and friends.

The show must go on: Tom Cruise took off
from Reykjavik airport, following news Katie Holmes has filed for divorce

Under the doctrine a child can make his or her own decisions and Tom treated his daughter ‘like a little adult’.

A family friend said: ‘Tom basically treats Suri as a little adult, however Katie treats her like a six-year-old child, and that causes major clashes. The couple were arguing over Suri.’

The source added to Radar: ‘Katie did not want Tom making all the decisions in Suri’s life, and that’s what was going on.

‘She decided it was high time she started deciding on what was best for her daughter, or at least having an equal say, and she knew that would be impossible if she remained Mrs. Tom Cruise.’

Split: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing after five years together

Separate lives: Katie and her daughter Suri were spotted in New York yesterday

Focused on work: Tom was pictured on filming his new movie Oblivion in Iceland on Wednesday

SURI IN THE MIDDLE

A
bitter custody battle is set to break out between Tom and Katie over
their young daughter, Suri (pictured in New York last week).

The
actress is seeking sole legal custody and primary residential custody
of the six-year-old, and a ‘suitable amount of child support’.

She
even filed for divorce in New York – rather than California – because
the East Coast state doesn’t like giving feuding parents joint power to
make decisions for their children, according to TMZ.

But sources say the actor may mount a fight to bring the case to California, which favors joint legal custody.

Holmes’s lawyer Jonathan Wolfe made it clear what his client’s priority is in a statement to People magazine: ‘Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.’

But Katie’s Catholic parents Kathleen and Martin Holmes are happy to have their daughter back, too.

A source told RadarOnline.com: ‘It’s been tough for them over the past five years to watch Katie be controlled by Tom and they really felt that they had lost their daughter to some extent.’

‘So, that’s the one bright side to the divorce — they feel like they’re getting the old Katie back again.’

But it does appear that Tom really was blindsided by his wife of five years, as he gushed about her at a ceremony to accept his Friars Club Foundation Award just two weeks ago.

Tom who took his children Suri and Connor, 17, as dates to the event, said after he picked up his award: ‘My wife who couldn’t be here tonight, I have to thank, she made this suit for me. She’s amazing. I’m very lucky to be married to her.

He then added, according to Usmagazine: ‘She’s in China working.’

She has asked for legal custody, primary residential custody and a ‘suitable amount’ of child support from her husband, TMZ reports.

Miss Holmes is also asking for a division of property in the divorce documents, although there is a significant pre-nuptial agreement that is based on California law.

The couple are worth around $275million – much of that owing to Tom’s box office success.

The terms of the pre-nup are understood to be clear – for each year the couple stay married, the Dawson’s Creek actress collects $3million – to a maximum of $33 million after 11 years – as well as their palatial home in California.

If their marriage had lasted more than 11 years, Holmes would have received half of Cruise’s reportedly $250million fortune.

After filing for divorce less than six years later, according to the agreement, Katie should only be entitled to $15million as well as the couple’s $35million Beverly Hills Mansion

But with an estate worth upwards of $275million, Katie is expected to seek much more and there is already intense speculation as to how much she will collect when the papers are signed.

Cruise is believed to have ‘not seen’ the divorce coming.

Dream wedding: The pair married in an Italian castle in 2006 and filed their marriage certificate in California

But sources insist that she did tell her husband of five-and-a-half years that she was filing for divorce – but she didn’t give him a chance to control the spread of the news, as he did with Nicole Kidman.

The fact that she issued a solo statement speaks of some heat around the final extinguishing of the marriage.

However, Mr Cruise’s shock is to be believed considering the fact that the pair were spotted together in Iceland around two weeks ago, holding hands.

Skeptic: Katie Holmes is said to dislike and distrust Scientology – of which her estranged husband is a vocal advocate – and no longer wants their daughter to be raised in accordance with its doctrines

Nevertheless, Miss Holmes failed to turn
up to at any of the worldwide premieres of her husband’s latest film
Rock of Ages, despite Cruise’s constant protestations of love for his
wife.

The final arguments seem to have been over where Cruise was going to spend his 50th birthday on Tuesday. He told her that he was planning to be on the set of his latest film Oblivion, in Iceland, and that seems to have been the last straw.

