BP wants future spill claims limited (Reuters)

HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc wants to limit future claims related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster as the region's economy recovers, the oil company said in a document made public on Friday.

The Gulf economy is strong and "there is no basis to assume that claimants, with very limited exceptions, will incur a future loss related to the oil spill," BP said in a paper filed with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF).

Oystermen, whose beds have been destroyed by crude, should be considered for future payments, the British oil company said.

Kenneth Feinberg is the administrator of the $20 billion GCCF fund established at the urging of President Barack Obama to compensate people and businesses for losses related to the BP oil disaster.

BP's deepwater Macondo well ruptured in April 2010, causing a fiery explosion that killed 11 rig workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. The accident closed waters to fishing, disrupted tourism and caused the government to shut down deepwater exploration for months.

But now, Gulf residents are getting back to work and industries are on the rebound, BP said, citing lodging, fishing and other data.

"The GCCF welcomes any and all input from any interested sources including BP," Feinberg said in an email. "We take all of the submissions 'under advisement.'"

BP supports the payment of legitimate claims and future losses that are substantiated, but the company objects to the GCCF's "practice of assuming futures losses on certain claims," the company said in an email.

At the beginning of July, the GCCF had paid $4.5 billion in claims to 195,000 claimants. There are also about $430 million worth of offers that are under consideration by Gulf residents.

(Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; editing by Carol Bishopric and Matthew Lewis)

Microsoft wants Samsung to pay smartphone license: report (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has demanded that Samsung Electronics Co Ltd pay $15 for each smartphone handset it makes based on Google Inc's Android operating system as the software giant has a wide range of patents used in the mobile platform, local media reported on Wednesday.

Samsung would likely seek to lower the payment to about $10 in exchange for a deeper alliance with Microsoft for the U.S. company's Windows platform, the Maeil Business Newspaper quoted unnamed industry officials as saying.

Samsung had no immediate comment.

In April last year, Microsoft said it had reached a licensing deal with Taiwan's HTC Corp, under which it would receive royalty payments on its handsets running Android.

The move comes as Android phones gain in popularity. Microsoft charges handset makers such as HTC and Samsung to use its Windows mobile software and has tied up with Nokia to challenge Google and Apple Inc in the smartphone market.

Analysts forecast Samsung, the world's No.2 handset maker, to have sold about 19 million smartphones in the April-June quarter, with the dominant position running on Android. It is widely expected to emerge as the No.1 smartphone maker, replacing Nokia's more than 10-year reign.

Samsung's Galaxy S II, successor to its flagship Galaxy S smartphone, which runs on the Android platform, has sold more than 3 million units since its debut in late April.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Chris Lewis)

U.S. wants ex-mortgage boss to get life in prison (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors have urged a judge to send the former chairman of bankrupt Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp to prison for the rest of his life for masterminding the $2.9 billion fraud scheme that took down the company.

Lee Farkas, 58, was convicted in April on 14 counts of conspiracy, bank, securities and wire fraud as part of the scheme, in which he used some of the proceeds to live a lavish lifestyle with a jet and a collection of antique cars.

Prosecutors said in a court filing on Thursday that the statutory maximum was 385 years and they urged District Judge Leonie Brinkema to sentence him to at least 50 years to ensure that Farkas spends the rest of his life in prison.

"The nature, duration, and scope of Farkas's criminal acts warrant maximum punishment for maximum deterrence," they said. Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday.

The fraud began in 2002 and ran until Taylor, Bean filed for bankruptcy in August 2009. The mortgage firm's collapse was a major contributing factor to the implosion of one of the largest U.S. regional banks, Colonial Bank.

Farkas was accused of running a wide-ranging scheme to cover up large losses at Taylor, Bean by moving funds between accounts at Colonial Bank and also by selling mortgage loans that either did not exist, were worthless or had already been sold.

He also attempted to help Colonial BancGroup Inc's Colonial Bank obtain a $553 million loan from the federal bank bailout program, but the money was never disbursed. The bank was shut down by regulators and most of its assets were sold to BB&T Corp.

Prosecutors have also asked that Farkas be required to forfeit more than $42 million.

Farkas' defense team urged the judge to sentence the former mortgage executive to 15 years in prison, noting that it was nearly double that of the longest sentence already handed out in the case, and to skip any fine since he is essentially broke.

"The government has consistently gone out of its way to paint Mr. Farkas as a greedy and manipulative man out for little more than personal gain," his lawyers said in their own filing.

"Even a cursory review of the large numbers of letters submitted to this court show that Mr. Farkas is far from the greed-afflicted monster which the government attempts to paint him as," they said.

The lawyers argued 15 years would serve as a sufficient deterrent. Farkas has lost almost all of his assets, is subject to forfeiture of any remaining property and faces a potentially large restitution order, so no fine should be imposed, they said.

Several other Taylor, Bean and Colonial Bank employees who pleaded guilty for their roles in the fraud were sentenced earlier this month. The longest sentence so far handed down was eight years to Catherine Kissick, who was Farkas' key point of contact at Colonial Bank.

The case is USA v. Farkas, No. 10-cr-200, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Matthew Lewis and Gerald E. McCormick)