Legal

A Hong Kong property tycoon has been forced to prematurely hand over the reins of the family businesses after being convicted of bribing a senior official and money laundering by a Macau court.

Billionaire chairman of Chinese Estates Holdings Joseph Lau, 62, was found guilty of bribing a former Macau public works chief to the tune of HK$20 million (€1.9 million) to secure the sale of a parcel of land on the peninsula, which has a booming gambling and tourist industry.

Third-gen Market Basket chief executive Arthur T DeMoulas has suffered a blow in the latest round of the longstanding feud with his cousin Arthur S over the running of the multi-billion-dollar family business – a supermarket chain based in Massachusetts, US.

Arthur T had argued that a board member, who had voted in favour of a large dividend pay out, was not independent and his votes should be nullified.

Market Basket, founded initially as a small grocery store in 1917, has annual revenues of more than $4 billion and employs 18,000.

Swiss family-controlled watch business Swatch has come out on top after a bitter legal dispute with luxury jewellery company Tiffany & Co, winning $449.5 million (€328.6 million) in damages.

Swatch, controlled by the Hayek family, filed a claim with the Netherlands Arbitration Institute in 2011 over the termination of a contract between the two companies.

The following year Tiffany, a publicly traded company, filed a counter claim.

Walmart’s attempt to make a quick buck off anti-capitalist images by street artist Banksy has backfired, with the artist’s publicist asking to have the items removed.

The retailer, controlled by the Waltons, had been selling canvases and t-shirts bearing the artist’s stenciled images through its website.

One image included a street vendor selling a t-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Destroy Capitalism’.