The statuesque brunette had frequently been pictured looking drawn and exhausted during her marriage. One Hollywood source said she had been ‘utterly miserable with Tom for months, if not years’.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Newest
Oldest
Best rated
Worst rated

Chris, Manchester, 1/7/2012 12:40
You really should have read the article love..your comment just made you look a right plonker!! SCIENTOLOGY…not SCIENCE!!

- Dolly, london, 02/7/2012 09:57

I am just wondering why some comments don’t get printed. I have sent two comments to this thread – nothing shocking or inflammatory – and neither of them have been printed. Are some people blacklisted for some reason. But there again I don’t know why I should be. This isnt the first time it has happened, so I am very curious.

- lizzie, Taunton, Somerset, 02/7/2012 09:50

Good luck to Katie, if this shows anything its that money, fame and a luxury lifestyle will not bring happiness, for anyone looking at celebrities on their endless holidays and shopping sprees assuming because they have luxury cars and beautiful homes that they are happy, remember its the simple things in life that make us happy, love, people and family! Anything else is a cherry on top!

- Meme, Dublin, Ireland, 02/7/2012 09:47

“Kate Boston – You have all the answers don’t you, and about two people you’ve never met. You’re amazing. Give yourself a hand”.
- Joe, Atlanta, GA, 02/7/2012 05:21——- To be fair, her post is no less specualtive than anyone elses in here, it’s just that she isn’t Cruise bashing so she’s in the minority and must be wrong. None of us know the score – doesn’t stop people wading in with their insults sadly.

- Flo, Bristol, 02/7/2012 09:35

I must admit I didn’t really read the article but what planet do these celebrities live on? How can anybody blame ‘Science’ for the break-up of their marriage or be opposed to science? That like being opposed to progress and making the world a better place. And to all those criticising science and scientists… you’re probably writing your comments on an iPod. Who do you think invented it? Yes, that’s right, those clever scientists that you seem to be so anti towards.
- Chris, Manchester, 1/7/2012 12:40———————–1119 people have either no sense of humour or no sense of satire. Probably ripe fruit for picking by $¢i€nto£g¥.

- The Phantom Flan-Flinger, TISWASland, 02/7/2012 09:30

The most worrying thing about this article is the fact that the helicopter looks more battered that my 1997 Fiesta !!!!

- Shay, Greystones, Co Wicklow, 02/7/2012 09:08

It’s about time that little girl was treated like the 6 year old she is before she is ruined for life. Let’s hope this doesn’t become too dirty and unpleasant, but it looks like that ship has already sailed – full steam ahead.

- barbara, nantwich, 02/7/2012 08:30

Poor kid, having parents war in the media and popularity competiton in the lead up to a divorce must be awful! I wonder how this this kid will turn out! Does she ever stand a chance to get a nice life?

- Maggiemay, farnborough, 02/7/2012 08:19

just so sad for that poor little girl

- mary white, surrey, guildford, 02/7/2012 07:50

Now all those shots of her with Suri in public make sense – if Tom Cruise attempts to take sole custody of Suri there would be a huge media backlash. Something Tom would not risk. Well, good on her, I think she is a loving mother and has her head screwed on right.

- Siobhan, Australia, 02/7/2012 07:48

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Article source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2167164/Men-suits-guarding-door-separate-bedrooms-Tom-insisting-calling-Kate-How-Katie-Holmes-cracked-house-Scientology.html

Men in suits guarding every door, separate bedrooms and Tom insisting on calling her Kate: How Katie Holmes ‘cracked’ in the house of Scientology

Jul 1, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

By
Lucy Buckland

PUBLISHED:

02:54 EST, 1 July 2012

|

UPDATED:

21:53 EST, 1 July 2012

As her marriage dissolved, Katie Holmes’s every move has been tracked by a team of mystery men.

Unknown people in two cars have been seen tailing Ms Holmes, prompting speculation they are rogue members of the controversial Scientology doctrine.

However, lawyer for the Church Gary Soter told TMZ that the Scientology movement is ‘not following Katie or conducting surveillance on her in the wake of her divorce with Tom Cruise’.

And it has been claimed this tracking has been going on for weeks – even before Friday’s shock announcement the pair will divorce.

Scroll down for video
a4a7b article 2166901 13DBF624000005DC 387 634x680 Men in suits guarding every door, separate bedrooms and Tom insisting on calling her Kate: How Katie Holmes cracked in the house of Scientology

Church-goers: Tom and Katie Holmes on their way to the Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles when they were first married

According to TMZ , ‘there have been several ‘mysterious’ men and vehicles around Katie’s New York apartment and following her
when she’s out.

‘Specifically … a white Cadillac Escalade and black Mercedes SUV have been seen near Katie’s NYC apartment for the past week.’

The site claims sources believe these cars’ occupants are not journalists, but their identity has never been established.

Today it has been claimed life behind closed doors for Katie was far from the romantic love story her Hollywood husband Tom
Cruise painted it to be.

Are they watching Katie? A white SUV has been spotted parked near a building where the actress has visited several times this week

Who are they? The mystery occupants of a black Mercedes have also been seen in places where Katie has been

Today it was being suggested the pair
had been living in separate sections of their sprawling LA apartment,
with Katie opting to live in a large communal area in the Scientology
Celebrity Centre – rather than face her increasingly controlling
husband.

After Katie
announced her plans to divorce her husband of five years, their lives
have been blown open with a picture suggesting a controlling, often manipulative
Cruise of taking charge of his wife’s movie roles, appearance
and even changing her name.

The Sunday Mirror reports
the Top Gun star told his wife she must be called ‘Kate’ instead of
‘Katie’ and carefully picked her film roles – making sure the starlet
didn’t opt for something he didn’t agree with.

Also
their building, in the huge towering Scientology complex in LA was
carefully guarded with sources revealing ‘men in suits’ stood guarding
every door and even ‘escorting’ people to their own rooms.

Tug of love: Katie in New York with Suri last week

Support act: The church offers courses and advice to couple’s with marital problems

Trapped: Katie and Cruise lived in separate sections of the sprawling Scientology centre in Clearwater

‘Katie
was really embarrassed about it and didn’t seem to like people to see
the way she lived behind closed doors. Everyone knew they stayed in separate sections of the apartment,’ a family friend said.

Cracks began to emerge after former Dawson’s Creek star Katie started to fear for her daughter Suri, six, when she realised Tom’s devotion to Scientology could not be wavered.

And Katie, who filed for divorce in New York – where it is thought she stands a better chance of getting custody of Suri, was thought to have ‘finally snapped’ after seeing a shot of her husband posing provocatively on the cover of W magazine with two women draped over him.

But it was his unwavering commitment to following the Scientology doctrine which sowed the seed of discontent according to family and friends.

The show must go on: Tom Cruise took off
from Reykjavik airport, following news Katie Holmes has filed for divorce

Under the doctrine a child can make his or her own decisions and Tom treated his daughter ‘like a little adult’.

A family friend said: ‘Tom basically treats Suri as a little adult, however Katie treats her like a six-year-old child, and that causes major clashes. The couple were arguing over Suri.’

The source added to Radar: ‘Katie did not want Tom making all the decisions in Suri’s life, and that’s what was going on.

‘She decided it was high time she started deciding on what was best for her daughter, or at least having an equal say, and she knew that would be impossible if she remained Mrs. Tom Cruise.’

Split: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing after five years together

Separate lives: Katie and her daughter Suri were spotted in New York yesterday

Focused on work: Tom was pictured on filming his new movie Oblivion in Iceland on Wednesday

SURI IN THE MIDDLE

A
bitter custody battle is set to break out between Tom and Katie over
their young daughter, Suri (pictured in New York last week).

The
actress is seeking sole legal custody and primary residential custody
of the six-year-old, and a ‘suitable amount of child support’.

She
even filed for divorce in New York – rather than California – because
the East Coast state doesn’t like giving feuding parents joint power to
make decisions for their children, according to TMZ.

But sources say the actor may mount a fight to bring the case to California, which favors joint legal custody.

Holmes’s lawyer Jonathan Wolfe made it clear what his client’s priority is in a statement to People magazine: ‘Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.’

But Katie’s Catholic parents Kathleen and Martin Holmes are happy to have their daughter back, too.

A source told RadarOnline.com: ‘It’s been tough for them over the past five years to watch Katie be controlled by Tom and they really felt that they had lost their daughter to some extent.’

‘So, that’s the one bright side to the divorce — they feel like they’re getting the old Katie back again.’

But it does appear that Tom really was blindsided by his wife of five years, as he gushed about her at a ceremony to accept his Friars Club Foundation Award just two weeks ago.

Tom who took his children Suri and Connor, 17, as dates to the event, said after he picked up his award: ‘My wife who couldn’t be here tonight, I have to thank, she made this suit for me. She’s amazing. I’m very lucky to be married to her.

He then added, according to Usmagazine: ‘She’s in China working.’

She has asked for legal custody, primary residential custody and a ‘suitable amount’ of child support from her husband, TMZ reports.

Miss Holmes is also asking for a division of property in the divorce documents, although there is a significant pre-nuptial agreement that is based on California law.

The couple are worth around $275million – much of that owing to Tom’s box office success.

The terms of the pre-nup are understood to be clear – for each year the couple stay married, the Dawson’s Creek actress collects $3million – to a maximum of $33 million after 11 years – as well as their palatial home in California.

If their marriage had lasted more than 11 years, Holmes would have received half of Cruise’s reportedly $250million fortune.

After filing for divorce less than six years later, according to the agreement, Katie should only be entitled to $15million as well as the couple’s $35million Beverly Hills Mansion

But with an estate worth upwards of $275million, Katie is expected to seek much more and there is already intense speculation as to how much she will collect when the papers are signed.

Cruise is believed to have ‘not seen’ the divorce coming.

Dream wedding: The pair married in an Italian castle in 2006 and filed their marriage certificate in California

But sources insist that she did tell her husband of five-and-a-half years that she was filing for divorce – but she didn’t give him a chance to control the spread of the news, as he did with Nicole Kidman.

The fact that she issued a solo statement speaks of some heat around the final extinguishing of the marriage.

However, Mr Cruise’s shock is to be believed considering the fact that the pair were spotted together in Iceland around two weeks ago, holding hands.

Skeptic: Katie Holmes is said to dislike and distrust Scientology – of which her estranged husband is a vocal advocate – and no longer wants their daughter to be raised in accordance with its doctrines

Nevertheless, Miss Holmes failed to turn
up to at any of the worldwide premieres of her husband’s latest film
Rock of Ages, despite Cruise’s constant protestations of love for his
wife.

The final arguments seem to have been over where Cruise was going to spend his 50th birthday on Tuesday. He told her that he was planning to be on the set of his latest film Oblivion, in Iceland, and that seems to have been the last straw.

The statuesque brunette had frequently been pictured looking drawn and exhausted during her marriage. One Hollywood source said she had been ‘utterly miserable with Tom for months, if not years’.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Newest
Oldest
Best rated
Worst rated

Very creepy.

- Jagan, Tempe, AZ, 02/7/2012 03:41

I would be totally ashamed to have a parent or be a parent -involved with such a bizarre organisation.

- Dee , New Zealand, 02/7/2012 03:25

Katie Holmes use to work out at my gym in Los Angeles and she never looked happy. The happiest I ever saw her was when she started dating Tom Cruise. I think the happiness came from that fact she loved her new A-list lifestyle and she thought her career would catapult as Mrs. Tom Cruise. She wasn’t cunning, she just cast herself as the wholesome starlet rescued by a leading man in a Hollywood fairytale. The truth is Katie was an adorable girl on Dawson’s Creek but she is not a great actress so the roles dried up as she got closer to 30. Now she is mad all of Tom’s money and power can’t fix it but Tom doesn’t run the industry and only Katie can make herself a better or bankable actress like Nicole did. But her ego can’t admit the truth so she blames Scientology or their big age difference, all things she knew when they got involved, because it’s easier than pulling yourself up by your boot straps and going out and doing the work. Divorce isn’t the answer. Growing up is.

- katie, boston, 02/7/2012 03:16

Katie,
I hated how he turned you into a Stepford wife. Stay strong and know that the “audience” which is all Creepy Tom cares about , is on YOUR side Creepy Tom is washed up.

- PoPolly, Chappaqua NY , 02/7/2012 02:41

Honestly, I don’t understand why everyone talks about Tom like he is this really scary and creepy person.

- Alina, Redondo Beach, Ca, 02/7/2012 02:23

Sorry, but when Katie Holmes got with Tom in 2005, the true nature of Scientology was well known by anyone with access to the internet and she was 28 years old. (Nicole, in comparison, married Tom at 21 in the early ’90s and would have had no idea what Scientology entailed). Katie didn’t mind it when it came with lots of media and the promise of movie role, and she stood by and watched the alienation of Nicole Kidman’s children from their mother due to Tom and Scientology. Within 6 weeks of meeting Cruise, Holmes was being accompanied to every interview by Scientology goons. To claim that she didn’t know what she was getting into is more than a little disingenuous.

- Kathy, Sydney, 02/7/2012 02:12

Since Katie filed first, I don’t think Tom will succeed in moving the case to California. Katie’s a resident in New York, she’s got her name on property there, and she’s likely got a New York driver’s license on advice of her attorney. Nothing establishes residency better than a driver’s license. Plus, the child has been residing with her there, so it looks good for Katie to prevail there.

- MK, California, 02/7/2012 02:00

Stalked by scienos, or the papparazzi? Maybe they should fight it out to see who gets to stalk her!

- jessieg, Brooklyn, NY, 02/7/2012 01:54

Maybe they’re paparazzi.

- Jess, Sydney, 02/7/2012 01:23

Expect a bitter custody battle with some very dirty tricks from tom and his scientology mates.

- Michael Fenelon, Cebu, Philippines, 02/7/2012 01:09

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Article source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2167164/Men-suits-guarding-door-separate-bedrooms-Tom-insisting-calling-Kate-How-Katie-Holmes-cracked-house-Scientology.html

Stratfor to settle class action suit over hack

Jun 28, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

By Basil Katz

NEW YORK |
Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:38pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The global security analysis company Strategic Forecasting Inc will settle a class action lawsuit brought by one of its customers over a crippling attack by hackers who stole data of clients including Henry Kissinger, court documents show.

U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip on New York’s Long Island earlier this month gave his stamp of approval to a proposed settlement in a case that was filed in January.

Stratfor, as the Austin, Texas-based firm is known, was breached in December by hackers affiliated with the Anonymous group who published lists of hundreds of thousands of email addresses belonging to subscribers along with thousands of customer credit card numbers.

The lists included information on people including former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former CIA Director Jim Woolsey.

U.S. federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged one person in the United States and four Irish and British men with the hack.

By giving his preliminary approval to the settlement, the judge granted class action status to the underlying lawsuit.

In his June 14 order, the judge said a class member, for purposes of qualifying for the settlement, was any person or company who was a current or former Stratfor subscriber as of December 24, 2011.

Under the settlement terms, Stratfor does not admit any “wrongdoing, fault, violation of law or liability of any kind.” A spokesman for Stratfor did not immediately return a request for comment.

The settlement called for Stratfor to offer class members who opt in to it one month of free access to its service, worth $29.08, and an electronic book published by Stratfor called “The Blue Book,” priced at $12.99. The two together may cost Stratfor approximately $1.75 million, according to estimates in the settlement.

The settlement also calls on Stratfor to pay for a credit monitoring service for class members who ask for it, as well as to continue paying for additional security to protect its networks. A $400,000 lump sum will go to paying plaintiff attorneys and various fees.

Once the settlement is given final approval, Stratfor agrees to share any amount it recovers from its insurer over the breach, the settlement documents said.

Stratfor describes itself as a subscription-based publisher of geopolitical analysis with an intelligence-based approach to gathering information.

The attorneys appointed by the judge to be the lead lawyers for the class did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Their client, David Sterling of Sterling Sterling Inc, is a New York-area insurance broker.

The judge set a final approval hearing, known as a fairness hearing, for September 28.

The case is Sterling et al v. Strategic Forecasting, Inc. et al, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No 12-00297.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/28/us-stratfor-hack-lawsuit-idUSBRE85R03720120628

Online Appeals to the Male of the Species

Jun 24, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Fashion // Comments Off

With its enviable growth forecast to continue through 2012 and beyond, men’s fashion looks more and more like a bountiful land of opportunity just waiting to be conquered. Ultimately, however, victory may well be determined by men at the online checkout.

Fashion executives and industry experts say e-commerce is an especially important factor for men’s wear because affluent men appear to be somewhat predisposed to buying in an online environment.

Leveraging this untapped purchasing power, they say, is as much a matter of understanding men’s online consumer behavior as it is about investing in new product development, fine-tuning the male marketing voice or getting the merchandise mix just right.

“Men aren’t necessarily driven to the Internet because of its value proposition, but rather because it’s more suited to their shopping habits,” says Ashma Kunde, a global apparel research analyst for the market research company Euromonitor International. “For them, the shopping experience is less about exploration and more about being informed about what they should be buying. The Internet allows them to access this information and advice with relative ease and peace, without being hassled by shop assistants.”

That view is echoed at Yoox Group, one of the major companies for high-end men’s fashion online. Its chief executive, Federico Marchetti, says men’s wear sales are growing in all the group’s stores, including Yoox.com , the multibrand site that offers a substantial men’s selection; TheCorner.com , a men’s-only site introduced in 2008; and dozens of monobrand online stores that the group operates for designers from Armani to Zegna.

He notes that men in the 26-to-35 age bracket now account for one-third of all Yoox Group clients.

“Men don’t shop; they buy,” Mr. Marchetti says. “Men spend 30 percent less time browsing online than women, viewing fewer pages before purchasing, which shows why online shopping is the perfect solution for them.”

For market observers like Raffaello Napoleone, who do business with a diverse range of online operators, the picture is more nuanced.

As chief executive of the Italian men’s wear trade show Pitti Immagine Uomo, Mr. Napoleone hears from the full spectrum of buyers, from tiny trendsetting boutiques that have just opened e-commerce arms to the online giants without any physical retail presence.

“While women usually search online by designer and use e-commerce like an online catalogue, men do it more by product and are inspired by the ultimate trends. It is true that men can be very utilitarian in the way they use the Internet, going straight to the point and leaving little time for discovering new things or ideas,” he says.

“But on certain occasions, they can actually spend more time searching than women do because they are looking for more reassurance and want to make sure that what they pick will be appropriate and make them feel at ease,” he explains.

Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner based in New York specializing in apparel retailing with the management consultancy company A.T. Kearney, sees less of a clear delineation between the online behavior of the sexes.

“All this about e-commerce taking the hassle of shopping away from men — I think it’s a bit too simplistic,” she says, adding that she believes men “are just more interested and open to buying fashion than before.”

According to a 2011 survey by the consultants Bain Co., the global luxury men’s wear sector was worth $240 billion and represented 40 percent of the total luxury fashion market. It grew 14 percent last year. In contrast, women’s wear grew just 8 percent.

When all price points are included, the men’s clothing market was worth about $429 billion in 2011, according to Euromonitor International. The research company calculated that online sales of men’s clothing accounted for 5.1 percent of total retail sales last year, which was almost at par with women’s clothing, at 5.6 percent.

Sales growth online of men’s wear increased 9.9 percent from 2010 to 2011, close on the heels of women’s sales growth, at 10.2 percent.

As chief executive of Farfetch.com , José Neves is an e-commerce maverick who has witnessed great strides for men’s wear in recent years and attributes part of the sector’s success to the peculiarities of the male consumer’s behavior.

Men’s wear “performs as strongly as women’s wear on a sales-per-item level, which is amazing given that we have a wider women’s offer and that a lot of our communication is directed at our female customer,” says Mr. Neves, whose business model is unusual in that the site serves as an online marketplace selling designer wear from more than a hundred independent multibrand boutiques on four continents — the likes of which include such storied retailers as H. Lorenzo in Los Angeles, the B Store in London and Société Anonyme in Florence.

“My gut feeling is that high-end, directional men’s wear is very well suited for the online channel because men are less impulsive, more crowd-averse, brand loyal, and when they know the exact item they want to buy from the right brand, they don’t mind paying for shipping and tolerate having to wait a few days for that special item,” Mr. Neves says.

Mr. Marchetti of Yoox Group believes that a heightened sense of brand loyalty “through thick and thin” is a particular characteristic of men shopping for fashion online. He cites typical brand loyalty rates that are twice as high among the company’s male clientele as those of its female clients.

“This is because men are more likely to create a fixed and invariable personal style, sticking with a limited range of labels,” he says.

One market expert who agrees that there is a different online reality for men’s wear is Andrea Derricks, an associate at L2, a research organization based in New York specializing in digital innovation that scores brands in the fashion and luxury industries through an annual Digital IQ Index.

“Most men are seeking straightforward shopping experiences to help achieve certain looks. They prefer to shop online and in offline men’s-only stores that speak directly to them — those that curate these looks and provide content to guide their purchasing decisions,” says Ms. Derricks, who points to the recent collaboration of the online retailer Mr Porter, at mrporter.com , with the U.S. television show “Suits,” which culminated in a Suits Style microsite and a Suit Yourself iPhone app that allowed the user to build outfits from the e-tailer’s product line.

Gilt Groupe’s Park Bond , a full-price men’s online site introduced late last year following the introduction of its flash-sale site, GiltMan.com , also shows how editorial content is being used to streamline an already tightly curated offering of head-to-toe looks.

In addition to how-to guides and style manuals, the e-tailer has partnered with the U.S. edition of GQ magazine to have editors handpick a monthly selection of designer items featured in the magazine and make them available to purchase through parkandbond.com.

For its part, GQ has announced an unrelated shop-the-look app that will be available in time for the release of its September issue.

GQ Live will include interactive technology, augmented reality and click-through features to social media as well as to yet unnamed men’s e-commerce sites.

Such “smart social experiences and simplified e-commerce platforms have allowed brands to gain awareness and increase men’s wear sales online,” Ms. Derricks says.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/fashion/online-helps-increase-mens-wear-sales.html?pagewanted=all

Online Men’s Suit Retailer, Megasuits.com, is Offering Slim and Modern Fit Suits at the Lowest Prices Ever

Jun 21, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

Has the Fed Run Out of Ammo?Daily Ticker

“They’re not doing much,” says Bob Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics in New York. “But the Fed doesn’t have …

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/online-mens-suit-retailer-megasuits-140000998.html

Men get cooler suits for summer

Jun 20, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off

That time of year is upon us: the sticky season, when the only suit a man can get excited about has one of two words in front of it: “swim” or “birthday.”

So some of the recent goings-on in the world of men’s attire seem strangely unseasonal. First, the relentlessly fashionable online retailer Mr Porter is staging a huge suit initiative starting today to coincide with the new season of “Suits,” the television show about two scheming lawyers whose closets are stocked with the aforementioned garments as well as a skeleton or two. There will be a pop-up shop, a fashion show on the High Line, a choreographed appearance of men in suits on bicycles tearing all over town, an iPhone app to play Dapper Dan on, and God only knows what else — but it will involve suits.

Just last month, the up-and-coming men’s wear designer Todd Snyder opened a special shop of his practical-but-stylish suiting at Odin, the downtown New York store where one would scarcely expect to find a single suit much less a collection of them. And the unstoppable clothier J. Crew, taking off on the success of its Ludlow suit, recently opened a seductive little shop devoted exclusively to Ludlow suiting in New York.

It’s no secret that men’s tailored clothing has been on a roll. According to NPD Group, which tracks the clothing market, for the 12 months ending March 30, 2012, sales of tailored clothing (suits, jackets and trousers) were up 11 percent over the same period in 2011. In an economy in which double-digit growth in any category is remarkable, the fact that 2011’s nearly $4.5 billion market in tailored clothing rose to almost $5 billion this year is extraordinary.

Suits, reinvented

One reason for the climb is a revamped, dressed-up, stripped-down suit that has all but reinvented a moribund idea: the summer suit a man would actually enjoy wearing.

Not long ago, the summer suit came in two basic forms, both of them unappealing: a conservatively styled, tropical-weight wool that you couldn’t wait to take off; or a cartoonishly old-fashioned style in, say, seersucker or linen that you could rarely muster the enthusiasm to put on.

Lately, though, designers have put the suit through some austerity measures and have come out with variations that feel lighter than ever before — and cool enough for even the most easily overheated.

What’s more, many lines — notably, youth-oriented brands like Uniqlo, HM, Club Monaco and Topman — are offering suits that put less pressure on the wallet as well, albeit in skinny fashion-forward cuts that might not suit the average city slicker. Even so, a neat, crisply styled khaki suit at J. Crew goes for $450, as do several other suits in the store, and it looks and feels like one that costs three times as much.

As do the sharp suits at Suitsupply, a stylish, modern haberdashery started a decade ago in the Netherlands by Fokke de Jong, who believed that the world of men’s suiting deserved a platform more like an Apple store than a cliched men’s club. Offering inexpensive tailored suits in a natty range of fabrics suggestive of a 1960s Italian take on British style, Suitsupply has grown to nearly 40 shops in Europe and, recently, one in New York.

Not only does a less-expensive suit cost less, it is also a far less precious thing. You might not bicycle to work in a $1,700 suit, but one that cost $450? When the cost of a suit is on par with a fancy dress shirt and a pair of premium jeans, the possibilities for wearing it open up considerably. Brunching! Gallery-going! Walking the dog! Even Mike Rowe, the hunky, muddy star of “Dirty Jobs,” might wear one to work.

Moreover, it is not just where you can wear these new threads, it’s how. As esoteric as it sounds, the men’s suitscape is being subtly but seriously altered by the fact that more and more suits are now sold as separates.

Frank Muytjens, the head of men’s design at J. Crew, said that the company never considered selling suits in the new Ludlow Shop that were “nested,” the industry term for a suit that is displayed and sold as a single SKU, or stock-keeping unit, with one price tag. Freeing men to choose and buy the jackets and pants they want to put together makes them that much freer to exercise the same judgment at home.

“Separates have become a huge key to the suit business,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD’s chief analyst. “Not long ago, breaking up a suit was a big no-no, but now guys want to break it up. They are looking to diversify their wardrobes more than ever, and they want a suit that lets them take the pants off after work and wear a pair of jeans with the jacket — even if they’re changing in the car.”

Anthony Purritano, a product development associate at Macy’s Merchandising Group, bought two complete summer suits — that is, matching jacket and pants — at the Ludlow Shop. But he also bought two suit vests and a pair of suit pants without their matching elements. “I really like wearing a suit in summer, and these feel really lightweight and breathable,” he said. “But I don’t want to look like a mannequin. I like to play with the patterns and make it more unique.”

Looking down, he added, “Today, I’m actually wearing the pants from the khaki suit with a denim shirt.”

Todd Snyder, a nominee for next month’s Council of Fashion Designers of America award as an emerging talent in menswear, said that he was a proponent of all three pieces of the summer-suiting model: lightweight fabrics, lightweight construction and selling the pieces separately.

But he added that subtly styling the pieces so that they can easily be broken up is an important element of the summer suit, and of modern suiting in general. Certain features — pinstriped fabric, constructed shoulders, pleated pants — can make a jacket look wrong without its pants.

“The way the suits used to be so structured, you wouldn’t want to wear a jacket without the pants,” Snyder said. “I do what I call soft tailoring, which softens everything, especially around the shoulder, and makes it less constructed and more versatile.”

Subtle details, he added, can lend a suit jacket a more casual flair, especially when they are borrowed from Savile Row: working buttonholes, ticket pockets, peak lapels, pick stitching.

Article source: http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120606/NEWS0107/206060315/

Men get cooler suits for summer

Jun 19, 2012 // by Tony Tucker // Men's Suits // Comments Off